QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Crime Rates
December 10, 2024
Leader, a 20-year-old man was shot in the back and killed last Friday while doing his job as a security guard at an apartment building in Edmonton. His grieving loved ones deserve more than our condolences; they deserve answers and justice.
It appears that one of the individuals charged in this murder has a long history of violent crime. This includes forcing a woman into a trunk of a car at gunpoint in 2018. In 2022, it appears the RCMP charged him with multiple offences stemming from a robbery, including 16 counts of possessing a firearm while prohibited.
Shouldn’t Canadians be told if this is the same criminal and, if so, Senator Gold, why he was out on the streets?
Senator, I do apologize for not being able to answer your question. You have to provide Canadians with somewhat more information for me to answer that question.
I’m sorry; it is a terrible story that you have told, a horrible story for the victims and all. I do not know whether the person was out on the streets because he had served his sentence. I do not know if he was out on statutory release which is prescribed by law. I do not know if he was out on release because he was granted parole.
All I can do is offer my condolences and sympathies to the victims of his violent crimes. I’m not ducking the question, senator, but you can make a general point about crime. Crime is a serious problem for Canadians. If you want an answer, you have to provide me with the information so I can have a chance to answer it.
I do not have to provide the information. Why doesn’t your government find the information? You know the person I’m talking about; your government knows who I am talking about.
Canadians absolutely deserve to know if this is the same guy. You can find that out. They deserve to know if he was out on bail or another form of release when he killed a security guard.
Don’t Canadians deserve a government that is focused on stopping crime and real criminals and finding out why they are out on the street instead of pulling stunts like promising to take more guns away from law-abiding Canadians?
Senator, next time you want an answer from me, perhaps you could give me the courtesy of giving me an advance notice so I can perhaps have the answer in this chamber. I simply do not know the facts around this particular case, and you knew that when you asked me the question. But you have made your points, bravo.
