Canadian police chiefs from across the country are demanding an urgent meeting with all 13 premiers to discuss the violent random crisis.
Last week, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) sent a letter to Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson calling for an urgent all-premiers meeting.
“In the last six months, we have lost nine officers — eight of them to random violence,” wrote CACP president Chief Danny Smith.
“There is no question that the degradation of discourse around policing and police funding, the lack of accountability in our justice system, and the significant increase in drug, gang, and gun violence have all played a part in escalating the danger for our profession.”
The letter comes after several police officers were killed in Edmonton, Alb. and Louiseville, Que. recently.
“The lack of coordination and integration of appropriate solutions and a political tendency to endorse one-off solutions, contains more risk than promise,” said Smith.
“Policing is at a crossroad in our nation. The stresses and dangers of the job, combined with the intense politicization of policing that we’ve witnessed at every level, threaten the integrity and trust in our profession and our ability to safely and ethically ensure public safety.”
Other national groups have also called for a nation-wide approach to tackling violent crime.
In January, the national president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) called on a cross-government commitment to protect Canada’s transit system as it faces a wave of random attacks.
“Far too often we sit and listen to all of the kind words that come from CEOs and transit agencies and politicians saying ‘our hearts and best wishes go out to all of those victims. But it’s a one-off and our systems are safe’,” said ATU head John Di Nino.
“Well, what we’re seeing today is that our systems are not safe and we need to ensure that the riding public has safe, reliable and affordable transit across this city and across this country. We can ill afford to do that by sitting on our hands and treating every incident as a one off.”
