The cost of standing your ground… a former Edmonton cop tells all
The COVID-19 ‘pandemic ills’ were compounded by another plague that infected almost every Canadian institution — weak leaders who followed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s lead and zealously weaponized fear.
That includes many law enforcement leaders across Canada who implemented policies ignoring Charter rights, law and in some cases, even moral decency. They used fear to force Canadians — and their employees — into absolute compliance with often senseless, helter-skelter rules and harmful vaccine and mask mandates.
Now however, as day-by-day the destructive impact of the tyranny is being exposed, tolerance for those who inflicted it is dissipating.
“If any of the people led with fear, there’s no room for them anymore,” said a former Edmonton Police Service (EPS) officer.
He is among those dismissed on the spot for insubordination or suspended without pay — which is the same as being fired, if members stood their ground. He asked to remain anonymous for legitimate reasons the Western Standard will respect.
A recent damning report — based on 8,717 pages of information access requests — examined the EPS COVID-19 response. Numerous recommendations by its author — former regulatory investigator Natasha Gonek — including a call for criminal and other investigations and protection for whistleblowers, reveals how extensive the problem was.
The report noted the number of cases of COVID-19 “injury, illness and alleged death” to EPS employees are “growing with time.” Members are on short- or long-term disability due to COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
Neither the actions of EPS Chief Dale McFee — who according to the report knew vaccines could cause harm but allowed them mandated, anyway — nor the Edmonton Police Association escape unscathed.
“There’s no getting out of this. He’s (McFee) the same as Trudeau. He’s the same as any that have led with fear in the past three years,” said the former officer.
“You’ll never come back from this. We know that you didn’t have the courage to lead. You didn’t have the integrity to abide by our value system. So that means you’re done. He’s a dead man walking in the EPS.”
“To borrow something from Jordan Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship talks where they say, ‘We don’t know exactly what proper leadership looks like, but we do know what poor leadership looks like.’ Put it this way, if you led through the use of fear, you’re not a leader.”
What’s needed are law enforcement leaders who’ll abide by and “include everybody in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
The “bad news” lies in the makeup of police commissions.
“The cities are hamstrung because the Edmonton and Calgary police commissions do the hiring of their police chiefs. They’re 100% captured ideologues in those commissions. So, the chance of them hiring someone of integrity and courage is low.”
“Don’t forget who hired Dale McFee. The police commission that was on the side of Antifa and (the Marxist) Black Lives Matter (BLM). So, to arrest Canadians protesting the COVID lockdowns in Ottawa fits with the ideology of the federal government right on through the ideology-captured chiefs of police. This is from the top down.”
However, hope lies in Premier Danielle Smith’s plan for an independent sheriff service department. Legislation was introduced last month for the new police force that would be subject to civilian oversight and work with RCMP and First Nation police forces.
“The province can lead the way.”
Meanwhile, even now the “fear is real” within EPS. Members are legitimately cautious when communicating with coworkers.
“Internally, they don’t need a warrant to watch people’s emails or phone calls on their work devices. There’s no reasonable expectation of privacy on a work device.”
“It’s hard to explain the gravity of the fear. If you speak out against the machine you’ll be fired, demoted, or relegated to the sidelines as a pariah. It’s hard for these cops to speak out. It sounds hyperbolic but they made examples out of a few of us.”
“Now to get officers to come public is impossible. I know the public has been asking the police to stand up and we did and got fired.”
They, like everyone, have families to feed.
“Since I’m a civilian now, I see the world through a different lens. The loss of trust in policing is palatable. This goes back to leadership. What they did to sworn and non-sworn membership is one thing. But what about the greater public who lost 100% respect and trust in the police?”
Gonek addressed a host of moral and unlawful actions against EPS employees in her Executive Summary: Analysis of Freedom of Information Disclosure Documents Relating to the Edmonton Police Service COVID-19 Pandemic Response.
The former officer shed more light on what members endured including a “mob mentality” the brass never addressed. “People were getting bullied by their coworkers,” he said.
Disgusted members heard one female sergeant say, “If one of these antivaxxer’s get sick they shouldn’t be allowed in the hospital. Just let them die.”
“Those are real statements that are noted.”
Meanwhile, pressure from leadership on police came at a time when they needed backing. Anti-police police sentiment with calls to defund so-called racist police was at its “highest.”
Enter the selective helter-skelter approach to discipline.
In June 2020, at an anti-racism BLM rally in Edmonton, photos emerged of uniformed officers taking a knee with activists belonging to the “criminal” Marxist organization. Another photo was taken with three uniformed officers posing with an Antifa member.
No one was disciplined.
But officers who later participated in peaceful Freedom Convoy protests were punished, leading to a recommendation by Gonek that all disciplinary actions be reviewed.
“Should this review find that the employees have been unlawfully disciplined they should be compensated including an offer for their reinstatement at the same or equivalent position and pay.”
Waves of fury swept through the service when a flag order was issued. Cops could take a knee with activists screaming for their expulsion but couldn’t display the Maple Leaf.
“When the Trucker Convoy in February 2022 started, the employees were told that they must remove Canadian flags from their personal vehicles. Because those were a symbol of radical anti-government groups. However, employees could keep the Ukrainian flags and other groups when the conflict there started,” said the report.
The former officer laughed off accusations of racism.
“If you know cops, we hate everybody equally. They’re calling me a racist. This is hilarious. I don’t care what your colour is, what you carry for sexual gender ideology. We hate you all, don’t worry. We’re going to charge you under the law no matter what you believe in. You’re all going to get treated the same. We’re going to enforce the laws the same.”
Meanwhile, brass that fell all over itself apologizing and trying to appease those who accused them of discrimination, implemented measures akin to vile segregation measures that violated civil rights in the US for decades until outlawed in 1964.
Black Americans were forced to use separate washrooms, sit in different sections on busses, and drink from separate water fountains.
Unvaxxed EPS members were forced to eat in “shame rooms” in all divisions starting in the fall of 2021.
“The policy service-wide was that the members who chose not to take the COVID drugs aren’t allowed into any of the lunchroom facilities.”
“It was clear anyone eating in the shame rooms was unvaccinated. Privacy violation. Some sympathetic coworkers offered to take ‘the unclean’s’ lunch and warm it up on the microwave and bring it back. Some even joined them.”
A health measure? Hardly. Vaxxed and unvaxxed were allowed to ride in cruisers together, attend calls together, but not eat together.
“You can’t make this stuff up.”
“Things are going to get more and more muddy in the near future if we don’t come up with a common good that we all believe in as Canadians … but we have a Charter that should protect us.”
The Western Standard has requested an interview with McFee.
