Alberta Is Still Sitting on Its Police Misconduct Review
Twenty-two months ago, Alberta ordered an independent look at how the Crown decides whether police officers get charged. The review is done. The government has it. And nobody outside government can say when, or whether, Albertans will ever get to read it.
By Jason LaFace | Alberta Radio
Monday, October 5, 2026
What the review was for
Justice Minister Mickey Amery launched the review in November 2024. It examined the policies and practices of the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service and the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, the province's police watchdog. Former Court of Appeal of Alberta justice Peter Martin led it, looking at how the Crown decides when to pursue criminal charges against officers.
It followed a string of cases where the watchdog concluded criminal wrongdoing had likely happened, but the Crown declined to prosecute because it saw little chance of conviction. Those cases included an unarmed man shot to death seconds after encountering police, an autistic teen detained after RCMP mistook him for an adult drug user, and a teen who suffered life-altering injuries after an officer kicked him in the head.
Where it stands
Amery's press secretary, Heather Jenkins, says officials are reviewing Martin's report, but won't say when the government received it or whether it will be released. "It is vital that the justice system balances the public interest, the needs of victims, public safety and the rights of the accused," she said.
Tom Engel, who chairs the Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association's policing committee and was interviewed for the review, says he was told the report was finished in mid-2025 and calls for sweeping reforms. "Transparency demands that the report be revealed to the public," he said. "They've had more than enough time to review the report and decide what to do about it." He points to a recent Calgary case where the Crown declined to charge an officer who injured a 12-year-old autistic boy, despite the watchdog finding grounds to prosecute. "This should be urgent business for the government and the delay is unacceptable."
Edmonton lawyer Heather Steinke-Attia notes that a Crown decision not to prosecute can't be appealed. "There is no other government body that has so much control over people's lives and so much power that cannot be challenged," she said. Defence lawyer Kathryn Quinlan warned that keeping the report secret "only fosters that same mistrust."
The take
Conservatives back the police, and we should. Most officers in this province do a hard job well, and they deserve a system that clears them quickly and publicly when they've done nothing wrong. But backing the police has never meant giving the state a blank cheque. The power to decide, behind closed doors and with no appeal, that a case will never see a courtroom is exactly the kind of unchecked authority libertarians have warned about for generations.
This government campaigns on transparency and on Albertans taking control of their own affairs. It can start here. Taxpayers paid for the review. Release it, let Albertans read the recommendations, and then make the case for whatever the province decides to do with them. Good officers have nothing to fear from the sunlight. A government sitting on a finished report should ask itself who it's protecting.
Source: Os1ris News Aggregation
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