Alberta government staffer contacted Crown prosecutors about Coutts border cases: Report

An Alberta government staffer who works in Premier Danielle Smith’s office allegedly emailed Crown prosecutors about cases involving the Coutts border blockade, according to a report from CBC News.

The report says the emails were sent in fall 2022, just after Smith was sworn is as premier.

The information comes after the premier previously claimed she spoke to prosecutors “on a regular basis” about those charged with breaking COVID-19 public health regulations, then denied having done so, saying her “language may have been imprecise.”

“Premier Smith has not been in contact with Crown Prosecutors and has no knowledge of anyone on her staff having done so. This is a serious allegation. If a staff member has been in touch with a Crown Prosecutor, appropriate action will be taken,” a statement from the premier’s office to CityNews in response to the latest report reads.

“The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service operates independently of government and political interests. Crown prosecutors base their decisions on the law and merits of the matter before them. They will continue to use their own discretion in making decisions for each individual case without political interference.”

Duane Bratt, political scientist at Mount Royal University, says the premier has publicly and repeatedly condemned charges against people violating public health restrictions.

“Even if [Smith] wasn’t calling the prosecutors, we have a good sense that she would like to,” Bratt said.

He referred to the premier’s recent appointment of Preston Manning to review the province’s COVID-19 pandemic response as another instance of Smith’s desire to “relitigate COVID.”

“This was a major driving force of how she became leader amongst the 50,000-60,000 UCP members that voted for her. She has apologized for COVID restrictions, she has promised and then backtracked on amnesty for those charged. We just discussed all of the issues with calling or emailing Crown prosecutors about cases she pledged and then backtracked on embedding vaccine status into the Human Rights Act. So, this all fits a pattern — both the Manning inquiry and the email story,” Bratt explained.

READ MORE: Smith appoints Preston Manning as committee chair to review COVID-19 response

Meanwhile, in response to the latest report, the Alberta NDP is calling for Smith to “identify who in her office has sent these emails and confirm that person has been dismissed.”

The opposition party is also asking for Tyler Shandro to launch an independent investigation into the allegations.

“These are extremely serious allegations following a series of reversals, contradictions and lies from Danielle Smith and her office,” a statement from the NDP reads.

“For the premier to lean on the Attorney General and the deputy attorney general is political interference,” said NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi. “This is exactly what occurred in the SNC-Lavalin case which Smith herself said warranted an independent investigation.”

Alberta defence attorneys echo this statement.

“The allegations coming out of the premier’s office are both surprising and concerning,” said Danielle Boisvert, president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association.

“Those findings need to be made public, and then whatever those findings may be, then further action would depend on those findings. But we need to figure out exactly what happened because there is too much back and forth.”

Smith has given multiple different explanations about who she talked to and what was talked about regarding prosecutions for COVID rule-breakers.

Just before Christmas, she told Rebel News she did, in fact, contact prosecutors, urging them to consider public interest with prosecuting such cases. She said she also asked prosecutors to consider the cases were failing in court.

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At a news conference on Jan. 12, Smith was asked if she would push to have charges dropped against those charged with violating pandemic measures.

Smith suggested at the time she would no longer be looking at pardoning anyone.

“The way our system of justice works is that we do have an independent Justice Department and independent Crown prosecutors. And I have asked them to consider all charges under the lens of ‘is it in the public interest to pursue?’ And ‘is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction?’ As we continue to see some of these cases go through, some of them get dropped, some of them fail, they have to consistently recalibrate, but I do want to make sure that they have an independent process for assessing that,” Smith told reporters.

In response, the opposition party called for an independent investigation into whether Smith interfered in the administration of justice by trying to influence prosecutors.

“(Smith) is either lying now or she was lying then. Clearly, lying is happening. There is a lot of lying going on,” said NDP Leader Rachel Notley.

Smith then explained she had not met with prosecutors — a statement corroborated by the Justice Department — but with Justice Minister Tyler Shandro and the deputy attorney general to discuss “options” on the outstanding cases.

“I’ve never called a Crown prosecutor. You’re not allowed to do that as a politician. Everyone knows that,” the premier told radio listeners on her Corus call-in show.

A third-party review found former justice minister Kayce Madu politically interfered when using his position to call the Edmonton police chief about a traffic ticket. At the time, former Premier Jason Kenney demoted Madu, though now finds himself promoted to deputy premier under Smith.

“We’re not sure what to believe because, as I said, we have previous clips of Smith claiming she was calling crown prosecutors, then we have a denial,” Bratt said.

-With files from Lisa Grant