Thursday, March 7 2024
VOLUME 6 I ISSUE 37
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
Aalbers joins call to halt crime index GEOFF LEE STAFF WRITER
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Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers is one of several elected officials in Western Canada claiming the release of annual Crime Severity Index (CSI) rankings is harmful. He and leaders from 11 cities in the four western provinces held a conference in Saskatoon last Thursday to formally request Statistics Canada immediately halt publishing CSI rankings until they consult with smaller communities and Indigenous leaders. The bone of contention is the belief CSI rankings are misleading, scare away business investment and recruitment, promote racial bias and create the misconception of high crime rates by the public and media. In a joint news statement, delegates said by driving away investment and recruitment and creating fear and division, this CSI statistic perpetuates the very trends it reports on. “Theses reports published by Statistics Canada are detrimental to communities, First Nations communities— many communities throughout Western Canada represented here today as well as many others,” said Aalbers, who addressed the media on behalf of delegates. “The Crime Severity Index challenges us on many fronts.”
The delegates, however; consented to the release of weighted CSI data only to its initially-intended recipients – police services of jurisdiction, which will use and properly interpret the data for police matters and resource deployment. “We learned what the CSI was intended for and the unintended consequences today,” said Aalbers. Under Statistics Canada’s current reporting system, North Battleford has the highest CSI in Canada, but delegates argue if the 10,000 population threshold is removed, that city would be ranked as number 16 on a list of RCMP detachment areas in Saskatchewan only. This does not include other smaller communities across Canada in other provinces. North Battleford Mayor David Gillan, who led the conference, said part of the issues plaguing his commun ity is the g en e r al lack of understanding by the public and the media as it relates to the statistical calculations. Gillan questions why smaller communities are pitted directly against other larger metropolitan centres when the population number is part of the statistical equation. “This arbitrary number of reporting data at 10,000 peo-
Supplied Photo
L-R: Front Row: Prince George City Counc. Trudy Klassen, Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook, North Battleford Mayor David Gillan, Yorkton Mayor Mitch Hippsley, Sweetgrass First Nation Chief Lori Whitecalf, Wetaskiwin Mayor Tyler Granam. L-R, Back Row: Langley Counc. Paul Albrecht, Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers, Langley Counc. Delaney Mack, North Battleford Counc. Thomas “Bill” Ironstand, Portage La Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox, Portage La Prairie Counc. Colin Doyle, North Battleford Counc. Kelli Hawtin, Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
ple or more is not an indicator of a community’s overall safety,” he said in a statement. Aalbers noted on an average day, the population of some smaller communities can almost double or triple due to their hub effect. He says compared to larger centres like Toronto, smaller communities out west are not getting a fair shake with the numbers across the country. Sweetgrass First Nation Chief, Lori Whitecalf, said the annual release of the Crime Severity Index results in its
own victimization of First Nations peoples. “The outcome of the CSI causes racism and hateful statements to be directed at First Nations people,” she said. Whitecalf also challenged the federal government regarding the use of data from her community, which is protected, explaining there is a duty to consult First Nations to include their data in federal statistics, which has not been done. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2