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Edmonton city council decided not to bring in an optional new rule that would require anyone running in the next municipal election to undergo a criminal record check that could be publicly accessible.
City council on Tuesday discussed the potential change recently made available because of changes to Alberta’s rules for municipal elections as the city firms up local election bylaws. A motion to add the requirement failed 2-11 with objections ranging from the potential to discourage candidates who made mistakes early in life, the impact on racialized and marginalized people, cost barriers, a lack of engagement, and the fact this isn’t required at the provincial and federal levels.
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Ward tastawiyiniwak Coun. Karen Principe took up the idea, making a motion that would have candidates pay for criminal record checks conducted by the Edmonton Police Service. The suggestion was unpopular — only Coun. Jennifer Rice supported her.
“It’s reasonable to expect a candidate who wants to be on city council to also do a vulnerable sector check,” Principe told Postmedia. “I thought it was a reasonable request and I didn’t realize there would be a backlash on that.”
Principe said some of her constituents asked her about background checks shortly after the election. She’s had to do similar background checks before — for her adult daughter’s soccer league because some minors play in the league.
She was surprised the discussion became “political” Tuesday as some of her colleagues mentioned other orders of government.
Running for a seat in the Alberta legislature or in Canada’s Parliament doesn’t require a person to automatically hand over such information.
Principe thought doing these checks would give the public peace of mind and offer transparency.
“The conversation was surprising to me,” she said. “In my opinion, I wasn’t even considering input from other levels of government or actions other levels of government have taken.
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“I wasn’t expecting the conversation to get heated.”
During the meeting, Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette said he understands the importance of public trust, but he has concerns about fairness and equity if this is required for council but not for MPs and MLAs.
“It’s hard to see this as anything else than an attempt to undermine the value and professionalism of the role of city councillor,” he said. “If the goal is to enhance public trust, this requirement should apply to all levels of government, not just municipal councillor.”
“Targeting only one group of elected officials is inconsistent and unjustifiable. If it’s good for the goose it should surely be good for the gander.”
Paquette and Coun. Anirniq Erin Rutherford also spoke about how such rules could disproportionately disadvantage Indigenous, racialized and marginalized people who are overrepresened in the criminal justice system.
Paquette said he knows many elders who have been through the residential school system and took years to heal from emotional, spiritual and sexual abuse.
“Now we have a government in Canada saying that you should be in some way held accountable or penalized for the fact that you had to get your life back on track because of the abuse of institutions in Canada run by governments. It is offensive and ill thought out, and flatly and plainly ridiculous, and lacks a fundamental aspect of humanity and intelligence.”
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Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said background checks are typically done by political parties. Perhaps now, with political parties coming to Edmonton, those parties will do these checks.
But he and other councillors also worried the topic of discussion could distract from other parts of Alberta’s Bill 20 they think are damaging to local governments.
“Bill 20 is a bad, bad piece of legislation. It undermines our local democracy. It introduces a game of money into our elections that we have never seen before,” Sohi said.
Alberta’s new election laws already will screen out some candidates for misdeeds between the time they submit nomination papers and election day if they are convicted of offences punishable by imprisonment for five or more years.
Laws in Alberta prohibit candidates convicted of offences in the Local Authorities Elections Act, Election Finances and Contributions and Disclosures Act, or the Canada Elections Act.
Saskatchewan is the only province that asks for checks for municipal candidates but this, too, is up to the discretion of each city. While some smaller local governments do require them, they aren’t mandated in Saskatoon and Regina.
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