Rahim Mohamed: Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act pretty awkward for the RCMP

Use of the act to block Justin Trudeau’s gun buyback program would put the Mounties in no-man’s land

After months of speculation, the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act (Bill 1) was finally unveiled last week. For those expecting a bombshell, Bill 1 didn’t disappoint, sending shockwaves through the country.

Reactions to the bill have run the gamut from outrage to bafflement. Legal experts are divided on the question of its constitutionality.

Much of the analysis so far has focused on the so-called King Henry VIII powers delegated to the members of Alberta’s cabinet under the act. The act in its current form empowers cabinet ministers to issue and amend regulations through orders in council, essentially allowing them to bypass the province’s legislature. (Smith announced over the weekend that she’ll rewrite parts of the bill to scale back the lawmaking powers it grants to cabinet members).

A less scrutinized, but potentially even more far-reaching dimension of the act involves its implications for the future of policing in the province.

At present, Alberta is home to a patchwork system of policing, where the RCMP — a federal agency under contract with the Alberta government — shares jurisdiction with a handful of municipal and regional police services. Policing in Alberta is community-based, with the provincial government, oversight bodies, and cities each playing a role in its administration.

Reaction to the bill have run from outrage to bafflement

Bill 1, which doesn’t mention the RCMP by name, designates both municipal and regional police services as “provincial entities” that must comply with cabinet edicts to not enforce federal laws and policies that run afoul of the Sovereignty Act. This language appears to place the Alberta government on a collision course with the Trudeau government over its controversial mandatory gun buyback program.

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro has already said that he will direct the province’s police agencies, including the RCMP, to not enforce the buyback program, which empowers RCMP officers to seize over 1,500 different models of prohibited firearms. Shandro has argued that he has the legal authority to do this under the Alberta-RCMP provincial police service agreement and has precedent to point to in British Columbia’s non-enforcement of some federal drug laws. The Alberta Sovereignty Act nevertheless changes the dynamic of this impasse.

For one thing, a public spat over the buyback program could be a “win-win” for both Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

For Smith, the dispute would play extraordinarily well in rural Alberta without hurting the UCP too much in urban areas, where handguns are the bigger threat to public safety. Further, it would give Smith an opportunity to use the Sovereignty Act without jeopardizing foreign investment (oil and gas investors who are anxious about gun crime in Alberta can always try their luck in Texas).

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For Trudeau, taking a public stand against assault weapons (and Smith) would be a vote winner in the perennial electoral battleground of southern Ontario, especially with homicide rates trending upwards. It would also give him a chance to turn the page from the rather sordid affair in Nova Scotia.

But where would this leave the RCMP? It’s one thing for Canada’s federal police agency to abide by the terms of its contract with Alberta, and quite another to comply (or be seen to be complying) with a provincial edict to not enforce federal criminal legislation. (The creation and modification of criminal law is, of course, unambiguously a federal power under Canada’s Constitution).

The use of the Alberta Sovereignty Act to rebuff Trudeau’s gun buyback program would put the RCMP in a jurisdictional no-man’s land. This may be just what Smith wants.

Smith has already unveiled a plan to replace the RCMP with a provincial police force, but has had difficulty building public support for the initiative, which will cost Alberta taxpayers an additional $235 million per year (plus $366 million in startup costs). Using the Sovereignty Act to drive a wedge between the RCMP and Alberta’s other police agencies is one way for Smith to give the proposal for a provincial police force a shot in the arm.

This may be just what Smith wants

None of this is to say that Smith is playing some sort of elaborate game of 4D chess with the RCMP — frankly, I’m not sure she even knows what she’s having for breakfast tomorrow morning. Smith, who as The Line’s Jen Gerson has pointed out is one of Canada’s luckiest politicians, has nevertheless been handed a yet another gift with Trudeau’s overreaching gun buyback program and could use it to kill two birds with one stone.

Premier Smith, the proverbial dog chasing a car, finally has her long-awaited Alberta Sovereignty Act. The question now is what to do with it? Weaponizing the act at the expense of the Trudeau gun buyback program would be a way for everybody to win.

Except, of course, the RCMP.

National Post

Rahim Mohamed is a master’s student at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. His writing has appeared in The Line, The Hub, and CBC News Calgary.