Photo: The Canadian Press
Opposition Leader Rachel Notley says Premier Danielle Smith has become entangled in a web of lies and should come clean with Albertans about what she’s been telling prosecutors pursuing COVID-19 health violations. Notley speaks in Edmonton on Tuesday, December 20, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
The leader of Alberta’s opposition NDP says Premier Danielle Smith has become entangled in a web of lies and must come clean about what she has been telling prosecutors pursuing COVID-19 health violations.
“She’s messing around. She’s either lying now or she was then. Obviously lying happens. There are a lot of lies,” Rachel Notley told reporters in Calgary on Friday.
Notley added that there was also evidence of interference with the administration of justice.
“The deputy attorney general, when it comes to individual matters that are before the courts, does not meet with the prime minister to have the prime minister try to persuade him to change what is happening in terms of decisions.”
The United Conservative Party prime minister has been a staunch defender of protesters against COVID-19 health restrictions. Smith has long pledged to seek pardons for noncriminal violators of health restrictions, such as pastors who flout restrictions on gathering services and people fined for not wearing masks.
However, she faced accusations of obstruction of justice when she announced on Thursday that although she would let the trial play out, “I ask (Crown attorneys) regularly when new cases come up, ‘Is it in the public interest yes prosecution and is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction?
Questions remain about who Smith spoke to, when she spoke to them, what they talked about, and why Smith even felt the need to assert herself in what was supposed to be an independent trial.
Smith’s remarks on Thursday coincided with similar comments made to Rebel News in an interview just before Christmas.
Both Smith and the Justice Department now say she had only high-level discussions with Justice Secretary Tyler Schandro and his deputy attorney general.
“I have never communicated with Crown prosecutors,” Smith said in a statement Friday. “My language may have been inaccurate in these cases.”
Smith suggested in her statement Friday that she was simply on a fact-finding mission to explore “what options are available with respect to pending cases related to COVID.”
She said officers told her they would handle the cases in a normal, independent way, and she said she respected that.
However, in her Dec. 21 interview with Rebel News, Smith said she used the meeting to convey to officials that she believes the public is no longer on the side of future prosecutions against COVID-19. She said prosecutors should consider that point, along with the fact that cases fail in court, when making future decisions.
“I’ve brought it up to the prosecutors and asked them to review the (COVID-19) cases with those two things in mind, and hopefully we’ll see a real page turn,” Smith told Rebel News.
Smith’s statement Friday referred only to past conversations, a claim confirmed by the Justice Department. But in an interview with Rebel News and in a call with reporters Thursday, Smith indicated that consultations are active and ongoing.
“The questions I can ask and have asked and continue to ask are: Is it in the public interest and is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction?” Smith told Rebel News.
Notley said the biggest question is why Smith is even getting involved in what is supposed to be an independent process.
Smith’s office declined to respond to a specific question about the matter.
The NDP is calling for an independent investigation, saying there is a recent precedent.
Last February, a third-party report by a retired judge concluded that then-UCP Justice Minister Kaycee Madu attempted to interfere with the administration of justice when he called Edmonton’s police chief to discuss his traffic ticket.
Madhu was moved to another portfolio under then Prime Minister Jason Kenney. He has since been promoted to deputy prime minister under Smith.
It’s the second time Smith has made controversial remarks about promises to help those she says have been unfairly victimized by the COVID-19 health rules.
In late November, Smith announced he was backing away from his promise to introduce a bill that would make it a human rights violation to restrict people based on their vaccine status.
In the same announcement, Smith said he was taking action directly instead. She said her government had contacted the Arctic Winter Games and persuaded the event’s organizers to drop their vaccine mandate.
John Roda, president of the Games committee, said at the time that he was unaware of such a call and said the committee made the decision to remove the vaccine mandate without any outside persuasion.
Smith’s office declined Friday to respond to a request for confirmation that anyone in the government had contacted the Arctic Winter Games.
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