Jason Kenney celebrates his leadership win at the Alberta PC Party leadership convention in Calgary on March 18, 2017.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
This week the RCMP confirmed they have launched a criminal investigation into Ontario’s now-abandoned decision to open parts of the province’s environmentally protected Greenbelt to development, a process the provincial Auditor-General said favoured landowners with connections to Premier Doug Ford’s government.
The RCMP are not saying much about the parameters of the investigation. But if Alberta has some advice to pass on to a fellow province, it’s this: Don’t hold your breath. Apparently, investigations that traverse the world of politics take a long time in this country.
In Alberta, it’s now six years since the leadership race that saw Jason Kenney take the helm of the United Conservative Party. RCMP investigations into alleged irregularities surrounding that race began in early 2019, 4½ years ago, and are still ongoing.
Specifically, the RCMP are investigating allegations of identity fraud, in which real people were linked to fake e-mail addresses used to cast leadership ballots for Mr. Kenney all those years ago.
The RCMP have also been looking into allegations of improper donations flowing to the leadership campaign of Jeff Callaway, who ran a stalking-horse campaign to drag down Brian Jean, the main rival to Mr. Kenney, before dropping out of the race. Alberta’s Election Commissioner handed out more than $200,000 in fines in 2019, saying Mr. Callaway violated election finance laws to fund a campaign designed to help Mr. Kenney’s bid. As reported by CBC, those fines have been subject to judicial review.
Both Mr. Kenney and the UCP have said the allegations are untrue.
If these details are only misty water-coloured memories, you’re probably not alone. It’s hard to remember all the twists and turns, especially after the collective dislocation of the pandemic and an avalanche of other political news.
But at one point a few years ago, this was a big thing. More than a dozen RCMP officers were assigned to the investigations. Cabinet ministers, as well as regular people who had somehow been caught up in partisan politics, were interviewed over the course of the investigation. The list included prominent conservative organizer and lobbyist Alan Hallman. (The Toronto Star later reported that two RCMP officers complicated the case when they left their voice recorders at his home for two days after interviewing him.)
Mr. Kenney himself was interviewed by the RCMP in early 2022. Police in Canada are notoriously reticent about discussing ongoing investigations. But for a number of years, the Alberta RCMP took the unusual step of tweeting a regular update – often in response to CBC reporter Carolyn Dunn’s dogged questions on this topic.
Now police activities have gone quiet, and it’s unclear what stage the investigation is at. Fraser Logan, the media relations manager for the Alberta RCMP, said there’s no update. But he said a commitment to speaking to the investigation “one way or the other” when it’s concluded still stands.
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service announced in 2019 that a special prosecutor from Ontario had been appointed. However, there’s no word there, either. Maher Abdurahman, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General, said in an e-mail that the Crown’s legal advice is privileged and confidential. “Therefore we will not be making any comment,” he said. “Any questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the RCMP.”
Sure, there are many complicating factors. White-collar crime often requires a much longer, more complex investigation. The high-profile nature of the allegations makes getting it right important.
But an investigation nearing the five-year mark runs the risk of simply fading into the twilight. That’s a big problem. As former Progressive Conservative MLA and cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk said, the allegations surrounding the 2017 UCP leadership race have made Albertans question the integrity of the province’s democracy.
“The RCMP’s tardy criminal investigation and refusal to provide updates gives rise to skepticism about the independence of law enforcement and prosecution,” said Mr. Lukaszuk, who has become a constant critic of the UCP government and endorsed the NDP in the May election. “The outcome of their investigation becomes irrelevant.”
The investigation isn’t irrelevant yet, but it loses relevancy by the day. It’s hard to remain interested in a process in which the main players have moved on. For instance, Mr. Kenney was, of course, punted by his own party and is now working in the private sector. Mr. Jean, who also ran and placed third in the leadership race that Premier Danielle Smith won last year, is now Alberta’s Energy and Minerals Minister.
The investigation itself becomes confused with Alberta’s discussion to end its contract with the RCMP and create its own police force (which the Smith government has shown little interest in) and even Ottawa’s examination of the future role of the force.
The Mounties have a sprawling mandate that includes everything from contract policing in rural Western and Atlantic Canada to major organized crime, cybercrime and national security. A public inquiry investigating the April, 2020, mass shooting in Nova Scotia called for a restructuring of the force. And now, a committee of parliamentarians that reviews national security has submitted a report to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the RCMP’s federal policing mandate, expected to be made public next month.
It should be asked whether the RCMP should even have the role of investigator within the sphere of party politics, as in Alberta, or in Ontario, where the investigation will include the actions of politicians, their aides and the public sector. Better there be some kind of independent crime and corruption commission, as recommended by Christian Leuprecht, a Queen’s University professor and policing expert.
This isn’t about political leaning. There are all kinds of questions of late about whether Canada is a grownup country, particularly in light of the federal government’s original, bungled response to allegations of foreign interference in elections. The ability to investigate political malfeasance is another marker for a serious democracy. Albertans should get a timely answer on their political investigation. And so should Ontarians.