Tagged with: Canada


July 24, 2017 | No Comments

Northlands’ Monday Morning Magic gives back to the community

By KERRY DIOTTE
Member of Parliament
Edmonton Griesbach

If you look up the definition in a dictionary of “giving back to the community” it should be accompanied by a picture of the Northlands organization beside the entry.

The not-for-profit agricultural society, located in my federal riding of Edmonton Griesbach, has been giving back to our community for longer than Edmonton has been a city.

There’s hardly a better example of the good work this organization does than Monday Morning Magic whereby children with special needs (and their friends and parents) get the run of the K-Days fair midway for free along with snacks, entertainment and more. It’s in cooperation with the rides company, North American Midway.

This year’s Monday Morning Magic was hampered by a downpour but Northlands officials and volunteers simply adapted and worked a little magic indoors where kids were treated to performances by the top dogs of Canine Stars.

There were mascots galore along with princesses, cartoon characters members of the Edmonton Eskimos football team and lots of men and women in uniform — all there to bring smiles to the faces of the excited kids on the 40th anniversary of this annual event.

A big tip of the hat to everyone who made this event a success that brought on so many smiles. A special thanks to Northlands and the volunteers who came out to help this year. They’re part of the hundreds and hundreds of loyal Northlands volunteers. I honestly don’t know what our community would do without them.

 

 

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July 6, 2017 | No Comments

Canadians worry about crime, justice and public safety

By KERRY DIOTTE

 

As a federal politician, crime, justice and community safety are almost always at the top of the list of concerns I hear about from people.

These topics have especially dominated the news and the minds of many people I’ve talked to lately.

Just the other day I met with constituents in my local office, both of whom were crying out for changes to the way we seek to have safer communities.

One 77-year-old man complained he and his wife had suffered 54 break-ins or petty crimes in and around their Londonderry area home since 1990.

Few people were arrested for the offences, despite the fact that he’s got scores of surveillance video, he told me.

What’s more, he said their farm in Mayorthorpe was hit by thieves and vandals who made off with $40,000 in stolen goods and did $30,000 in vandalism.

The man is upset there aren’t more police resources to probe such crimes. He figures Canada needs to toughen laws to put repeat offenders away for longer stretches. “It’s become a justice industry,” he says. “It’s not justice.”

A retired veteran of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) I met with the same day echoed similar frustration with the approach to public safety.

His concern centres around a lack of resources from the federal government to deal with people released from federal prisons, deemed to be high risk to re-offend “sexually or violently.”

The former EPS officer who’s still active in the criminal justice system says these high-risk ex-cons have typically been kept in prison until the last day of their sentences and don’t get the benefit of statutory release.

The former officer told me a trio of city police detectives in Edmonton do their best to supervise an average of 30 of these high-risk offenders who walk among us — a high percentage of those ex-cons being sex offenders.

The retired officer argues more resources are direly needed to stop these hardest of hardened ex-cons from re-offending. As proof the system isn’t working, he brought me a list of eight such, hard-core ex-cons who indeed did re-offend.

Those re-offences include the aggravated assault of a woman confined to a wheelchair, sex assaults against children under the age of 16 and several homicides, he said.

“If these cases are going to remain the responsibility of policing agencies across Canada, they need proper funding from the federal government for training and adequate personnel,” he said.

To me, that’s a no brainer.

The concerns of these two men are the tip of the iceberg. Recently Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons lamented that Canada has a “broken court system.”

Simons raised numerous concerns including that courts don’t have enough judges or other resources to deal with the workload. 

I believe that’s particularly true because of a Supreme Court ruling called the Jordan decision. That ruling means accused criminals must get a trial is a timely manner or they must be released.

Canadians have already been shocked that several people charged with violent crimes didn’t get a trial fast enough and were released scott free.

Simons rightly a point out it’s a federal government responsibility to appoint federal judges and there are a whack of vacancies.

This is hardly news to our Conservative caucus.

We’ve been hammering at the federal Liberal justice minister for months now as vacancies for judges remained unfilled for no good reason.

When repeatedly questioned in the House of Commons by Conservative deputy justice critic Michael Cooper, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has blathered a lot of non-sensical excuses for the delay including talking about the fact we need to aim for “diversity” when hiring judges.

In my view, public safety can’t take a back seat when there aren’t enough judges appointed and people charged with murder and other violent crimes are walking free without being tried.

Another controversy keeping crime high on people’s radar was the recent defeat of Wynn’s Law by the federal Liberal majority government.

Backed by Conservatives, it would have closed a loophole in the law so that those applying for bail would have to have their criminal records and pending charges shown to a judge.

Liberals made a bogus argument that, somehow, disclosing someone’s criminal record or pending charges would bog down the justice system. Just TRY to figure out that loopy Liberal logic.

Violent crime has also been much on the minds of many in Edmonton, in part because the city had experienced more than two dozen homicides and 2017 is only half over. By June 29 the city had recorded its 25th murder.

The spike in murders was enough for police to call a news conference to ally public fears and reassure citizens the city is still relatively safe.

Given all these recent headlines, it’s understandable Canadians are worried about community safety and concerned not enough is being done by governments to assure the public.

Public safety should be a top priority for any government. Our Conservative opposition will continue to urge the Liberal government to fill vacancies in the federal courts and stand up for victims of crime and law-abiding Canadians.

E-mail me at [email protected] to share your thoughts on these issues.

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June 18, 2017 | No Comments

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Thank you to all the fathers and father figures who invest their time, wisdom and love into their children.

The unconditional love of a parent helps give a child the inspiration and courage to succeed.  

And, our communities and personal lives are strengthened by these men.

This father’s day, I hope you’ll join me in showing your appreciation.

To every father, I wish you a…

Happy Father’s Day!

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June 15, 2017 | No Comments

You’re invited to my Canada 150 Open House

Everyone is welcome and I hope to see you there.

Please RSVP by June 19.

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June 11, 2017 | No Comments

Pleased to participate in the UK Election Assessment mission

I had a truly amazing experience travelling to London and Manchester UK to be part of a Commonwealth UK election assessment observer team along with my MP colleague Matt Jeneroux and more than 30 other Commonwealth parliamentarians and officials.

Our preliminary report on the June 8 election is online now and a final report will be out in the coming weeks.

Thanks to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK for the training and for being great hosts.

 





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May 18, 2017 | No Comments

Today we commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the Crimean Tatar deportation

Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the Crimean Tatar Deportation.

The same evil ideology is at play in both the Soviet regime’s brutal deportation of an entire nation, and in Vladimir Putin’s unending war against Ukraine.

This Liberal government must do more to stop Liberal aggression.

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May 3, 2017 | No Comments

Did you know that Canada has the highest rate of MS in the world?

May is multiple sclerosis (MS) awareness month.

MS is an unpredictable and often disabling disease of the central nervous system.

This week, I was honoured to be the Conservative champion for the MS Society.

And today my colleagues and I wore carnations to show solidarity with the entire MS community.

Visit the MS Society’s website to learn more about MS and the important work they do to help all those who #LiveWithMS. https://mssociety.ca

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April 25, 2017 | No Comments

Did you know it’s National Volunteer Week?

I’m so grateful to the many volunteers who’ve helped me on my federal and municipal campaigns. And to the dedicated volunteers who continue to help ensure that I stay connected with residents of Edmonton Griesbach.

Having the opportunity to attend a lot of local community events, I also know Edmonton Griesbach is enriched by the tremendous contributions of community-minded volunteers.

This National Volunteer Week, I’d like to thank all those whose hard work makes our community a great place to live, work and play! Happy National Volunteer Week!

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April 14, 2017 | No Comments

Happy Easter!

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April 3, 2017 | No Comments

My constituents are owed thorough consultations on supervised injection sites

Thanks again to all those who attended and contributed to my town hall meeting on supervised injection sites. And a special thank you to the expert panelists.

While opinions differed, it’s clear that there was a need for more community consultation.

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