Emails obtained by CTV News show RCMP in Cochrane calling for action and urgent meetings with Alberta’s Ministry of Transportation over a months-long carbon tax protest along the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary.
“We have a developing situation today at the protest site in Cochrane,” wrote Cochrane RCMP Sgt. Matt Pumphrey in a Sept. 20 email to several provincial government staffers, including the Department of Transportation’s chief of emergency management.
“I am sending this to you for awareness and action as it is increasingly important from a public safety perspective to have this location cleared,” the sergeant wrote when asking for an urgent discussion on the issue.
The emails between the RCMP and the province were obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The county’s written response to Pumphrey’s email has been completely redacted.
“Around that time, we received information from the Calgary Police Service that another protest was going to take place in Calgary (and that it would happen at that location as well), Pumphrey said Wednesday.
“In the end, one group showed up, the other didn’t. So we actually planned to have three different protest groups show up at the same time, but that never came to fruition.”
The protest began in April along the highway near Cochrane when hundreds of people gathered to speak out against the federal carbon tax.
Protesters waved flags and signs, honked their horns and parked RVs at the rest area, vowing to stay until the carbon tax is abolished.
By October, the group had left with an organizer who told CTV News their departure was due to the threat of cold weather and a feeling of being unheard.
The RCMP response in the first week was significant, with uniformed officers observing and standing between protesters and traffic on the highway.
As the crowd thinned, so did the presence of officers.
“We drove by every day for a while, in both marked and unmarked police cars, to make sure the area remained safe for demonstrators if people wanted to protest against that. That is a legal right that people have.” said Pumphrey.
In questions about his September request, he said the province was cooperative and in regular contact with them.
There was never a request for the RCMP to forcibly remove protesters, the sergeant said, as the protesters left on their own.
Devin Dreeshen, Alberta’s transportation minister, said he was not aware of the specific emails from RCMP to members of the government, but said enforcement is the responsibility of police.
“When it comes to enforcement issues, that is something that the RCMP, if they see that there is a public safety issue that they need to intervene, that would be an enforcement issue that the RCMP would address,” he said.