I sent my email below to a respected Calgary columnist, a Calgary Conservative MP, and a Liberal MP in hopes of receiving a reply or information clarification.
Thanking them in advance for their time and consideration. Over a week has passed with no reply, but I can safely assume that other "events" are taking up media attention? Still, it would be great to receive a reply.
My daughter and I were minutes away from walking to the Edworthy Park playground on August 10, with my one-year-old grandson in his stroller and a picnic packed. About five minutes before we were set to leave, I received a WhatsApp message from my Wildwood Community Garden group warning that there was an active shooter in the park and to stay indoors and away. Based on the timeline of what happened, we would have been on the pedestrian bridge at almost exactly the moment the shooter and police were exchanging gunfire with the shooter in that area. It's hard not to think about how differently that afternoon could have gone.
Since then, I've followed the coverage closely, and one thing keeps standing out: the man has never been publicly named. All that's been said is that he was a known gang leader, and that he died from what's believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the river. I understand ASIRT has a general practice of not releasing the names of people who die during police encounters, and that family notification is sometimes cited as a reason for withholding a name. But in a case like this, with dozens of officers involved, gunfire exchanged in a public park full of families, and the incident already extensively covered in the media, I find that explanation hard to square with what actually happened. It raises a real question for me about whether there's a broader pattern in how identities are or aren't disclosed in cases involving organized crime figures, and whether that pattern holds up consistently regardless of who's involved.
This isn't the first time I've personally been caught up in something like this. In November 2023, I was nearly shot outside Earls restaurant in southeast Calgary. I was standing right outside the restaurant door in the first row of parked cars, saying goodbye to a friend and her son when I turned to walk to my SUV. Right in front of me, a masked man opened fire with a rifle on the vehicle parked right beside mine, shooting at a person in the driver’s seat. (The CTV News article shows my SUV with windows shot out — that was right beside the victim's car.)
I gave a statement to police, but when I tried to follow up, I was told by the victim services unit that because the shooting was “gang-related," I wouldn't be given any further assistance or information. It took two months to get my own vehicle back, and I specifically asked the auto shop to check that no bullets or fragments were left inside it, since I sometimes have my grandchildren in that car.
Taken together, these two incidents have left me with a real question about how consistently the public is NOT fully informed when “gang-related" violence spills into everyday life. Parks, restaurant parking lots, sidewalks, places families and bystanders have every reason to think they should be safe. In light of accountability in Canadian cities, I would like to know: what ASIRT's and CPS's actual criteria are for naming someone or releasing information in cases like these, whether those criteria are applied consistently, and whether the public has a legitimate right to know more given how close these incidents came to a very different outcome for bystanders like me and my family.
I, my children, and my grandchildren are surely due the respect of living in a safe Canada. Isn't there something to be done? Is there an unwritten policy of withholding identities when doing so might draw attention to ethnicity — and if so, who decided that public safety takes a back seat to that concern?
The completely negligent and dangerous Canadian bail system and, in the Calgary Police Chief's words, "the new normal" with the amount of new people entering and the increase in gun and drug crime — how long do Canadians just accept no longer being safe?
Please — instead of choosing to be divisive, let's start working together to find solutions.
Very sincerely, and with respect,
Diane Walker
Calgary, AB