Keith Gerein: Attack on Edmonton's city hall again shows Canadian politics is no longer a safe space

As threats have increased in concert with the degeneracy of our discourse, attacks like the one on Edmonton’s city hall seem more inevitable all the time

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Published Jan 24, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 5 minute read

One person was arrested after gunshots were fired inside Edmonton city hall and a Molotov cocktail was thrown from the second floor on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. No injuries were reported. Photo by Shaughn Butts /Postmedia

During last year’s provincial election, I took some criticism on social media for posting my concerns about protesters crashing a Danielle Smith news conference in Calgary.

Though there was probably no real threat, the disruption they created was initially considered serious enough to have Smith escorted from the room. No political leader should feel under physical peril, and I blasted the NDP for revealing the location of the news conference ahead of time in one of their news releases.

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It wasn’t my finest moment. The NDP likely didn’t have a role in what happened. There were other ways the protesters could have learned where Smith was going to be.

Nonetheless, my posting came from a dread I’ve developed in recent years toward the increasing safety threats faced by our elected officials and democratic intuitions, along with everyone who works in that world, including the media.

To me, as these threats have increased in concert with the degeneracy of our political discourse, it feels like just a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed.

On Tuesday, Edmonton’s city hall came frighteningly close to that reality when a man reportedly dressed in his security guard uniform walked into the building and began lighting up the place with gunfire and Molotov cocktails. He then surrendered to an unarmed commissionaire, who must have quite a story to tell.

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As all this was going down around 10:30 a.m., just 100 metres away or so, the mayor, city councillors, the city manager and others were meeting to publicly conduct the business of municipal government. An elementary class was in the building learning about civic democracy.

Yes, we are not at the point in Canada of Jan. 6-style debacles, but let’s not pretend that our country hasn’t started down a treacherous slope that has made the exercise of government far less safe.

The gunman that got into Parliament in 2014. The armed reservist who crashed his truck through the gates of Rideau Hall in 2020. The man who threw gravel at the prime minister during a campaign stop in 2021. The massive escalation in threats against NDP Leader Rachel Notley when she became premier. And I could go on.

Even at city hall, there have been safety incidents with visitors lately that I won’t detail. This particular council that has more women and visible minorities on it than ever before — something that should be celebrated, not derided — has been targeted with far more threats and horrific insults than groups of the past, even before they started in office.

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The reasons for all this are more complex than I have space to adequately cover here.

Obviously the last few years have been difficult with the pandemic, inflation and a level of social and political upheaval that seem beyond the ability of some to accept.

This has occurred alongside a steep decline in the way we talk to and about each other, some of it sadly perpetrated or condoned by “mainstream” political leaders of all stripes and their supporters. And when consumers are constantly fed a stream of manufactured bile about liars, cheats, and traitors in government — and that the sky will fall if they get their way — it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t have a lasting effect on behaviour.

In the case of Tuesday’s incident at city hall, there was a video online Wednesday that appears to have been recorded by the attacker in his car prior to conducting what he calls his “mission.”

(The authenticity of the video has not been confirmed at the time I write this.)

Like many who go down this road, the things the young man discusses in the video exhibit an incoherency of ethos, ranging from “wokism” and inflation to Gaza, corruption, the housing crisis, and social conflict around multiculturalism, immigration and racism.

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Basically there is something for everyone who might want to make political hay out of this, though I must say the laundry list of grievances isn’t particularly aligned to municipal government.

The man in the video emphasizes that he is not a psychopath and has no wish to spill the blood of children or innocents, which perhaps indicates a desire to simply stage a very loud cry for attention in a symbolic venue.

Whatever the motivation of the attacker, it doesn’t much matter to me in comparison to the extremism of his actions.

If it was indeed the same man in the video, then his purported desire not to hurt anyone obviously didn’t include the psychological trauma he inflicted. Nor did he factor in how his actions might further degrade the quality and transparency of government that he seemed to feel was already at a low ebb.

In recent years, government buildings at all levels have adopted more and more security measures, which has been annoying for those of us who regularly use the buildings, but also obviously necessary. By most accounts, the measures in place at city hall worked quite well on Tuesday — at least in reacting to the incident, if not preventing it.

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Still, these buildings are not exactly Fort Knox, and we don’t want them to be. Anyone should have the ability to walk into a house of democracy and watch a debate among their elected representatives and have open avenues of communication.

It would be a real shame to see government accessibility slide into the realm of airport security, with armed guards, ID checks, pat downs and metal detectors everywhere, or worse, having officials locked away in impenetrable citadels.

Likewise, to be at their best, elected officials must feel comfortable speaking and voting as they see fit, not worrying what’s happening outside the door. Qualified people shouldn’t be discouraged from running or serving because of concerns for their personal safety. But with every security incident, the standards to achieve that level of safety become a little more stringent.

No matter the agenda of one attacker, this has to be a wake-up call that our democracy is becoming as fragile as the North Saskatchewan River ice in March.

A national conversation about how we relate to each other and share information is overdue, or I fear we are going to see a lot more city halls wrapped in yellow police tape.

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