Emotional landowners attend forum for long-sought answers

INNISFAIL – More than 250 emotional and frustrated local landowners packed the auditorium at the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion on Jan. 28 wanting answers from the region’s top Crown prosecutor to the chronic rural crime problem.

But Dominique Mathurin repeatedly told them that while her office has no easy answers to give them to solve the overall problem, she quickly added each member of her understaffed office remains vigilant.

“The first thing is to acknowledge that I understand people’s frustration, because if I didn’t understand it and recognize that there was an issue that means I wasn’t doing anything to fix it; not doing the first steps, which is accepting the fact there is a problem,” said Mathurin in an interview before the start of the forum. “Secondly, I can reassure them in a sense that if people feel the Crown has given up and is not putting in the effort and time that is not the case. We are still working hard and we are working with the RCMP more and more in order to be a better team, a better force to address those problems.”

Mathurin, who has been at the Red Deer Crown office since 2016, was invited to speak to local rural residents by the Innisfail East and Raven crime watch associations. She was tasked to explain her role, and the legal tools she has at her disposal to battle the rising rural crime wave that has devastated this region for the past three years.

Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk, who attended the forum, noted that that while crimes against people are “marginally down”, rural property crime is still on the rise.

“Not in leaps and bounds but it is just holding steady, and too much,” said Matechuk, noting the audience was “very passionate and very engaged.

“They asked questions and got great feedback, and they provided some information to the Crown, identifying their overwhelming concerns with regards to rural property crime in their areas,” he said. “The Crown is going back with more information and the people who attended gained some clarity on how the justice system worked.”

Following a brief introductory speech, Mathurin was peppered with queries about early offender releases, overworked police, court delays, lenient sentencing and the need for stronger restitution guidelines for offenders.

“I think there is somewhat a sense of frustration out there when quite often you will hear that someone has been caught and the next morning they have been let loose, and who knows when they are ever going to have time to actually have their court case,” said Red Deer County Mayor Jim Wood, who attended the forum.

Many questions from the audience were emotionally charged but Mathurin countered calmly with detailed explanations of how her office navigates the current legal system towards solutions, which too often for many landowners, is taking far too long to put in place.

“You’re delusional,” said one landowner tersely when Mathurin was explaining how the system considers offenders as “low risk” when they choose a drug treatment program during the sentencing process. The audience comment drew a warning from forum moderator Kailey Walker-Bobak who demanded they treat Mathurin with respect.

“I certainly would not want to be the chief prosecutor. She’s got a tough job,” noted Coun. Danny Rieberger, who was joined at the forum with several other councillors and town officials.

“(The audience) really got kind of rough on her later and she held her own very well. She was talking in front of a not a hostile crowd, but not a friendly crowd, right?

“Unfortunately there are no easy answers. She didn’t have all the answers, nobody has all the answers,” he added. “I honestly believe she’s trying to do her best working with the RCMP and judges to try to put away these guys a little bit longer. It is pretty hard with all the case precedents and all that stuff she’s up against. She did a good job explaining that.”

Coun. Jean Barclay sympathized with the challenges Mathurin and her office face; huge caseloads and not having enough prosecutors in serve the entire region, one that stretches west to Rocky Mountain House, east to Stettler and then as far as Coronation, and south to Innisfail and beyond.

“They are 50 per cent of where they are supposed to be at - 12 (prosecutors) and they only have eight and they are covering this massive area and yet there is this high crime rate,” said Barclay. “I don’t know what the answer is for the people living in the country and trying to protect their property. That is extremely frustrating. It sounds like everybody is doing as much as they can and they are still having issues.”