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David Reid says he’s become more diligent about locking up on the land his family has farmed in Alberta for more than a century and is more watchful of strange vehicles along rural side roads.

“Neighbours have been broken into in the middle of the day and early in the morning when they’re still in their houses asleep and had items stolen right from the middle of their farmyards,” Reid said from Cremona, Alta., northwest of Calgary.

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“Certainly you hear more about these criminals being armed. And if they’re not armed, then on drugs and certainly unpredictable.”

In Okotoks, about an 80-minute drive to the southeast, RCMP last month arrested a man on aggravated assault and firearms charges after he caught two people rummaging through his vehicles. One of the suspects, who was later found with a wounded arm, faces numerous charges that include trespassing, mischief and theft.

That case — along with the acquittal of Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley in the shooting death of an Indigenous man — has renewed a simmering debate about what rights rural residents have to use force against a perceived intruder.