By Jackie Lovely
MLA Camrose
Recently, I had the opportunity to address Bill 11, the Public Safety Statutes Amendment Act 2024 in the Legislature.
This is a bill that I feel very passionately about.
There are two key elements.
The first is the creation of an independent agency police service that would be responsible for carrying out police-like functions currently performed by peace officers in the Alberta Sheriffs.
The second element paves the way for a provincial ankle bracelet monitoring program for violent and sexual offenders, as well as those on bail who pose a risk to public safety.
As a parent, this is tremendously important to me. To explain why it is so important, I must share a tragic story which leaves me with a heavy heart.
In September 2021, Cody McConnell was put through something that no person should ever be forced to bear.
Upon arriving home from work, he realized that his Fiancé, Mchale Busch, and son, Noah McConnell, were nowhere to be found. He called friends and family to see if they knew anything and knocked on every door in his apartment complex. All to no avail.
It was early the next morning when Mchale and Noah were found, and Cody’s panic and worry turned to grief and anger.
Noah was discovered abandoned in the dumpster outside the apartment and Mchale was found next door, in the apartment of their neighbour, Robert Major.
How could a neighbour, the person you’d usually borrow a cup of sugar from when you need it for a recipe, have turned out to be capable of such an unthinkable crime?
Robert was known to be dangerous. Upon his release from prison in 2017, the police issued a public warning that they suspected he would “commit another sexual offence against a female, including children, while in the community.”
Beyond this, he was on several court-ordered conditions when he moved from Edmonton to Hinton, where he would commit the unthinkable crime.
There is no record of when he moved.
How he moved into an apartment complex with women and children, near parks and schools, all without the residents of the building knowing, is unthinkable.
Cody and Mchale had moved to Hinton from Camrose, so I have spoken to him about this many times.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, Cody started working together with Conservative MPs Gerald Soroka and Blaine Calkins to create the proposed federal Bill C-336, known as Noah’s Law.
Noah, Mchale, and Cody deserve justice. But, what’s more, they deserve their governments to act and ensure that no family ever must go through what Mchale and Noah did.
While I sincerely hope that the federal government passes Noah’s Law, I am glad to say that through Bill 11, our United Conservative government is taking action to protect Albertans from violent and sexual offenders through an ankle bracelet electronic monitoring program.
Bill 11, if passed, would ensure that Alberta courts would have one more tool to help keep Albertans safe.
- MLA Jackie Lovely can be contacted at her constituency office located at #104, 4870 51 Street, Camrose AB, T4V 1S1, or by telephone at 780-672-0000.