Violence on public transit and in city spaces across Canada has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld said in relation to a spate of assaults in his city as well as Edmonton, Metro Vancouver and Toronto.
Neufeld said he’s talked to his counterparts in other cities and it’s hard to know what’s driving the violence, but calls related to mental health have been on the rise.
“There has been a post-pandemic impact that I don’t know that we fully understand,” he told a news conference on Thursday.
“But it’s manifesting itself in public spaces across the country and I think we’ve gone as far down this dark road as we are prepared to go.”
Neufeld said everyone hoped things would return to normal post-pandemic, and governments have been making investments in mental health supports.
“I just don’t think it’s taken effect just yet. I think there’s a lot of promise with respect to a lot of the policies,” he said. “But what we’ve seen is an entrenchment of violence and individuals who are resistant to the services right now.”
Neufeld said Calgary remains a safe city and statistically, there has not been a large increase in violent crime. In fact, he said, there have been fewer shootings this year than the same time last year.
His comments come after a series of violent incidents in cities in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta, including Calgary, where someone was stabbed on a bus Thursday and a shooting on a bus left a man injured on Wednesday.
In Edmonton, police said a 48-year-old man was sitting by himself at a bus stop on Thursday when someone approached from behind and stabbed him in the back.
The Alberta government announced last week that 100 additional street-level police officers would be hired over the next 18 months, with most of them deployed in Edmonton and Calgary in response to the rising violence.
