New bylaw will soon make it illegal to sell knives in Edmonton convenience stores
After years of pressure from community leaders, Edmonton city council is working on a bylaw to prohibit convenience stores from selling knives.
"Just how easy it is to get your hands on knives and blades in our communities," said Coun. Ashley Salvador.
"The density of convenience stores where you can just walk in and there are knives right next to chocolate bars. That's a common line that I've heard from community members," she added.
Salvador said she also heard from parents and parent councils.
"Where they're seeing concerning trends of kids actually showing up to school with these items and that's deeply alarming," she said.
Concerns about knives being sold in convenience stores is something leaders from the Alberta Avenue community have raised for more than a decade.
"2005 is when we started with city council saying we need a safer, warmer community that can be built up by community and this is a huge piece," said Christy Morin, the executive director of Arts on the Ave.
"You can spend a lot of money on different things, but if you don't have a foundation that gives actual tools to be able to implement, then you're just sort of spinning," she added.
The Alberta Avenue Community League Civics Director said he even tried approaching convenience stores himself.
"This has been a really difficult exercise as businesses were really digging in and were not responding to our requests to voluntarily change their ways, which was really frustrating," Allan Bolstad said.
"When you’d go talk to an individual business owner and talk about how someone had been stabbed and in some cases killed within blocks of their business and they still weren’t responding, it’s clear we needed another tool," said Bolstad.
According to Edmonton police, between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30 this year, there were more than 600 knife incidents.
"Forty-six per cent of them, 345, actually resulted in injury and death," said Superintendent Keith Johnson, with the EPS Community Safety & Wellbeing Bureau.
"It doesn’t matter that we’re a 1.2-million-person city. Those are large numbers," he said.
Council plans to ban knife sales using a new convenience store category of business licence.
"And make it difficult for people to acquire them in that impulsive way when they have a fight with someone," said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.
Once city administration drafts the bylaw to make the change, stores will be given the new designation as they renew their licences.
The process is expected to take about two years for all 5,000 retailers to go through the process.
"That’s OK with us because we know it’ll come," said Morin.
"I really want to congratulate council and city administration for trying something different that hasn’t been tried anywhere else in Canada to eliminate the sale of knives in convenient locations like this that will make our community safer," added Bolstad.
Police believe the bylaw will have an impact.
"We would hope it would have at least some impact in our neighbourhoods that do have a large vulnerable population," said Johnson.
"Anything that makes it a little bit more difficult to purchase those weapons should assist."
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Former B.C. premier John Horgan dies at 65
Former B.C. premier John Horgan, a popular leader renowned for his affable personality and dedicated public service, has died
B.C. teen with Canada's first human case of avian flu in critical condition, Dr. Bonnie Henry says
The teenager who is sick with the first-ever human case of avian influenza acquired in Canada is in hospital in critical condition, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday.
Ottawa high school principal apologizes for song played during Remembrance Day assembly
The principal of an Ottawa high school is apologizing to students, parents and guardians after an Arabic-language song was played during the school's Remembrance Day service. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is conducting a "thorough investigation" to ensure it "is addressed appropriately and meaningfully."
Here's why thieves may be stealing butter in Canada
The case of the missing butter remains a mystery, but some have ideas on what's behind the unusual crimes.
Body found in Montreal park identified as cryptocurrency influencer
The body of a man that was found in a park in the Ahunstic-Cartierville borough last month has been identified as cryptocurrency influencer Kevin Mirshahi.
'He begged me': Brampton, Ont. woman loses more than $200K to romance scam
A Brampton woman says she is devastated after she lost more than $200,000 — her life's savings — to a romance scam.
Bev Priestman out at Canada Soccer in wake of Olympic drone-spying scandal
Bev Priestman is out as coach of the Canadian women's soccer team in the wake of an independent report into the Olympic drone-spying scandal.
What consumers need to know if Canada Post workers strike ahead of a busy holiday season
Canada's postal workers could walk off the job or the company could lock them out as soon as 12:01 a.m. ET Friday if the union and the company don't reach an agreement. Here are tips for shoppers and businesses.
Union says it will challenge Ottawa's intervention in B.C. port work stoppages
The union representing locked-out port workers in British Columbia says it plans to challenge the federal government's intervention in the ongoing labour dispute.