Discussion about how Edmonton police choose to name homicide victims and their accused killers has been renewed following the death of a woman in the city’s west end.
On Friday, a 49-year-old woman was found dead at a home in the Breckenridge Greens neighbourhood. While the incident has not been deemed a homicide, authorities told CTV News they believe it is a case of domestic violence. Charges against the 53-year-old man who turned himself in are still pending.
His identity, as well as the woman’s, is unknown.
Also unknown are the identities of one man who was stabbed to death in June, and another who was fatally assaulted near a downtown bar in September.
Since 2017, the Edmonton Police Service has only released the names of homicide victims if they consider the information to be beneficial to the investigation or of public interest.
This year, police have withheld the names of victims in 10 cases—about 37 per cent of the year’s 27 homicides. In 2017, police did not release the name of 17 victims, out of a total of 42 homicide cases—or roughly 40 per cent.
In an early-December case, it was court documents—not police—that revealed the identity of a mother who was assaulted and whose children were later found dead.
“We are allowing the Edmonton Police Service to treat us like children, that we’re not going to be responsible to know this information,” Senator and former journalist Paula Simons told CTV News.
“If we’re serious about combatting domestic violence, we can’t hide from crimes like this when they happen. We have to confront them,” she said.
Simons added that it is dangerous to have police keep secret who they arrest: “That’s the first time you step toward a police state.”
EPS said it adopted the policy to follow Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Simons argues it’s a misinterpretation.
“The text of the law doesn’t give the police any particular duty or burden to keep this information private,” Simons said.
Others see the policy as a missed opportunity to educate the public about domestic homicide.
“If we keep names private, then the assumption is domestic violence is a private family matter,” said Petter Jaffe, a psychologist and professor at Western University.
“I think it’s important that they engage the community and they look at this as a matter of public safety and concern, and also accountability.”
In an interview at the beginning of December, incoming EPS Chief Dale McFee said he would review the practice.
“There’s the balance of protecting the privacy of the citizens and it’s all on an individual basis,” he said at the time. “But I am committed to looking at this.”
The same legislation that allows EPS to withhold names governs the entire province. However, Calgary police have released names of those involved in nearly every homicide case since 2017.
With files from Timm Bruch
