Public safety minister dodges NDP MLA's question about U of C Palestine encampment coverup
David Shepherd, the Alberta NDP's shadow minister of public safety, asked Minister Mike Ellis about the Orchard's exclusive reporting at the Standing Committee on Families and Communities.
Alberta public safety minister Mike Ellis dodged an NDP MLA’s question at a March 13 committee meeting about The Orchard’s exclusive reporting on his government’s apparent cover-up of police violence against the University of Calgary’s short-lived pro-Palestine encampment.
As this outlet reported last week, according to Calgary police chief Mark Neufeld’s hand-written notes, he received a May 13 phone call from Ellis informing him that the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was investigating allegations of police misconduct regarding the forced dismantling of the encampment on May 9.
Half an hour later, Neufeld received a phone call from Premier Danielle Smith’s then-chief of staff, Marshall Smith (no relation), informing him that “ASIRT won’t investigate,” but would instead focus narrowly on whether there was “serious injury” resulting from police action.
“I can’t speak to a conversation that I was not a part of, or what may or may not have been said between two individuals,” Minister Ellis, a former Calgary cop, said at Thursday’s Standing Committee on Families and Communities meeting.
This was in response to a question from Edmonton-City Centre MLA David Shepherd, who serves as the NDP’s shadow public safety minister.
Shepherd brought up The Orchard’s reporting, referring to “a journalist” who obtained the chief’s notes of his conversations with members of the government “in response to a student protest at the University of Calgary.”
He asked Ellis how Marshall Smith’s intervention squares with the minister’s stated commitment to a “broader paradigm shift that reimagines police as an extension of the community rather than as an arm of the state.”
“Having a chief of staff of the premier call to tell the chief whether or not an investigation would take place sure seems like the arm of the state,” said Shepherd.
Ellis, whose office didn’t acknowledge The Orchard’s initial request for comment, was cagey, but added that “this is the exact reason” his government has ordered the establishment of the Police Review Commission to independently address allegations of police misconduct.
The commission isn’t expected to begin operations until December.
“If I were the minister of public safety,” Shepherd replied, “having the premier’s chief of staff interfere to comment on what is going to be the scope of an investigation, that would certainly concern me.”
Before Shepherd could ask his question, Calgary-East UCP MLA Peter Singh tried to shut him down, arguing that Shepherd’s line of questioning was out of order, since the committee meeting was focused on the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness’s 2025/26 budget.
“We aren’t here to discuss media reporting,” said Singh.
But Shepherd did connect the question to specific budget items before Singh cut him off.
From the budget estimates, he specifically cited line items for funding ASIRT ($5.7 million) and “Contract Policing and Police Oversight” ($397.2 million).
From the ministry’s business plan, Shepherd cited key objective 1.3, which states:
Implement strategies to improve the delivery of policing services in the province to ensure Albertans are safe and police are accountable to the communities they serve, including support for municipalities and Indigenous communities in the development of new models of policing and public safety.
Camrose MLA Jackie Lovely, the committee chair, deferred to Minister Ellis to determine “whether he chooses to answer and how he answers.”
In addition to Minister Ellis and Marshall Smith, Chief Neufeld’s notes include summaries of conversations about the encampment response with Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney and Justice Minister Mickey Amery.