Latest news with #MountRoyalUniversity
Calgary Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Opinion: Graduation a time of celebration and a time of concern
Congratulations to all our graduates. They have worked hard to reach this important milestone and deserve to enjoy this exciting and meaningful moment. Article content Congratulations are also due to the parents who have provided both emotional and material support throughout their children's educational journeys — you share in these accomplishments. Article content Article content My youngest son is graduating from high school this year and it is a time of pride and celebration — and, more privately, concern. Article content Article content While there are many global concerns, a more personal concern has to do with the rising cost of advanced education. While students and parents wisely see post-secondary education as an investment in the future for themselves and their communities, the Alberta government has been seeing it as an expense to reduce. Article content Article content In 2019, the province began to dismantle public education and health care under the guise of fiscal management, following the recommendations of Janice MacKinnon's Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta's Finances. This panel advised lifting the tuition freeze and reducing public funding for advanced education. In response, universities were forced to raise tuition to make up the shortfall. Article content While we have all experienced sticker shock at grocery stores, the cost of tuition has risen even faster. Across Canada, between 2000 and 2024, consumer prices rose by 72.4 per cent, while undergraduate tuition and fees increased by 111.6 per cent (Statistics Canada). Article content Article content At Mount Royal University alone, tuition has climbed by approximately 30 per cent in just the past six years. As a result, many students now face food and economic insecurity, to the point that in 2024, 43 per cent of MRU students reported experiencing hunger due to financial hardship (2024 Canada Campus Wellbeing Survey). We now have food pantries for students where faculty are asked to donate canned goods, dry goods and toiletries for students in need. Article content Just six years ago, tuition in Alberta was among the most affordable in Canada. At present, it is among the most expensive, and students and families are suffering amid the deepening affordability crisis. The primary reason is the defunding of higher education by the provincial government under recommendations of the MacKinnon panel.
Calgary Herald
30-05-2025
- Calgary Herald
Calgary police used less force in 2024 than year prior: report
The use of force by Calgary police officers hit a seven-year low last year, after spiking in 2023, according to an annual report. Article content The report, delivered to the Calgary police commission Wednesday, highlighted that the Calgary Police Service 's use-of-force incidents dropped nine per cent in 2024 compared to the year prior and were eight per cent down from the five-year average. Article content Article content Calgary police officers used physical force 818 times last year, according to the report, down from 901 incidents in 2023. Article content Article content The report highlights that 2023 saw the highest counts since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and 2024 marked a return to more typical volumes. Article content Amtul Siddiqui, chair of the police commission, said it is encouraging that use-of-force has appeared to level out after the bump in 2023. Article content 'The CPS has a rigorous system for tracking and reviewing all incidents where officers use force, and the information learned helps shape future training to continually improve how officers approach situations,' she said in a statement. Article content 'Our commission has also placed a high priority on the CPS collecting and using race-based data. The latest report shows our shared commitment with the CPS to make sure that racial disparities are identified and analyzed for any systemic issues that need to be addressed.' Article content Article content The report also revealed a two per cent drop in overall police interactions with the public, from 588,407 interactions in 2023 to 574,246 in 2024. Use of force was used in 0.14 per cent of instances, or once for every 702 interactions between officers and the public. Article content A Calgary criminologist said that while police used less force last year, that's partly because 2023 was an outlier. Outside of that year, the number of incidents has remained pretty similar for the last decade. Article content 'If you look at the numbers, you can get lost in percentages,' said Mount Royal University criminology professor Doug King. 'You have to watch about that because the numbers of use of force incidents are actually quite low, so an increase of 10 can really bump things up a bit.' Article content In 2023, officers used their Tasers, also known as conducted energy weapons, 211 times, the report stated, which was well above the five-year average of 161. Last year, officers used their Tasers 165 times, marking a 22 per cent year-over-year drop.
CBC
29-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Calgary police see decrease in officer-public interactions, use of force: report
Social Sharing There's been a drop in the use of force by Calgary police officers, suggests a report presented to the Calgary Police Commission by the Calgary Police Service on Wednesday. According to the report, police used force in 818 incidents last year. It's a decrease of approximately nine per cent from 2023's count of 901 cases, as well as around eight per cent lower than the five-year average of 893 incidents. The numbers go hand-in-hand with an overall drop in officer-public interactions in 2024, with officers making public contact 574,246 times last year compared to 588,407 in 2023. Of those nearly 575,000 officer-public interactions, force was used by officers in 0.14 per cent of responses, or one in every 702 cases. Mount Royal University criminal justice professor Doug King highlighted two factors he says are likely behind the recent decrease in use of force by officers. "My inclination is to think that there may have been a service-wide directive indicating, 'Hey, don't be doing this unnecessarily, make sure you have some reasons for doing it," he said. "It could also have been a change in police officer training that they were last year being trained to do it, and this year they were being told, 'Well, that probably wasn't the right tactic.'" The Calgary Police Service report indicates that "de-escalation communication skills and policy compliance continue to be emphasized through training, use of force reporting review and feedback." It also states that an officer safety and tactics training researcher with a background in psychology, human performance and behaviour was recruited at the Chief Crowfoot Learning Centre, a training centre for Calgary police officers, in 2024. Responses to property crimes such as break-and-enters and vehicle theft decreased this year, while violent crimes including assaults and domestic violence increased from both 2023 and the five-year average. The four uses of force most frequently executed by police last year were dynamic takedowns (335 cases), stuns/strikes (184), Tasers (162) and leg restraints (102). Police service dogs made contact with people 49 times, the same number as in 2023, while firearms were fired four times and only one tire deflation device was deployed. King criticized the report's failure to discuss high-profile cases involving the Calgary Police Service in 2024, including its response to an encampment at the University of Calgary last May and the death of Jon Wells, a Blood Tribe member and accomplished rodeo competitor who died in police custody in September. "It would be more useful if the Calgary Police Service was a little bit more proactive in these kinds of higher profile incidents," said King, acknowledging that the circumstances around Wells' death remain unclear and are still being investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team. When asked about those cases after the presentation, interim police chief Katie McLellan said she didn't "want to speak about any specific case" but highlighted the work being done by the Calgary Police Service to engage with different communities. "It's for us to reflect and ask the why, the how come, the what, and how can we train better? How can we be better? How can we change our policies, and what kind of additional engagement that we need to have to ensure that everyone is kept safe?" The report indicates that the highest percentage of people that police used force against last year were white (43 per cent), followed by members of the Indigenous (18 per cent), Black (11 per cent) and non-Indigenous, non-Black communities (nine per cent). While white people were the subjects of the highest percentage of incidents, the report highlights disproportionate representation of non-white people in cases involving use of force: the percentage of Indigenous and Black peoples in those figures is substantially greater than their representation in the city's general population.
Calgary Herald
27-05-2025
- Health
- Calgary Herald
Alberta government to provide funding to MRU to explore optometry training in the province
Alberta's government has signed a letter of commitment with Mount Royal University, providing $300,000 to explore the potential of offering optometry training in the province. Article content Article content Canada currently offers only two options for students wanting to study optometry — the University of Waterloo and the Université de Montréal. Both programs are in high demand, and many students leave the country to pursue optometry studies, often not returning to Canada to practice. Article content Article content With the government's support, MRU will work with the University of Waterloo on ways to bring optometry training to Alberta. Article content Article content 'This is a great opportunity for Alberta. Mount Royal University has a strong reputation for providing high-quality health-related education, and we're confident this partnership will help strengthen Alberta's ability to train the health professionals we need to support the province's growing population,' said Myles McDougall, Alberta's Minister of Advanced Education, in a Government of Alberta news release. Article content The $300,000 grant will be provided over two years and support a study exploring program delivery, a financial model for the program and regulatory requirements. Article content The Alberta College of Optometrists and the Alberta Association of Optometrists have also expressed interest in the partnership and will be included in the study. Article content Article content 'Mount Royal University is grateful to the Government of Alberta for its support as we build on our strategic partnership with the University of Waterloo to address the increasing demand for vision care and optometry education for Albertans,' said MRU president and vice-chancellor Tim Rahilly. Article content Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services, Adriana LaGrange, said the province is committed to improving Albertans' access to health services. Expanding local educational opportunities provides opportunities for graduates to stay and build their careers locally, she said.
CTV News
22-05-2025
- CTV News
RCMP still on the hunt for Alberta woman mistakenly released from jail
The RCMP confirm officers are still searching for an Alberta woman, Mackenzie Dawn Hardy, 24, who was released from a jail near Edmonton last month because of fraudulent reports that her charges were stayed. In an email, RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff says she was released from Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre on April 25, 2025, and that 'the release itself did not involve the RCMP.' An email from Alberta's Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services states that 'an individual was released from custody following receipt of documentation that was believed to provide the authority for release.' Doug King, criminal justice professor at Mount Royal University, says in his decades of teaching, he has never heard of a case like this before. 'The idea that someone would use forged documents or falsified documents to get out of remand is outrageous,' he said. 'It takes more than the person to say, 'This is my document.' It takes someone on the outside to have helped her.' There is a warrant out for Hardy's arrest. The RCMP say Hardy faces a number of charges including possession of stolen property, driving while impaired and fleeing a peace officer. Most of these charges stem from March 11, 2025, when she was found in a stolen vehicle by Red Deer RCMP Crime Reduction members. Since Hardy's release, she has surfaced on social media, posting a number of TikTok videos about her ordeal. In one of them, she says, 'apparently with these videos I'm making it's going to get me caught' adding 'the cops are just pissed because I'm one step ahead of them.' In another video, she shares that her boyfriend was diagnosed with cancer and has one year to live. Hardy says her being released from jail was a 'gift from God.' Investigators say her social media posts could be used as evidence and a tool to help find her. 'Every video she makes and posts is going to be seen as an aggravating circumstance to her criminal charge of escaping custody. She is just digging herself a hole,' said King. He believes Hardy will be found and that there will be consequences for her actions. 'Based on the charges she was facing, possession of stolen property, impaired operation, that kind of stuff, she probably went from a six-month stint in incarceration to probably an indictable offence. It's going to get you years now.' The RCMP say Hardy isn't a threat to the public and efforts are being made to extend the Alberta-wide warrant for her arrest to a Canada-wide one. The province added that the matter is also being investigated by the 'ministries of Justice and of Public Safety and Emergency Services'adding 'some immediate procedural changes have already been implemented but cannot be publicly disclosed to ensure their security and integrity are protected.'
