Calgary – In a stark and emotional warning to the city, Calgary Police Chief Katie McLellan has declared that every Calgarian should be deeply concerned about the shocking volume of child abuse investigations plaguing the city.
Speaking to the Calgary Police Commission, Chief McLellan laid bare the brutal reality: the Child Abuse Unit — staffed by just 15 detectives with nine critical positions still vacant — is drowning in an average of 45 new cases every single month. That’s 45 of Calgary’s youngest and most vulnerable children being victimized month after month.
“Each case represents not just a criminal act, but a profound breach of trust and safety for our most vulnerable citizens,” the Chief said. These files are among the most complex, traumatic, and resource-intensive the force handles, taking a relentless emotional toll on officers, specialists, support teams, and the devastated families seeking justice.
The crisis doesn’t stop there. The Internet Child Exploitation team has already logged nearly 700 files for Southern Alberta — and it’s not even April yet. At the same time, human trafficking is surging in the city, often hidden in plain sight, preying on both adults and youth through violence, addiction, financial control, and online grooming.
Chief McLellan didn’t mince words: “This is indefensible.”
She emphasized that these aren’t just policing problems — they are urgent human rights issues demanding major investment, more specialized resources, and full community collaboration to protect children and bring predators to account.
The message is clear and chilling: Calgary’s most vulnerable are under siege, and the thin blue line defending them is stretched dangerously thin.
The Chief raising the alarm comes on the heels of a particularly disturbing Grande Prairie case of a transgender parent who was sentenced to only five years in prison for deliberately stabbing his own two children, including deliberately stabbing his daughter in the neck with a serrated kitchen knife after entering her room late at night in their home – the daughter suffered a severed esophagus, a potentially life-threatening injury.
NDP-appointed Alberta Justice Jasmine Sihra was responsible for the sentencing – Sihra was appointed to the Provincial Court of Alberta in 2016 during Alberta’s former NDP administration of former Minister of Justice Kathleen Ganley, who was directly involved in the selection process as the responsible minister.
Albertans were particularly enraged that the bail system allowed the attacker, “Alice” Michael Attwood (aka Michael Joseph Attwood), to remain free on the streets up until trial, where Attwood lived in a minivan and posted disturbing videos online admitting to the stabbings.
Federal Conservative MP Chris Warkentin, MP for Grande Prairie, stated that this is another instance where “the Carney-Trudeau Liberals’ disastrous catch-and-release policies have made Canadians unsafe”.
