Councillor Carra's statement regarding the police-involved shooting of Mr. Latjor Tuel
On February 19th, 2022, Latjor Tuel was killed by Calgary Police. It is said that Mr. Tuel suffered from PTSD and was struggling with his mental health when police arrived. I’m heartsick about this needless loss of life and the terrible outcome for a man in crisis, his family, community, and our city. It also serves as a stark reminder of the slowness with which we’re reforming policing and our emergency response in general and is damning when juxtaposed with scenes of police services across Canada taking a much gentler approach with seditionists who represent a clearer and more significant threat to our collective well-being.
As a political leader who sought re-election on a platform explicitly focused on equity and anti-racism, I am dumbfounded by how problematic this situation is and what it reveals about how much work we have to do. But there is also a deep sadness that a man who came here because of the promise of safety and a better life, ended up being killed at the hands of the state. Mr. Tuel’s death represents our collective failure to live up to our promises and ideals as Canadians.
We need to rectify the fact that we have no idea what a different and better end state for policing, emergency response, and the continuum of care would actually look like in Calgary. In the absence of a clear destination, reform is overly contested and met with resistance. I’m working with the Calgary Police Commission, City Administration, and my colleagues on Council to put together a Council Innovation Fund proposal that will clearly outline and research what police and emergency response reform will look like in Calgary and beyond. I hope it will both galvanize action in our city as well as make a serious contribution to this critical discussion across Western democracies.
Councillor Courtney Walcott perhaps said it best - “There is a cost to debating how best to transform our systems, how to be anti-racist, how to better help people in crisis This is it.”
My deepest sympathies go out to Latjor Tuel’s family, friends, loved ones, and community.