FORT MCMURRAY — Alberta’s Somali community is accusing the province’s justice minister of playing political games by refusing to set up a task force to find out why so many young Somali-Canadians have died violently in the province.
A 19-year-old who was facing drug charges became the latest Somali murder victim on the weekend in the oilsands town of Fort McMurray, a hotbed for the illegal drug trade.
The Canadian Somali Congress has partnered with Edmonton’s Alberta Somali Community Centre to push for a province-led task force to investigate up to 30 Somali deaths in Alberta since 2005.
Justice Minister Alison Redford told the group at a meeting last month that a task force would be expensive and time-consuming and what’s really needed is to start working on the root problems.
But Mahamad Accord, director of the Somali Community Centre, says the province doesn’t know what the real problems are behind these murders, so that’s why a task force is needed.
“People are not paying attention to what we are saying, they’re only saying what they think we want to hear,” said Accord. “How much are the lives of 30 people worth?”
“There is a political game being played here.”
Justice Ministry spokesman Jay O’Neill said although the minister ruled out a task force, she urged the three Somali community leaders she met with last month to work with her department to deal with the problems that led to the murders.
“Her point was to get to the bottom of the issue, work together and solve it right away,” said O’Neill. “What the Somali community is experiencing is not unique to what other communities in Alberta are facing.
“We want to work with their community as we would with any other community and identify these issues and find solutions that will solve their problems.”
But Accord says he’s not satisfied with the minister’s response, so he plans to continue a campaign to pressure the Alberta government to change its position.
So far, 1,500 signatures have been collected on a petition calling for a task force and Accord says demonstrations and legal action are also being considered.