Chinatown leaders say province, feds ignored pleas over detainee drop-offs

About 200 people gathered at a Chinatown restaurant Thursday night, October 9, to demand action on a problem that has plagued the neighbourhood for years: corrections vans dropping released detainees on the street with no transition support.

The UCP government received multiple invitations to the town hall and sent none of its MLAs. No federal MPs accepted invitations either. City Councillors Anne Stevenson and Ashley Salvador attended, along with NDP MLAs Janis Irwin and David Shepherd, and operators from social agencies Boyle Street and Bissell Centre.

Sandy Pon, co-lead of the Chinatown Safety Council, told the crowd that community leaders have been trying to reach provincial and federal officials with no response. "We're not getting any headway or getting any reply," Pon said. "They feel political, and we try not to be. We're not trying to be political. We're trying to be community-minded, right?"

The drop-offs have continued as recently as last week, according to the source material. Security cameras and community witnesses have documented releases at Pacific Mall (September 3), Kim Fat Market (January 11), and at least three other locations between September 28 and October 4. An image from December 2023 appears to show seven detainees dropped at Pacific Mall. Drop-offs have also been reported in Lethbridge and Peace River.

Edmonton holds roughly 3,400 inmates across eight adult facilities and has one of the highest per capita inmate rates in Canada. The Edmonton Remand Centre alone has 1,952 spaces and holds nearly half of all individuals remanded by the province. Data shows 53 per cent of those released from custody are reconvicted within a year, with the first three weeks after release being the highest-risk period for reoffending.

Both Pon and Ben Lui, who owns Pacific Place mall, advocate for a "warm handoff" system where detainees are transferred to social services rather than released directly onto streets. Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis called such a system "desirable" two weeks ago, though he blamed September releases on "human error" and promised to meet with Corrections to prevent future drop-offs.

Chinatown is home to multiple social service centres including Hope Mission's Herb Jamieson Centre, making it both a hub for the city's transient population and a magnet for released detainees with nowhere else to go. Pon warned that community workers are burning out. "If they can't recruit workers, your problem is just going to get bigger," Pon said.