City police are defending the decision to use a city bus to ferry a dozen white supremacists out of downtown after their march Saturday, saying it avoided a violent battle with anti-racism demonstrators.
On Monday, police faced criticism for using city services to transport the white supremacists, but say the transit vehicle was never a "courtesy bus" for a group called Blood and Honour.
Rather, police say it was a prearranged contingency tactic to evacuate anybody, be they protesters from either side or members of the public caught up in the demonstration.
Police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said officers loaded them onto the bus to avoid a violent confrontation with antiracist activists, who chased the vehicle down the road.
"If we had not extracted them when we did, we would have had a violent face to face, which would have defeated the whole purpose of what we had done up to that point," Brookwell said.
The explanation is of some consolation to Ald. John Mar, who raised his concerns over the use of the bus during a council meeting Monday. Still, the downtown alderman said he doesn't like how it played out from a moral standpoint.
"I'm still disappointed that we provided this transportation, but I understand the rationale as to why it was done," he said.
Others, however, aren't happy. One of the anti-racism leaders, Bonnie Devine, said the two groups were kept apart by police and safety wasn't necessarily an issue.
She said anti-racism demonstrators were there to be confrontational, but non-violent.
It is police prerogative to assess the situation, but she thinks their resources, and not a transit bus, should have been used to take the white supremacists away.
"I don't like that (the) city used any resources to help facilitate neo-Nazis in marching in our streets," Devine said.
Mar said the white supremacist group had originally chartered its own bus, but those plans fell apart when the company learned the identity of the people it was to drive around.
Police say there was some thought given to the police service chartering a bus from a private company, but that was ultimately turned down because of the cost to taxpayers.
Blood and Honour did not pay for the transit bus, according to Brookwell.
He said it is not uncommon in major events like this to use buses as contingencies: "We did not know the numbers that would arise until they actually amassed downtown."
The bus was operated by a transit peace officer, and Calgary police were not charged for the use.
"We sided on the side of safety, regardless of the group," said Brian Whitelaw, the head of transit security. "If there was a confrontation, we'd probably have ended up in the situation we were in several years ago where you've got the risk of property damage, and you've certainly got the risk of physical injury."
Whitelaw said without the bus, the white supremacists would likely have used regular modes of public transit to leave the downtown. This could have created serious problems as confrontation between two groups could have migrated onto the LRT and regulars buses, he said.
Calgary Herald
