‘Unleashing’: Politicians Say Ex-Police Watchdog’s Insults Go Too Far

When Edmonton city Coun. Erin Rutherford took concerns about an aggressive troll to the city’s corporate security department, she said they suggested she file a complaint with the Edmonton Police Service, or EPS.

She didn’t bother. The man who frightened her is former Edmonton Police Commission chair John McDougall.

For months, McDougall has subjected Edmonton city council in general, and Rutherford and several other councillors specifically, to an online campaign of personal attacks that several have described as bullying, intimidation and an aggressive attempt to undermine their re-election.

A review of more than a dozen screen captures shows that, in the lead-up to the October municipal election, McDougall appears to be targeting councillors whom he considers to be insufficient supporters of the police service or its enemies.

“Erin Rutherford — YEG Councillor Ward Anirniq has outlived her stay. She has been incredibly dysfunctional. She is angry, out of touch, unco-operative and a follower,” McDougall said in a Facebook post, in which he endorses one candidate running against her, whom he calls a “real and true leader.”

In other posts, McDougall calls Coun. Michael Janz a “whack job” and “an awful human being.” He labels Coun. Anne Stevenson a “colossal nightmare” and suggests she is “unwell.” McDougall asks Coun. Keren Tang not to run again.

“You are far too rude and aggressive,” he said.

McDougall didn’t limit his bilious attacks to city councillors.

When Janz posted a photo of himself with former Edmonton Griesbach MP Blake Desjarlais, McDougall, who is gay, lashed out at both politicians on Facebook.

“Blake is fake and an opportunist like you. Blew off every opportunity to celebrate with queer military community. Typically self-serving, much like you.”

Rutherford said she didn’t engage with McDougall and eventually had to block him on social media.

“He lives three blocks from my house so he knows where I live.... I was actually genuinely getting scared,” Rutherford said in an interview.

Rutherford provided The Tyee with a text exchange with McDougall after a tense council meeting at city hall in May 2024. About 100 protesters who were angry about how police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Alberta attended the meeting.

The Edmonton Journal described the meeting as peaceful but at times disruptive. Rutherford said Coun. Tim Cartmell told her McDougall was unhappy with her conduct during the meeting, so she reached out to him.

McDougall didn’t respond. She tried again in September 2024, telling McDougall that her offer to talk was still open.

In a text, McDougall accused Rutherford of being “rude, disrespectful, insensitive, angry, horrible.” He accused her of pandering to the gallery to get a reaction from them, directed at commissioners.

“You helped facilitate the environment that made us feel unsafe,” he said.

Rutherford disagreed with his assessment and pointed out that she had not asked any questions about the University of Alberta encampment. She said she eventually realized there was no point, withdrew from the text exchange and blocked him on social media.

“Such maturity to block me,” McDougall wrote. “I guess ‘difficult questions’ and ‘difficult discussions’ only happen on your terms.

“I am happy your term on council is coming to an end, no one needs bullies and spiteful, hateful people on council.”

Rutherford said she was so alarmed by McDougall’s accusations about her pandering to the crowd that she asked the city’s now-former integrity commissioner, Jamie Pytel, to review the video recording of the meeting.

Pytel “looked back at the tapes and said, ‘You did nothing that was out of the code of conduct. And in fact, your line of questioning was absolutely normal.’”

“She didn't feel in any way that I had been acting inappropriately as John was accusing me.”

‘A lot of pent-up anger’

Tang said she believes she drew McDougall’s ire because she pressed to ask the commission to release its EPS audit plan. Like Rutherford, she also chose not to engage with McDougall. She said she is not afraid of him but she can understand why others might be.

“I hope John is well,” she said. “I think this feels really unhinged, and I know I'm not the only one [councillor] who thinks this.”

“I feel like there is a lot of pent-up anger that he is unleashing on social media.”

Police commission members and, in particular, the chair are expected to be neutral governors of the police service, on behalf of the public. McDougall was an ardent advocate and defender.

In a February 2022 op-ed published in the Edmonton Journal, McDougall defended a controversial decision by former Edmonton police chief Dale McFee to allow “Freedom Convoy” supporters to block traffic and cause a noisy ruckus on three separate weekends in Edmonton.

In an op-ed in response, University of Alberta criminologist Temitope Oriola said McDougall’s op-ed was the equivalent of a judge “writing in support of a plaintiff or defendant in a case before their court.”

“The op-ed demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of the role of an oversight agency and appropriate conduct of its chair,” Oriola wrote.

On Dec. 13, 2024, McDougall announced he was retiring from the Canadian military and was moving to Portugal to live full time.

McDougall’s tenure as chair was to end on Dec. 31, 2024, and he said he would not seek re-election. But he said he intended to continue to serve on the commission — remotely — until his second term was up in December 2026.

“As an appointee of the Government of Alberta, I sought approval from the Minister’s Office, and they supported me in this decision,” McDougall said in a news release.

But after four days of public outrage, McDougall announced his resignation from the commission.

‘Aggressive and abusive’

Janz, an outspoken critic of the police service, told The Tyee that since McDougall retired to Portugal, “his continued bizarre and unprofessional behaviour is consistent with past behaviour on his part towards myself and others.”

The Tyee asked Oriola to review several of McDougall’s posts and his text exchange with Rutherford.

“Public service is an extraordinarily challenging task, particularly in the age of keyboard warlordism and doxxing,” Oriola said. “It requires mutual respect, decorum and temperance particularly on the most contentious issues.”

“McDougall comes off as unnecessarily combative, aggressive and abusive. I hope that he spends more time enjoying his well-earned retirement and refrains from further contributions to political toxicity.”

Public safety minister Ellis in a bind

McDougall’s online behaviour creates a sticky political situation for Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis — in more ways than one.

In January, Ellis ordered an outside review immediately following a formal complaint about the council by McFee, who is now the head of Alberta’s public service.

McFee made the complaint after council appointed two new commissioners that the EPS accused of “anti-police bias.” Both resigned, despite passing what council said was an extensive vetting process.

But McFee also asked Ellis to investigate the “increasingly dysfunctional relationship” between council, the commission and the police service.

Ellis told CBC, “This ongoing dysfunction is negatively impacting public safety, public trust and the ability to deliver adequate and effective policing, putting public safety in Edmonton at risk.”

Ellis had promised to release details of the review within a few weeks of his January announcement but he did not.

The Tyee has learned that Ontario Court of Appeal Justice William Hourigan was appointed in February to conduct the review.

The city confirmed it is co-operating with the inquiry and that some staff members have been interviewed. A spokesperson said the city doesn’t have any more information about the review or when it might be completed.

Several councillors told The Tyee they have provided the city’s legal department with McDougall’s posts and, in Rutherford’s case, the direct messages McDougall sent to her while still serving as the commission’s chair. They expect those posts and messages will be provided to Hourigan.

McDougall, Ellis, McFee and the Edmonton Police Commission did not acknowledge requests for comment from The Tyee.

Up to Ellis whether to make report public

In an interview, Preston Lim, the inquiry’s lead counsel, said Hourigan will create a policy document containing reform recommendations for not only “the provision of adequate and effective policing in Edmonton, but also useful for policing experts across Alberta and indeed across the country.”

Lim, a private practice lawyer and law professor, said the small team working under his direction has “done deep dives into the policing frameworks that are effective, not only in Canada, but also across the world. We have looked at comparative jurisdictions, so there has been a lot of work that has gone into this.”

The report is expected to be completed by the end of August and will be provided only to Ellis, who will decide whether it is publicly released.

Lim said numerous commission and police service members had been interviewed. But several councillors who had been trolled by McDougall told The Tyee they had not been interviewed and did not know why.

Lim said they had sought to interview Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and other councillors who were not on the commission. But he said council had taken the position that the inquiry could speak only with councillors who were currently serving on the commission.

“Council provided a joint statement on various issues for our consideration, but did not authorize individual councillors, besides the aforementioned councillor-commissioners, to speak with us.”

Lim also declined to confirm or deny if Hourigan had reviewed McDougall’s posts.

The inquiry, Lim said, has a narrow mandate, and he wouldn’t say if it would assign blame to any individual or individuals for the alleged dysfunction.

“You are going to have to wait for the final report to get an answer to that,” he said.

McDougall was reappointed by Ellis

In what critics have called yet another step by the United Conservative Party government to exert control over municipalities, the government changed legislation to usurp council’s sole authority to vet and appoint police commissioners.

McDougall was first appointed by city council under former mayor Don Iveson. When his first six-year term ended, he was ineligible for a second term. But Ellis intervened and reappointed him as a provincial appointee, allowing him to continue on the commission for a second term.

Tang said McDougall’s unprofessional behaviour “reflects poorly on provincial appointments” and the provincial appointment process.

In May 2023, Ellis appointed Dr. Jayan Nagendran to the police commission. The Tyee revealed Nagendran is a former business associate of Sam Mraiche, the Edmonton businessman at the centre of an ongoing scandal, including several investigations, involving the UCP government.

Nagendran has not been linked in any way to the issues involving Mraiche and the UCP government.

McDougall’s online behaviour also raises questions about the complaint filed by McFee that led to the review and about his public statements regarding the cause of the dysfunction.

During a Dec. 2, 2024, appearance on the Quiet Professional podcast, McFee laid the blame squarely on city councillors. He told the host, an EPS officer, that Edmonton city council was “almost to the point where it has just been toxic and somewhat abusive to our commission that I should have probably stepped in.”

McFee said that having been a deputy minister in Saskatchewan before becoming Edmonton’s police chief, he knew “what is in the lane, and what is good governance, and what isn’t.”

The former chief claimed the toxic atmosphere created by councillors had taken a toll on commissioners, causing some to quit.

Tom Engel, of the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association, filed a freedom of information request to the police commission that contained McFee’s verbatim allegations from the podcast about the toxic and abusive environment causing some commissioners to quit.

In an April 7 letter, the commission told Engel it found no records responsive to his request.

“If the situation was as portrayed by McFee, I would expect that the police commission would at least have a shred of paper that would corroborate that,” Engel said.

Council and commission relations said to be better

Several councillors said the issues that led to the review have dissipated since McDougall resigned. They said the new commission chair, former city councillor Ben Henderson, has worked quickly and effectively to restore the relationship between council and the commission.

“The relationship between EPS and partners has improved tremendously,” Janz said. “There is more transparency, forthright responses to questions, and a unified focus on public safety.”

Oriola said reviews, like the one ordered by Ellis, “are fascinating socio-political phenomena in part because you may not find what you are looking for.”

“The eagerness to share the findings of a review often disappears once the presuppositions underlying it are proven inaccurate or non-existent,” Oriola said.

“It can be embarrassing to publicly admit that, though that would be the honourable thing to do. For some political actors, a way to proceed would be to not release the findings and let the passage of time do the rest.”

If you have any information for this story, or information for another story, please contact Charles Rusnell in confidence via email.