Calgary Councillor Charged With Mischief Following Confrontation With Driver

Police vehicles at Calgary Police Service headquarters on April 9, 2020. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

A Calgary city councillor has been charged with mischief following an investigation into a confrontation between him and a driver at an intersection earlier this year.

The Edmonton Police Service says in an email that the Calgary Police Service requested in April that they handle a probe into an incident involving Gian-Carlo Carra, noting Carra was a member of the Calgary Police Commission.

The email says that on Friday, Carra was criminally charged with mischief under $5,000 relating to the incident that occurred on April 2, 2022.

Carra issued a statement on April 12 that he had been walking his dog, Izzy, on April 2 when a driver ran a stop sign, nearly striking them, and that the vehicle was so close he was “able to tap the bumper” with his foot as it sped by.

He alleged the driver stopped, reversed, and two occupants exited and “began verbally accosting” him before the driver then physically assaulted him.

Carra’s statement said that he supported the fact police sought an outside force to investigate the incident in order to maintain impartiality, and that he would recuse himself from the police commission until the matter was resolved.

“The driver admitted that he did not see me but became increasingly verbally irate and as I stood my ground, escalated to physically assaulting me,” Carra’s statement said.

“I defended myself from the assault as best I could in the moment.”

“A Constable of the Calgary Police Service attended the incident and took statements from the driver, passenger and me.”

Carra issued a brief statement on Saturday in response to Friday’s charge.

“I am shocked by these charges and intend to fight them. I will make a statement once we receive all the information that we are due,” he said.

Edmonton police said in their email that the matter was assigned to a detective from the Investigative Response Section in Edmonton and a comprehensive investigation followed.

The email said the completed investigation was reviewed by the Legal Advisors Section of the EPS and then subsequently reviewed by the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service.

“As this matter is now before the courts the EPS will not comment any further at this time,” the email concluded.

Calgary police said in a news release Saturday that they asked EPS to lead the investigation “in the interest of transparency and independence, given the fact the situation involved an elected official, who at the time was also serving on the Calgary Police Commission.”

They, too, said they would not be commenting further, explaining it was not their investigation, and that the matter is now before the courts.

Carra resigned from the police commission in early November, noting in a statement on Nov. 1 that the “unprecedentedly prolonged timeframe should have been more than adequate for the investigation to reach a conclusion.”

“After seven months, it appears my suspension has served the Calgary Police Service as it has kept a critic silenced through a variety of important oversight issues ranging from the thin blue line to the next four-year budget,” Carra said in the statement.