MENZIES: You mean to tell me that 1KG of fentanyl isn’t worthy of being remanded?

Only some of the seized drugs and guns from a series of search warrants in Cold Lake, Ardmore, and Edmonton, that prompted three arrests. Image: Cold Lake RCMP.

Viewers of the Connected morning show will be familiar with a feature we’ve done for years – Released or Remanded. 

If you haven’t watched, I’ll explain. It’s a simple game. 

We take a local crime file from the RCMP, rattle off the situation and the charges, and guess whether the accused was held after a hearing with the Justice of the Peace, or released. 

Without taking statistics, I’d say 70 per cent of the time the individuals are released. That’s probably generous. 

This bit wouldn’t work unless our justice system wasn’t patently ridiculous. 

Fast forward to last week. 

New press release in the inbox titled: Cold Lake RCMP seize drugs and guns after successful operation. 

Within we are told that this investigation, codenamed K-Nanosecond, requiring multiple ALERT teams, a total of six search warrants, is “one of the largest drug seizures ever made in Cold Lake and surrounding area.” 

Briefly, a kilogram of cocaine, another kilogram of fentanyl (emphasis is mine), 5KG of cocaine cutting agents, $68K, two vehicles, twenty-three guns, including restricted handguns, were all taken. 

If there ws ever a press release I’ve seen that involved pounds of drugs and a schwack of guns that would garner remands, this had to be it. 

But no. 

All three charged: Francois Poulet, 31, Cameron Pike, 62, and Nicholas Deboeck, 33, were released. 

This is stunning. The usual remand method we’ve devised here at Connect, as you try to come up with reasons why we see what’s happening, is fentanyl and guns.

That’s the magic bullet for remand, we thought. 

Not in this case. 

Simply stunning. 

I followed up with S/Sgt. Wes Bensmiller to ask whether there were other suspects being pursued. Apparently, no. 

It’s so ridiculous, you have to believe there’s something more to this. 

Will someone squeal in order to wrangle a bigger fish? What is happening? 

The optics of this are terrible for a justice system, and frankly our country by and large, that is under fire for its perceived – and in a lot of ways true – softness on crime. 

Canada is in a bitter tariff dispute with the United States. 

While the reasons seem flimsy, there is something to be said about President Donald Trump’s demand that the border be more secure for the drugs that pore in. 

Of course, tons of drugs, weapons, etc come back the other way. (I recall the Nova Scotia mass killer Gabriel Wortman in 2020 acquiring multiple guns from the US0. The dispute makes little sense in the grand scheme of things, but it’s happening and we can’t change that. 

While we’re under the kosh, while fentanyl in particular is the focus, while overdose deaths are growing every year, while the proliferation and use of these drugs is called a crisis by our leaders – those that are distributing over a kilogram of this poison are released. 

How, at this moment, with all the political and social pressure, is this not even worthy of being held in jail? 

Forget the convictions, which are soft and not plentiful enough. Forget the perceptions that this is a legal system, and justice is seen as only an occasional byproduct. Forget that it’s such a joke that everyone in the Lakeland Connect comments is surprised if someone is remanded. Forget it all. 

You know why? 

Because it’s just another day in the Lakeland. Already since this news was published, there was another local case of sexual crimes against children in the area. 

Add that to the tally, which prominently includes a former elementary school teacher, an elementary school assistant, a 40-year-old from Vermilion last Tuesday, and a St. Paul RCMP officer twice arrested. 

There is a serious problem here. Thrown into the mix of large quantities of drugs is a rash of sexually charged crimes against children. 

It would be a joke – if it wasn’t so sad.