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An Alberta First: UCP government announces provincial parole board

EDMONTON, AB – Alberta now has its own parole board.

The new independent provincial parole board aims to provide a fairer, faster, and more responsive justice system that better protects Albertans.

UCP Justice Minister, Kaycee Madu says the Alberta Parole Board is, in part the result of a lack of action by the federal government in addressing province’s request for a fair deal in Confederation.

“The Alberta government must continue to assert its jurisdictional authority where it can, like a provincial parole board. The provincial government has assembled a skilled, diverse and experienced team, and I have the utmost confidence in the Alberta Parole Board members to deliver fair decisions on behalf of Albertans,” says Madu.

The new board will be up and running next Monday, February 1st and will be chaired by former Calgary Police Chief, Rick Hansen.

The Alberta Parole Board has the authority to grant parole for those serving sentences in provincial correctional facilities, which are sentences less than two years.

Alberta is the third province to have its own parole board, joining Ontario and Quebec.

Members of the Alberta Parole Board

  • Rick Hanson, chair – a former chief of police in Calgary and a former chief superintendent with the RCMP
  • Randy Anderson – Northland School Board trustee and manager of Indigenous Relations at North Lake College
  • Paul Bourassa – director and vice-president of Altia-ABM Inc. (North America)
  • Craig Paterson – lawyer and former chair of Central Alberta Mental Health Review Board
  • Shelly Takacs – project manager at Alberta Health Services
  • Angela Tripathy – executive leader and general counsel
  • Lisa Wardley – Mackenzie County councillor in Zama City

The members will be serving either two- or three-year terms.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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