The Speaker of Alberta’s legislature is refusing to explain how a former Edmonton Police Service officer with a history of violent domestic assault and several other officers with serious disciplinary records came to be hired as part-time security officers at the legislature.

Speaker Nathan Cooper, a United Conservative Party MLA, is ultimately responsible for legislature security. But Cooper refused to respond to three interview requests during the past week.

The Tyee wanted to know if former EPS officer Scott Mugford, and several other former EPS officers, were vetted before they were hired as legislature security officers.

“There is absolutely no way someone with this pattern of behaviour should have anything to do with any law enforcement agency or anything directly related to security,” said former West Vancouver police chief and former British Columbia solicitor general Kash Heed, referring to Mugford.

Having been an MLA, and knowing the security personnel at B.C.’s legislature in Victoria, Heed said that “someone with [Mugford’s] background would never be within their ranks.”

Heed said there would be an “outcry” from MLAs to the sergeant-at-arms and the Speaker “if it became known that they had someone like this within the ranks of that security detail in the legislature in Victoria.” The sergeant-at-arms is responsible for legislature security.