Former Wildrose, UCP politician Derek Fildebrandt charged with uttering threats

Derek Fildebrandt (FILE PHOTO)

Former conservative politician and current Western Standard publisher Derek Fildebrandt has been criminally charged with uttering threats after an incident that occurred outside his home this spring.

Calgary police confirm Fildebrandt has been charged with four counts of uttering threats against a group of young teenagers.

Four youths aged 13 and 14 were confronted while standing outside his residence shortly before 9 p.m. on April 13, according to police, and were allegedly then chased with a vehicle and threatened after they fled.

Police say a neighbour intervened.

According to police, the teens had been on their way to a convenience store and stopped where they did to wait on a friend but were threatened because it was believed they'd vandalized the property.

Fildebrandt, known in politics for his time with the Wildrose and United Conservative parties, says via the Western Standard he found vandals damaging his property and confronted them in a non-physical manner, as "every citizen has a right to do."

"I confronted them and told them — loudly — to stay off of my property," he wrote.

"I called the police in order for them to give the vandals a talking-to and not have charges placed against them. To avoid the consequences of vandalizing my property, these people concocted a story to the police that I had threatened them and — outrageously — even chased them with a shotgun. What they claimed was a shotgun, was in fact my walking cane, which I have used since a motorcycle accident in September.

"Because these people could not tell the difference between a walking cane and a shotgun, they believed I threatened them."

Fildebrandt says "relatives of the vandals" came to his home later to threaten him.

He also says he was repeatedly "denied the basic right to have a lawyer present for any questioning."

"It was decided that I had somehow been in the wrong to yell at vandals to get off my property, simply because they could not tell the difference between a walking cane and a shotgun," he wrote.

"What was not wrong it seems, were the vandals destroying and stealing my property, and those that threatened to attack me in the presence of my family."