Alberta
Edmonton Police charge 19 year old with trafficking gun used to kill Constables Jordan and Ryan
From the Edmonton Police Service
Charges laid in line of duty deaths
The EPS Firearms Investigations Unit (FIU) has completed their investigation into the origins of the firearm used in the Mar. 16, 2023, officer deaths.
Following the shooting deaths of Const. Brett Ryan and Const. Travis Jordan, FIU launched an investigation into the origins of the gun used by the 16-year-old male shooter.
Early in the investigation, detectives determined a bullet cartridge casing recovered from the scene of a Mar. 12, 2023, shooting at a nearby restaurant (133 Street and 114 Avenue) was forensically matched to the firearm that was recovered at the 132 Street and 114 Avenue apartment where both officers were tragically murdered. Investigators have since confirmed that the suspect in both shootings was the same.
Following several months of extensive investigation, FIU determined that Dennis Okeymow, 19, trafficked the firearm used in both shootings directly to the 16-year-old male shooter prior to Mar. 12.
On. Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, police conducted search warrants on Okeymow’s residence, vehicles and cell phone. Okeymow was arrested without incident from the residence and police seized a stolen loaded handgun, ammunition, illegal drugs, $10,000 in cash and other items indicative of drug trafficking.
Okeymow is charged with:
- manslaughter (x3) and criminal negligence causing death (x3) in relation to the deaths of Const. Ryan, Const. Jordan and the 16-year-old male shooter
- criminal negligence causing bodily harm (x2) in relation to the man injured in the restaurant shooting on Mar. 12 and the youth’s mother, who was injured during the Mar. 16 shooting
- firearms trafficking
- unauthorized possession of a firearm
- possession of a restricted firearm with ammunition
- ·other drug trafficking related charges
“In my 20 years in this career, this is the most complex and tragic file I have worked on,” says Staff Sergeant Eric Stewart with the EPS Guns and Gangs Section. “It’s heartbreaking that the trafficking of a firearm has led to multiple deaths and life-altering injuries.”
“The trauma suffered by the impacted families as a result of this one simple transaction is unthinkable.”
FIU would like to thank the RCMP, the Calgary Police Service (CPS) and the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) and the many dedicated members of the EPS who assisted with this investigation.
Background information
On Sunday, Mar. 12, 2023, at approximately 12:25 a.m., a lone male suspect entered a pizza restaurant in the area of 133 Street and 114 Avenue carrying a firearm. The suspect shot a male employee and then fled the location. EMS attended and transported the injured 55-year-old male to hospital with serious life-threatening injuries.
At approximately 12:47 a.m. on Thursday, Mar. 16, 2023, Const. Travis Jordan and Const. Brett Ryan responded to a family dispute call in an apartment complex near 114 Avenue and 132 Street.
When the two officers arrived, they were met by a 55-year-old female complainant outside of the complex. The two officers then responded to the suite where she resided with her 73-year-old male partner and their 16-year-old son.
Immediately upon arriving at the suite, both constables were shot multiple times by the youth and were immediately incapacitated. The youth then reportedly shot his mother before turning the firearm on himself, taking his own life. The father was not physically injured during the shootings. Neither officer discharged their firearm.
Following 911 calls by multiple reporters, additional police and EMS arrived. One of the injured officers was transported in a police vehicle to hospital, while the other injured officer was taken by ambulance. The female complainant was taken by ambulance to hospital. Soon after arriving at the hospital, both officers were declared deceased.
On Saturday, Mar. 18, 2023, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Edmonton conducted autopsies on both officers. In both cases the cause of death was confirmed to be gunshot wounds with the manner of death being homicide.
On Mar. 22, 2023, the Edmonton Medical Examiner confirmed that the 16-year-old male shooter’s cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head consistent with being self-inflicted.
The 55-year-old man shot in the restaurant on Mar. 12 survived, but suffered life-altering injuries. The youth’s mother continues to recover from her injuries.
Alberta
Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors
From LifeSiteNews
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.
“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.
“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”
Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.
The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”
It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”
Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”
Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.
About the proposed law, Smith said that her government believes it is “vitally important to preserve the time” kids have as a “youth.” She added that she believes this is so kids can “gain sufficient amount of knowledge, experience, and perspective so that you can fully understand who you are, who you want to be and what opportunities you may want to have as an adult before making permanent life-altering decisions related to your body.”
While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”
This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.
Alberta
Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest
From LifeSiteNews
Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.
An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.
On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.
“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.
Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.
“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”
After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.
Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.
He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.
In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”
However, defence lawyer Sarah Miller pointed out that that Pawlowski’s sermon was protected under freedom of speech, an argument that Krinke quickly dismissed.
“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.
Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.
Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.
The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.
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