calgary courts kept busy with a variety of cases during 2024, from orgies to a battle over medical assistance in dying
a review of the city's high-profile cases from the past year
4 minute read
exterior of the calgary courts centre in downtown calgary, as seen on monday, march 11, 2024.
jim wells/postmedia
sex parties; elder abuse; a calgary father who wanted his daughter’s killer to burn in hell; and one dad desperately trying to save his daughter’s life. those were just some of the issues calgary judges had to deal with during another busy year in our city’s courtrooms in 2024.
from determining whether a northwest calgary resident who held biweekly orgies in his home was in violation of the city’s land-use bylaw, to the sentencing of a woman who left her elderly father on a basement floor for two days in a soiled diaper, an angry dad who said there was a special place in hell for his daughter’s killer, and a woman suffering from autism seeking access to medical assistance in dying (maid), judges had a varied number of matters to deal with.
in may, justice nick devlin found the bylaw prohibiting running organized social clubs out of residential homes did not violate silver springs resident matthew mills’ rights under the charter.
but the calgary court of king’s bench judge also said mills was free to host group sex parties as part of his “ethical non-monogamy” lifestyle, as long as it wasn’t under the guise of a social organization.
mills operated orgies under club menage and participants had to purchase a membership to take part. he also sold tickets to the sex parties for about $30 to cover the cost of preparing his residence and providing snacks and refreshments to guests, leading the city to issue a stop order under the bylaw.
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mills’ lawyer, brendan miller, later said his client would continue to have the parties, but make sure he complied with the city’s land-use guidelines.
in april, justice indra maharaj sentenced tara picard to a community-based conditional sentence of two years, which included eight months of house arrest, to be followed by two years of probation on charges of assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life to her 77-year-old dad.
maharaj accepted a joint submission from crown prosecutor donna spaner and defence counsel shaun leochko for a non-custodial punishment, noting the 300 hours of community service picard was willing to commit to showed she was remorseful for her conduct.
in january, calgary dad edwin gagnon spoke at the sentencing hearing of his daughter’s admitted killer, vladimir ngbangbo soki.
soki had earlier pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in the march 23, 2021, bludgeoning and stabbing death of sharilyn shelley ann gagnon.
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“vladimir, when my daughter met you, sharilyn called me and told me that she thought she met someone that was going to help her turn her life around,” the father said, addressing the killer directly.
“instead, you took and fed her more drugs,” he said.
“there is a special place waiting for you in hell.”
court of king’s bench justice robert hall handed soki a 10-year prison term, minus credit for so-called dead time on remand, noting his lengthy criminal record included a previous assault on his victim.
perhaps the saddest case to hit the calgary court dockets in 2024 was an attempt by a city father to block his 27-year-old daughter from ending her life through maid.
the dad was granted a temporary injunction the day before the woman was scheduled to go through with the procedure on feb. 1.
but almost two months later, calgary court of king’s bench justice colin feasby said preventing the woman’s death by assisted suicide would cause her irreparable harm. feasby lifted the temporary injunction but stayed his ruling for 30 days to allow the father to appeal.
the dad did, but in june abandoned his appeal after his daughter stopped eating in a bid to starve herself to death.
lawyers for both sides have declined to reveal whether the woman followed through with the medical procedure as it is a private issue between her and her doctors.
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calgary fire department and calgary police at the aftermath of a fire at a home on douglas ridge green s.e. on friday, february 18, 2022. the body of chad kowalchuk, 53, was found inside.
azin ghaffari/postmedia file
there were also a plethora of high-profile murder trials in 2024, from three men on trial for the beating death of a douglasdale resident who was found hog-tied in his burned-out residence, to a gangland-style, drive-by double murder of two drug dealers slain in a hail of bullets outside a northeast calgary lounge, and the murders of mohamed shaikh and abas ibrahim in a botched drug deal.
three convicted offenders — ronald abraham for second-degree murder, and robert sims and justin boucher for manslaughter — will face sentencing in the new year in douglasdale resident chad kowalchuk’s death. jaskaran singh sidhu and prabhjyot bhatti have already appealed their convictions in the drive-by killings of jasdeep singh and japneet malhi, and gerald david benn must serve a minimum 15 years of his life sentence for the fatal shootings of shaikh and ibrahim.
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