high-profile cases to be resolved in calgary courts as calendar to remain busy in 2025
sentencing of negligent parents, cat killer and ex-calgary councillor among important 2025 court cases
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family of gabriel sinclair-pasqua react after parents sonya pasqua and michael sinclair pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of their 18-month-old son at the calgary courts centre on monday, dec. 9, 2024.
darren makowichuk/postmedia
parents who let their toddler son die a painful, gruesome death; an unrepentant cat killer; and the murderer of a popular banff resident. those are just a few people who will face justice in calgary courts in the new year.
the sentencings of sonya pasqua and michael sinclair for manslaughter in the death of their 18-month-old son, gabriel sinclair-pasqua, cat killer norman joseph gosselin and convicted murderer john christopher arrizza, who fatally stabbed ethan enns-goneau, will be among many high-profile cases in 2025.
along with those hearings, there will be plenty of trials scheduled for the next 12 months, as well as decisions in cases from a former politician accused of padding his expense account, to an attempted murder victim facing prosecution for money laundering.
ex-city of calgary council member joe magliocca is scheduled to learn his fate jan. 27, on charges of fraud and breach of trust by a public officer over allegations he filed false expense claims for food and drinks for other elected officials at out-of-town conferences.
among those whom magliocca claimed were beneficiaries of his largesse, but denied being present, were former mississauga mayor bonnie crombie, now leader of the ontario liberals, former edmonton mayor don iveson and ex-halifax mayor mike savage.
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former calgary city councillor joe magliocca walks with family members toward the calgary courts centre for his trial on sept. 9, 2024.
gavin young/postmedia
justice greg stirling will decide in early january whether admitted money launderer talal fouani, who survived a deadly shooting that took his wife’s life when they were ambushed outside of their southwest calgary home, has been before the courts for too long.
the calgary court of justice judge is set to rule on a charter application by fouani’s lawyer, greg dunn, on whether his right to be tried within a reasonable amount of time has been breached.
fouani’s case was already before the court when he and his wife, nakita baron, were ambushed outside their home the morning of aug. 18, 2022.
a month after stirling’s ruling, the trial of edmonton resident michael tyrel arnold is set to begin on a charge of first-degree murder in baron’s death and the attempted murder of fouani, who was shot in the face in the daytime attack.
talal fouani and nakita baron.
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in april, transplanted ontarian arrizza will face a two-day sentencing hearing on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of banff native enns-goneau.
arrizza repeatedly stabbed enns-goneau in a washroom of the dancing sasquatch bar on banff’s main drag after the victim and his friend, bobby lavery, stopped into the club for a nightcap during a night out.
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video played during arrizza’s calgary trial showed lavery heading upstairs to the bar while enns-goneau went downstairs to the men’s room, and just more than a minute later he was lying in a pool of his own blood in the hallway outside the washroom.
at issue in arrizza’s sentencing hearing is how many years he will have to remain behind bars before he can seek parole from an automatic life sentence.
ethan enns-goneau, a well-known banff resident, was stabbed to death at a local bar in the early hours of aug. 5, 2022.
supplied via postmedia calgary
lawyers are set to make sentencing submissions on jan. 17 in the case of cat-killer norman joseph gosselin, who admitted last july to abusing two of his girlfriend’s kittens, one of which he killed.
crown prosecutor samina dhalla said at the time of gosselin’s guilty pleas to animal-abuse charges that she was considering seeking a six-year sentence for the city man, depending on the results of a psychiatric assessment order by justice mike dinkel.
dhalla told court the remorseless gosselin told an inmate “his only regret was that he would have unplugged the (surveillance) camera” installed by his now former girlfriend that captured his criminal behaviour.
even more disturbing than gosselin’s conduct is that of admitted killers pasqua and sinclair in the death of their toddler son.
the pair will face a sentencing hearing march 24, after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the boy’s oct. 5, 2021, death from a brain injury caused by blunt-force head trauma and sepsis due to an untreated major burn to 33 per cent of his body.
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court heard the child suffered the severe burn on either sept. 27 or 28, and neither pasqua nor sinclair sought medical assistance for their son until the morning of oct. 5, when the mother called 911 to report the boy wasn’t breathing.
when first responders arrived, gabriel was already dead and his extremities were almost cold to the touch.
crown prosecutor carolina valenzuela told court that on sept. 28, 2021, sinclair sent a text to pasqua, which said: “we need him to heal and then we can send him off to a facility ’cause we still need him as a paycheque.”
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