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jonnywakefield.bsky.social
Edmonton Journal/Sun reporter on the justice beat, covering courts, crime, policing and corrections. American who moved to Canada, cat dad and (hopefully not totally insufferable) distance runner.
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Updated with more details. Speaking in absolutes is usually a bad idea for a journalist, but safe to say a dangerous offender designation for a fraudster has few if any precedents

submitted 7 hours ago • 1 comment

Quite a news day for injunctions

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

NEW: Alberta Court of King’s Bench grants injunction against Alberta Government's ban on gender-affirmative care for minors saying “that irreparable harm will be caused if the Ban comes into force.”

submitted 8 hours ago • 2 comments

NEWS: Edmonton romance fraudster Jeff Kent will be locked up indefinitely after a judge deemed him a dangerous offender. Kent struck up fake relationships with 5 women and defrauded them of $177k. Judge found no evidence he'll stop. One of the few times someone has been DO'd for financial crime

submitted 11 hours ago • 0 comments

The official Phil Collins Instagram account is just a really high quality follow

submitted 11 hours ago • 1 comment

New from me: an Alberta judge is facing a judicial complaint for briefly jailing a 36-week pregnant woman accused of income assistance fraud who showed up late for court. Refused to speak to release til end of day, leaving her in suspense about whether she’d be sent to remand.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

New from me: an Alberta judge is facing a judicial complaint for briefly jailing a 36-week pregnant woman accused of income assistance fraud who showed up late for court. Refused to speak to release til end of day, leaving her in suspense about whether she’d be sent to remand.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

No they're local police who investigate sex offences against children, why is this site like this

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

"A commercial food processing company has been ordered to pay $330,000 after one of its workers became trapped in an Edmonton smokehouse and died." www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/art...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

City council is beginning its public hearing on the proposed deal with OEG and the province (event park, Village at Ice District land work, etc.). A fairly long list of speakers have signed up. For what it's worth, at this point the supporters outnumber the opponents. #yeg #yegcc

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

If anyone wants approximately four minutes of very exciting sportsing, Faith Kipyegon is about to try to be the first woman to break the four minute mile www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZNH...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Oh yeah probably should have clarified: not that ICE Great week for posting over here

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

"On Tuesday, the ICE unit went to the school in southwest Edmonton in an attempt to arrest the teacher, but they have reason to believe he may have left the country." edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/e...

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

From court today: A man has admitted to terrorizing women in a north Edmonton neighbourhood two years ago, pleading guilty to crimes including sexually assaulting a stranger at knifepoint, ransacking a neighbour’s home and amassing a collection of stolen underwear edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/v...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Interesting note: was in court today and the justice said they're moving away from calling pre-sentence reports for Indigenous offenders "Gladue reports." Didn't go into why but presumably because tons of people have that surname and it's not a great association.

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

"Does the fact that we accept immigrants from many different cultures make our culture stronger or weaker?" 🟢 Stronger: 33% (-25) 🔴 Weaker: 32% (+3) 🟡 Neither: 28% (+18) (% Change With 2002) canadianpolling.substack.com/p/support-fo...

submitted 2 days ago • 7 comments

“A controversial diagnosis that Alberta officials say they don’t recognize as a cause of death (excited delirium) is cited numerous times in the autopsy report for a man who died after being forcibly restrained by Edmonton police, the IJF has learned.” www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/art...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

City of Edmonton says starting July 1, no more photo radar in playground zones. Press release says because of provincial restrictions, continuing enforcement is "no longer financially sustainable." City says it's redirecting resources into "physical upgrades" and "creative solutions."

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

From yesterday, after the lights went out on the province's panel announcement: Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next survey asks whether province should withhold social services for immigrants. W/ @jack-farrell.bsky.social @reportrix.bsky.social #ableg #abpoli www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Can't imagine "third place behind the NDP in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills" is the result the separatists were looking for

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

The most European of the non-European countries

submitted 4 days ago • 6 comments

Hard to top this for a vacation day 1: got a private tour of the bomber museum in Nanton while on our way to Waterton. It wasn’t open but the manager saw me peering through the window at the Lancaster and let me in.

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Good lord, did not see this yesterday globalnews.ca/news/1122919...

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

Interesting, sad story from colleague Cindy Tran, on why men are dying young in central Edmonton edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

For the morning crowd

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

"An Alberta judge has found a high-profile track-and-field coach guilty of five criminal charges relating to historic sexual abuse of young athletes four decades ago, describing the accused as 'an adult in authority using a child for their sexual gratification'" edmontonjournal.com/news/canadia...

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

ICYMI, fascinating case that pulled back the curtain on Abdullah Shah/Carmen Pervez, one of Edmonton’s most notorious crime figures

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Summer in Alberta: wildfire smoke, blue-green algae and elevated levels of fecal bacteria 🥲

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

BREAKING: A man accused of starting a slew of arson fires in Edmonton's Alberta Avenue neighbourhood — including at the behest of a notorious landlord (now dead) — has been found guilty of setting the majority of the blazes edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/e...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

AHS lawsuit: Mentzelopoulos seeks expedited ruling on the legality of her firing edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Between 2002 and 2011, 165 Canadians - 158 military personnel and 7 civilians - died in Afghanistan, including 4 Canadian soldiers killed by American friendly fire. Let us remember them - even if our erstwhile allies would prefer to forget or ridicule their service and sacrifice. #cdnpoli

submitted 16 days ago • 8 comments

Not a comment on the outcome either way but we've had trial by jury for easily over 1,000 years

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments