Southern Alberta's top court cases to watch for in 2023

High-profile decisions and trials are set to take place in southern Alberta in 2023, including two related to pandemic restrictions.

CBC court reporter Meghan Grant gives her list of cases to follow in the coming year

Meghan Grant CBC News Posted: Dec 22, 2022 8:29 PM EST | Last Updated: January 2, 2023

Law enforcement prepares to approach a line of vehicles blocking a Canada-U.S. border crossing in southern Alberta in February during protests at the Coutts crossing. (David Rae/CBC)

Pandemic-related discord affectedcommunities across the province and issues connected to government-imposed restrictionscontinue to make headlines.

In 2023, a judge will release her decision on whether Albertans' rights were violated by pandemic health restrictions.

At theCouttsborder, four men are accused of infiltrating the blockades and protests that took place in February. Police allege they had more sinister intentions than blocking border traffic. The men will go on trial in June.

In Calgary, two trials are set to take place in September and October. One involves a man who was charged with organized crime offences in the weeksbefore his wife was shot and killed. In the second case, a Calgary man will go on trialaccused of committing acts of terrorism in Syria before returning to Canada.

Here are some of the major cases CBC court reporter Meghan Grant will be keeping an eye on in 2023.

Pandemic restrictions lawsuit

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney, left, and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's former chief medical officer of health. The province and Hinshaw are named in a court challenge where a group of plaintiffs are seeking to have a judge declare Alberta's public health restrictions unconstitutional. (CBC)

PARTIES: Ingram vs the Province of Alberta and the Chief Medical Officer of Health.
CASE: A group of Albertans seeking to have the province's public health measures deemed unconstitutional.
NEXT STEP: Written decision expected in first quarter of 2023.
LAWYERS: Jeffrey Rath, Leighton Grey (plaintiffs), Nick Parker (Alberta government).

Evidence has been called and arguments have been made in the constitutional challenge launched by a group of plaintiffs, which includes two churches and a gym. The parties are awaitng a written decision from Court of King's Bench Justice Barbara Romaine.

Lawyers for the group argued their clients' constitutional rights including limiting peoples' ability to gather for social and religious reasons were violated when the Alberta government imposed pandemic-related public health measures.

But lawyers for the government argued the province was experiencing "democracy in action in the middle of the biggest public health crisis this province has seen."

Other cases, like anti-lockdown rodeo organizerTy Northcott's, may pursue constitutional challenges depending on the outcome of theso-called Ingram decision.

Conspiracy to murder RCMP

Four individual photos of men. — From left to right: Chris Carbert, Anthony Olienick, Jerry Morin and Christopher Lysak are each accused of conspiring to murder RCMP officers near Coutts, Alta., during the border blockade and protests in February. (Carbert/Facebook, Coutts Convoy Restart/Facebook, Morin/Facebook, Instagram)

ACCUSED: Anthony Olienick, 40, Jerry Morin, 41, Chris Lysak, 48, and Chris Carbert, 45.
CHARGES: Conspiracy to commit murder, mischief to property over $5,000 and possession of a weapon.
NEXT STEP: Trial startsJune 12.
LAWYERS: Steven Johnston, Matt Dalidowicz, Aaron Rankin (Crown), Katherin Beyak (Carbert), Greg Dunn (Morin), Tonii Roulston (Olienick). Lysak unrepresented.

For weeks in late January and early February, border blockades disrupted the Coutts crossing in southern Alberta as protesters rallied against governments' pandemic-related restrictions.

More than a dozen people were arrested after RCMP seized a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in trailers at the protest site, but police believe Lysak, Olienick, Morin and Carbert were plotting a more sinister end to the protests.

Two of the men Carbert and Lysak have ties to a group with white supremacist beliefs.

All four men have been denied bail.

Organized crime and murder

A man on the phone on the left, a woman looking at the camera on the right. — Talal Fouani, left, was on bail for organized crime and money laundering charges when he was shot while sitting in his parked Bentley outside his southwest Calgary home. Fouani's wife, Nakita Baron, 31, was killed in what police have called a targeted attack. (Instagram/Nakita Baron)

ACCUSED: Talal Fouani, Belal Fouani.
CHARGES: Money laundering, proceeds of crime, organized crime.
NEXT STEP: Trial startsSept. 6.
LAWYERS: Danielle Szabo (Crown), Yoav Niv (defence).

In August, Talal Fouani and his wife were shot as they pulled out of their driveway outside their southwest Calgary home. Nakita Baron, 31, was killed. Fouani survived.

After the shooting, CBC News dug into Fouani's past and discovered that at the time of the shooting, he was out on bail awaiting trial on organized crime charges alongside his brother and sister.

The siblings were charged with money laundering and organized crime offences following a cross-border, $55-million drug bust involving Mexican cartels, according to police

Fouani's company, Fouani Equity Funds Ltd., was charged with laundering proceeds for an organized crime group.

A week after Baron was killed, a man with a lengthy criminal history was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Terrorism trial

A person dressed all in black with much of their face covered holds a rifle in one hand and a black-and-white Islamic State flag in the other, walking alone in the middle of a street in Raqqa, Syria. — A member loyal to the Islamic State waves the group's flag in Raqqa, Syria, in 2014. (Reuters)

ACCUSED: Jamal Borhot.
CHARGES: Participating in terrorist group.
NEXT STEP: Trial startsOct. 3.
LAWYERS: Kent Brown (Crown), Pawel Milczarek (defence).

Jamal Borhot is accused of travelling to Syria to join ISIS with his cousin in 2013 and 2014.

RCMP investigated for seven years, working withboththe FBI and U.S. Department of Defence. The cousins were ultimately charged in 2020 with terrorism-related offences.

Police also ran two undercover investigations between 2016 and 2020.

The trial will likely offer a rare windowinto a years-long police terrorism investigation.

In 2022, Jamal's cousin Hussein Sobhe Borhot pleaded guilty to two terrorism offences and was handed a 12-year sentence.

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