ARTICLES

On the morning of August 16, 2022, the Medicine Hat Police Service responded to a serious assault on the riverbank of the South Saskatchewan River in Strathcona Park. As a result of the investigation, Andrew Beaudoin (32 years of age) of Medicine Hat was arrested and charged with the following offences.

• Aggravated Assault
• Possession of a Weapon Dangerous to the public x 2
• Breach of Release Order x 2

Beaudoin was held for Judicial Interim Release Hearing, where he was remanded into custody pending his next court appearance on August 23^rd, 2022

Staff Sergeant Jason Graham

Criminal Investigation Section

One person was arrested and over $100,000 worth of drugs was seized after a Medicine Hat hotel room was searched.

ALERT Medicine Hat’s organized crime team and Medicine Hat Police Service teamed up to make the seizure and arrest on August 11, 2022. Criminal intelligence was shared between the two partner agencies concerning suspected drug trafficking activity in the region.

A search warrant executed at a hotel in Ross Glen that resulted in the following items being seized:

• 242 grams of fentanyl;
• 252 grams of methamphetamine; and
• 423 grams of cocaine.

The drugs have an estimated street value of $106,000.

“Our agencies work in tandem to keep Medicine Hat safe and take harmful drugs off the street. This is a large amount of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine to take out of circulation, and in doing so also hold a drug dealer accountable,” said Staff Sergeant Ryan Thorburn, ALERT Medicine Hat.

Mathew Hillier was arrested and the 37-year-old man was charged with:

• Possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking;
• Possession of stolen property;
• Obstructing a peace officer; and
• Failure to comply with a release order.

Hillier is scheduled to appear in court on August 18, 2022.

Members of the public who suspect drug or gang activity in their community can call local police, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Crime Stoppers is always anonymous.

ALERT was established and is funded by the Alberta Government and is a compilation of the province’s most sophisticated law enforcement resources committed to tackling serious and organized crime.

On the early morning hours of August 16, 2022, the Medicine Hat Police Service responded to a report of a serious assault located at a campsite on the riverbank of the South Saskatchewan River in Strathcona Park.  As a result of this incident, a 19-year-old male was transported to the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital where he remains with serious, nonlife threatening injuries.  

The Medicine Hat Police Service’s Major Crimes Unit is currently investigating this matter and if you have any information that can assist, please contact the Medicine Hat Police Service at 1-403-529-8481.

On August 13^th at approximately 1:30 a.m. police responded to the area of Ross Glen RD SE and Ross Haven AVE SE for a report of two suspicious males, with one male observed brandishing a handgun. Information provided to Medicine Hat 911 was that one of the males pulled a hand gun from his waistband and pointed it at a passing car after a brief verbal exchange with the occupants of that vehicle.

Upon arrival police located two males matching the provided descriptions in the parking lot of the Ross Glen water park. Both males were challenged by attending police and taken into immediate custody. 27 year-old Jonah Perrin was found in possession of a loaded 9mm Glock pistol with an additional loaded magazine on his person.

Perrin was lodged for a bail hearing which was conducted later in the day on August 14^th. Perrin was released with several pre-trial conditions prohibiting him from attending the area of Ross Glen water park, possessing any firearms or other weapons and to surrender to police any additional firearms he may possess, not to associate with the second male (not charged in this event) who was present at the time of the offences.

Perrin’s next court date is Sept 8^th in Medicine Hat.

Charges Laid:

90(1) CC: Carry Concealed Weapon

93(1)(C) CC: Possess Firearm in unauthorized Place

95 CC: Possess Loaded Firearm

88(1) CC: Posses Weapon Dangerous to Public

87(1) CC: Pointing a Firearm

86(1) CC: Careless Use of a Firearm

*The vehicle and occupant(s) involved in this event have yet to be identified.

On International Women’s Day the Medicine Hat Police Service (MHPS) pledged to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of individuals in the community (Medicine Hat & surrounding area) who lead, inspire, and motivate women and work to break the bias towards advancing gender equity. Each month the MHPS, in partnership with the Medicine Hat Police Association, selects a local individual(s) to highlight and celebrate as a” Be The Change” award recipient. The “Be the Change” award recognizes and celebrates the achievements of individuals who are catalysts for change in our community, and are working to advance women professionally and personally.

This month, Michelle Campbell has been chosen as the recipient of the MHPS “Be the Change Award.” Michelle is the epitome of ‘if it doesn’t exist… create it!’ She steps up when she sees a need and will never back down from something because it will take some effort and coordination. Michelle amazes us all with her ability to schedule and make the most of her time being a wife to a local business owner, mother to three very athletic children and an education assistant working for MHCBE at McCoy high school. Whether it is a late-night email or a phone call while she is chauffeuring kids from sport to sport, Michelle is always thinking about how to improve the landscape and equality of athletics in our community.

Michelle is the president of the Medicine Hat Minor Softball Association and among other attributes, she is admired by many for her determination when it comes to gender equality in female sports, especially softball. The gender inequality conversation in professional sports is something we have all heard about, but Michelle is taking on the challenge at a grass roots level, along with a dedicated group of like-minded volunteers. Through petitioning the City of Medicine Hat to ease the ball diamond crunch or working to make the diamonds we currently use safer and better equipped for female athletes, Michelle is dedicated to improving the facilities and association for future generations. With the extreme growth the Medicine Hat Minor Softball Association has seen, she wanted to keep the predominately female sport growing and empowering the younger generations of female athletes and coaches.

The Medicine Hat Minor Softball program travel teams have seen massive growth which has not been done without hard work and dedication. The program was once struggling to fill three teams in 2017, and now surges with eight teams in 2022. With growth of the Thunder program, Michelle discovered a need in Southern Alberta for a developmental softball series to handle the additional teams in the program. Michelle was then a driving force behind the creation of the Southern Alberta Softball Series, which has seen four age divisions compete in three weekends of tournament play in Medicine Hat, Calgary, and Lethbridge. This series not only impacted 50 young female athletes in Medicine Hat but has also impacted an additional 150 young female athletes across Southern Alberta: ranging in age from 9 to 17 years old.

In addition to being at the helm of softball in Medicine Hat, Michelle has been actively involved with the Medicine Hat Panthers Track and Field club since 2015.  During this time, the club has grown from 19 kids and one coach, which trained for 10 weeks/year on the old shale track behind Cresent Heights High School (CHHS), to 200+ athletes and 20+ coaches who have the option to train year-round on the new track and field facilities at the eight lane Rotary Track and indoor season at the Family Leisure Centre. With the mandate to encourage athletes to participate and develop excellence in Track and Field while maintaining an emphasis on multi sport athletes. One of the first members of the club was Olympian, Sage Watson, who has become a great role model and inspiration for all the athletes.  Michelle is very proud of the top-notch club and how many awesome female coaches and athletes we have from a cross section of multi sport disciplines.

You can either choose to inspire others by your words or by your actions. Michelle has chosen to inspire others by her actions and has always strived to do what is best for the organizations in which she volunteers. Through her many hours, tears, and sleepless nights, many will never know, Michelle has made her mark on our community. Michelle has set a standard of what a strong female role model looks like. They say that a volunteer doesn’t necessarily have the time, they just have the heart! One thing Michelle is so proud of to this day, is the number of female athletes who have returned as coaches and mentors as part of the program. Michelle, thank you for paving the way for so many female athletes, coaches and for advocating tirelessly to equal the playing field.

The Medicine Hat Police Service is requesting public assistance to locate a missing Medicine Hat man, Rajesh JOHN (age 35 years.).

Rajesh is an avid fisherman and vlogger; he has his own media channels that he posts to (normally using the handle, ‘vloggerjohn’). Mr. JOHN left his residence at 3:30 AM on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, and advised family members he was heading towards, ‘the mountains’ via Lethbridge, AB on a vlogging/ fishing expedition.

Other than a communication received just before 8:00 AM on August 3, 2022, Rajesh JOHN’s family & friends have not heard from him. His cellphone has helped confirm his last location to be in the Grassy Lake, AB region at that time.

Rajesh was expected home late on August 4^th, 2022 but has not arrived. He was driving a white, 2013 Ford Focus with Alberta Plate: CHV8958. A photo of Rajesh John is attached.

Anyone with information on the location of Rajesh JOHN or his vehicle are asked to contact the local police authority of that region or call the Medicine Hat Police Service at (403)529-8481.

Media contact:

Patrol Staff Sergeant
Medicine Hat Police Service
Ph: 403-529-8461

It's great to see so many citizens of Medicine Hat out enjoying the trails and roadways using a variety of means of transportation including power assisted / electric bicycles, mopeds, electric scooters, and mobility aids. Taking advantage of these alternative means can certainly help offset the world of fluctuating fuel prices and provide new ways to explore our beautiful city.

To help clear up some of the confusion surrounding the use of these items on our sidewalks, multi-use trails and roadways a list of the regulations and rules of the road for each of the device is listed below.

Power /Electric bicycles (e-bikes)

The Alberta e-bike regulations are as follows:

• Output can not exceed 500 watts and a top speed of 32 km/hr
• Required equipment includes head / tail lamps, reflectors, brakes, and horn and fully operable pedals
• No driver’s license, vehicle insurance or vehicle registrations is required
• Approved bicycle or motorcycle helmet is required
• Operators must be 12 years of age or older

The rules of the road for e-bikes are as follows:

• E-bikes are not allowed on sidewalks and are only allowed to be ridden on roadways and the multi-use trail system
• Must be ridden on the far-right side of a road, unless making a left-hand turn
• When riding on a one-way street in an urban area, it must be operated as near as possible to either curb or edge of the road.
• Anyone under the age of 16 is prohibited from carrying any passengers on the bike.

Mopeds

A moped is a vehicle that is propelled by an electric motor or an engine that has a displacement of 50 cubic centimeters and is a limited speed motorcycle with a maximum speed of 70 km/h and must have a minimum seat height of 650mm. Some vehicles may appear to be “mopeds”, however, if they exceed the engine size of 50 cc or speed of 70 km/h, then they do not fall into the moped classification and are, instead, considered motorcycles.

The regulations for mopeds are:

• Minimum Class 7 driver's license required
• Minimum driving age is 14 years
• Insurance and registration required
• Motorcycle helmet required

The rules of the road for mopeds are:

• The bike must be ridden on the far right side of a road, unless making a left-hand turn.
• When riding on a one-way street in an urban area, it must be operated as near as possible to either curb or edge of the road.
• Anyone under the age of 16 is prohibited from carrying any passengers on the bike
• A power bicycle must be equipped with the following gear: headlamp, tail lamp, brake lamp, reflectors, brakes, horn, muffler, and mirror.
• Must stay on the roadway and cannot be ridden on sidewalks or on the multi-use trail system

Electric Scooters

In May 2022, Medicine Hat City Council approved the implementation of a one-year electric scooter (e-scooter) pilot program with Bird Canada in certain areas of the city.

The local rules of operating the Bird e-scooters are as follows:

• Operators must be 16 years of age or older to rent
• They are governed to 20km/h and less
• No doubling allowed
• Helmets are not required but recommended
• E-scooters are allowed on paved trails within Medicine Hat and on designated roadways and bike lanes. E-scooters are not permitted on sidewalks downtown, at City Hall, in skate parks, on City buses or outside City limits. Download the Bird Canada map for the entire directory of permitted e-scooter use areas.

Mobility Aids

A mobility aid is device used to facilitate the transport, in a normal seated orientation, of a person with a physical disability. A person on a mobility aid is subject to the same rules as a pedestrian and is considered a pedestrian.

The regulations are:

• No license required
• There is no minimum age
• No registration or insurance is required
• No helmet required but is recommended

Because a person on a mobility aid is considered a pedestrian, they must operate on a sidewalk and use crosswalks when crossing streets.

For more information contact:

Acting Sgt. Kurtis Ladouceur
Traffic Unit
Medicine Hat Police Service
Ph: 403-529-8471

During the evening of July 31, 2022, ten transit bus shelters were vandalized causing an estimated $25,000 in total damages to City property. The glass on bus shelters located in the areas of College Dr, South Ridge Dr, Dunmore Rd, and 13 Ave SE were smashed by unknown person. The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information that could assist in the investigation is asked to contact the Medicine Hat Police Service at 403-529-8481 or tips can be submitted via the MHPS website (mhps.ca) or mobile app. The MHPS mobile app is free to download and is available for both Apple and android devices.

Media Contact:
Sgt. Brian Bohrn
Community Support Unit
Medicine Hat Police Service
Ph: 403-581-1056

On International Women’s Day, the Medicine Hat Police Service (MHPS) pledged to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of individuals in the community (Medicine Hat & surrounding area) who lead, inspire, and motivate women and who work to break the bias towards advancing gender equity.

This month as our community is celebrating our western heritage through our annual Stampede, we are celebrating a remarkable cowgirl, Brittney Chomistek as our July recipient of “Be the Change Award.”  Brittney was born and raised northeast of Medicine Hat on land that has been in her family for four generations. Her family on both sides, have always been involved in rodeo, whether as a competitor, promoter, rodeo queen, committee member or spectator. Brittney and her family have been long time volunteers at the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede she is one of the many that is working to change the landscape and demographics of the organization to this day.

In 2016, Brittney was crowned the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede Queen and throughout her reign she focused on being a role model for young girls as well as an ambassador for the western way of life. As the Medicine Hat Stampede royalty, she had the unique opportunity to collaborate with community organizations and be an ambassador for the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede as well as the City of Medicine Hat. At the Canadian Finals Rodeo in Edmonton Brittney competed and won the title of 2018 Miss Rodeo Canada. Making Chomistek and her mother, Shelley Sodero the first mother-daughter duo to both hold the prestige title. Throughout her reign as Miss Rodeo Canada, Brittney toured extensively as Canadian rodeo’s most active ambassador; meeting, greeting, riding, and carrying the Canadian flag in countless arenas in front of thousands of people. Using her unique platform to encourage and inspire young girls as she visited communities across Canada, United States and Australia.

Brittney recently graduated with her Bachelor of Education and has a goal of teaching grade one. From a young age Brittney has volunteered with numerous local organizations. She was named the Southeast Alberta United Way Youth Ambassador in 2017 and said that it was “an honour” to the spokesperson for such an amazing organization. These duties complement Brittney’s desire to make a difference with children, as many of the United Way programs focus on helping vulnerable families through difficult times. Two of her favourite projects include” Tools for School” and “Brown Bag Lunch,” both of which assist children of economically challenged families to receive proper tools and nourishment to be successful in school. She also has volunteered her time doing agricultural classroom presentations, as an athletic coach, and founding the Dunmore Equestrian Centre Little Britches Rodeo Sweetheart queen competition. The program allows girls between the ages of 9-12 years old to compete in public speaking, modeling, and horsemanship. Brittney’s focus was to create a competition that will allow young girls to compete in a supportive and learning environment. Girls in the competition come out with strong mentors and friends that will carry them into future endeavours.

We are excited to see the lives she will impact as she embarks on her teaching career and her continued work in the community. Currently in her spare time you will find Brittney around the rodeo arena with camera in hand or in front of the camera showing off her unique style on @canadiancowgirlcloset Instagram page. From vintage to quirky, from the big city to the rodeo arena Brittney encourages women to show off their unique styles and personalities through clothing. The empowerment of women is a great responsibility of all women, and the world becomes a better place when women do not feel the hardships to exist. Congratulations Brittney on being a woman of change!

Two people have been charged following a fentanyl seizure in Southeast Alberta. ALERT seized nearly 700 grams of suspected fentanyl powder in Brooks, Alta.

The fentanyl seizure was completed after ALERT Medicine Hat’s organized crime team executed a planned traffic stop in Brooks on July 6, 2022. Two suspects were arrested at the time.

Following the vehicle stop, a home in Empress, Alta. was searched where additional drugs were located. In total, ALERT seized what amounts to approximately $135,000 worth of drugs, including;

• 679 grams of suspected fentanyl;
• 1,110 illicit prescription pills;
• 1 gram of cocaine;
• Suspected GHB; and
• $15,400 cash.

Edward Nicholson, a 55-year-old from Empress, is charged with possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, possession of proceeds of crime, and breach of a release order.

Stephan Devonshire, a 49-year-old from Medicine Hat, is charged with possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, possession of drugs, and possession of proceeds of crime.

Nicholson remains in custody while Devonshire is scheduled to appear in court on July 27, 2022.

The seizure and arrests a seven-month investigation that also involved the assistance of Medicine Hat Police Service, Calgary Police Service, Oyen RCMP, Brooks RCMP, and Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

Members of the public who suspect drug or gang activity in their community can call local police, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Crime Stoppers is always anonymous.

ALERT was established and is funded by the Alberta Government and is a compilation of the province’s most sophisticated law enforcement resources committed to tackling serious and organized crime.

Media Contact:
Sgt. David Gornisiewicz
MHPS Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT)
Ph: 403-581-8115