Alberta
Calgary man charged with counselling suicide, extortion, child luring
News release from the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT)
Cross-Canada investigation nets Calgary online offender
Calgary… A Calgary man has been charged with a number of offences, including child luring, extortion, and counselling suicide, following a cross-Canada investigation involving ALERT and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit and the OPP’s Child Sexual Exploitation Unit (CSEU) coordinated on a six-month investigation where an Ontario girl reported she was sexually extorted and harassed online. The offences date back a period of five years when the victim was 11 years old.
The victim reported receiving unsolicited messages from an unknown suspect on various social media channels. The messages were both sexual and violent in nature. Initially the victim was pressured into sending sexually explicit photos, and when the victim relented, the suspect allegedly threatening to kill the victim’s family. Further, the suspect coerced the victim to attempt suicide.
The investigation identified an Alberta-based suspect and a Calgary home was searched on October 21, 2021.
“While this case highlights the borderless nature of these crimes, it also sends a message to those who exploit children about the tenacity and collaboration exhibited by Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) investigators across Canada. I am grateful to my partners in Calgary ICE who hit the ground running and put an end to the offender’s heinous acts. The courage and resilience of this victim is an inspiration to all,” said Detective Constable Cory Wilson of the OPP CSEU.
“This is a heart-breaking case with the victim enduring years of abuse and suffering. It comes at a great relief to make an arrest, and will undoubtedly help in the victim’s healing process,” said Detective Krista Mapplebeck, ALERT ICE.
Brady Provost, 28 years old, was arrested and charged with:
- Counselling suicide;
- Extortion;
- Intimidation;
- Child luring;
- Harassing telecommunications;
- Uttering threats;
- Making child pornography;
- Distribution of child pornography;
- Possession of child pornography;
- Accessing child pornography; and,
- Making explicit materials available to a child.
A number of electronic devices were seized from Provost’s Calgary home and will be subject to expert forensic analysis. Police are exploring the possibility of identifying other victims.
Anyone with information about these investigations, or any child exploitation offence is encouraged to contact local police or cybertip.ca.
From the Canadian Energy Centre
By Cody Ciona
‘Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests’
Billions of investment in new data centres is still expected in Alberta despite the province’s electric system operator placing a temporary limit on new large-load grid connections, said Carson Kearl, lead data centre analyst for Enverus Intelligence Research.
Kearl cited NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s estimate from earlier this year that building a one-gigawatt data centre costs between US$60 billion and US$80 billion.
That implies the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)’s 1.2 gigawatt temporary limit would still allow for up to C$130 billion of investment.
“It’s got the potential to be extremely impactful to the Alberta power sector and economy,” Kearl said.
Importantly, data centre operators can potentially get around the temporary limit by ‘bringing their own power’ rather than drawing electricity from the existing grid.
In Alberta’s deregulated electricity market – the only one in Canada – large energy consumers like data centres can build the power supply they need by entering project agreements directly with electricity producers.
According to the AESO, there are 30 proposed data centre projects across the province.
The total requested power load for these projects is more than 16 gigawatts, roughly four gigawatts more than Alberta’s demand record in January 2024 during a severe cold snap.
For comparison, Edmonton’s load is around 1.4 gigawatts, the AESO said.
“Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests,” CEO Aaron Engen said in a statement.
“Because connecting all large loads seeking access would impair grid reliability, we established a limit that preserves system integrity while enabling timely data centre development in Alberta.”
As data centre projects come to the province, so do jobs and other economic benefits.
“You have all of the construction staff associated; electricians, engineers, plumbers, and HVAC people for all the cooling tech that are continuously working on a multi-year time horizon. In the construction phase there’s a lot of spend, and that is just generally good for the ecosystem,” said Kearl.
Investment in local power infrastructure also has long-term job implications for maintenance and upgrades, he said.
“Alberta is a really exciting place when it comes to building data centers,” said Beacon AI CEO Josh Schertzer on a recent ARC Energy Ideas podcast.
“It has really great access to natural gas, it does have some excess grid capacity that can be used in the short term, it’s got a great workforce, and it’s very business-friendly.”
The unaltered reproduction of this content is free of charge with attribution to the Canadian Energy Centre.
A new video from the Alberta Next panel looks at whether Alberta should stop relying on Ottawa to collect our provincial income taxes. Quebec already does it, and Alberta already collects corporate taxes directly. Doing the same for personal income taxes could mean better tax policy, thousands of new jobs, and less federal interference. But it would take time, cost money, and require building new systems from the ground up.
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