Alberta
15 year old girl rescued from Edmonton based sex trafficers

News Release from Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) and Edmonton RCMP
Edmonton youth rescued from human trafficking
A 15-year-old girl has been rescued from human trafficking and ALERT has charged her perpetrators. Three Edmonton men have been charged with a total of 35 criminal offences.
ALERT’s Human Trafficking and Counter Exploitation unit has arrested three suspects for human trafficking with the most recent arrest coming on June 29, 2021. The suspects allegedly procured the youth for sexual services.
The arrests came following a two-month investigation when the Edmonton Police Service first received information about a 15-year-old girl being sexually exploited. The investigation revealed the youth was first groomed online, which escalated to nude photography, and eventually she was steered into the sex trade.
“Perpetrators are very skilled at grooming and manipulating their victims with gifts, money, affection; but it’s all a mirage. What this survivor endured was appalling and represents a heart-breaking set of circumstances,” Acting Staff Sergeant Chris Hayes, ALERT.
The survivor is receiving support and specialized care resources. Survivors of sex trafficking can call 211 for help.
Tyson Shaw, 24, Islam Montasser, 26, and Amir Idris, 30, have been jointly charged with:
- Trafficking a person under the age of 18;
- Material benefit;
- Procuring a child;
- Advertise sex services;
- Arrange sexual offences against a child;
- Invitation to sexual touching;
- Making child pornography;
- Distribute child pornography;
- Possession of child pornography; and
- Administer a noxious substance.
Additionally, Shaw has been charged with:
- Sexual assault of a person under 18;
- Sexual contact with a child;
- Sexual counsel of a child; and
- Indecent exposure to a person under 16.
Montasser was also charged with sexual assault of a person under 18.
Anyone with information about this investigation, or any human trafficking offence is encouraged to contact local police or Crime Stoppers.
ALERT’s Human Trafficking Counter Exploitation unit investigates domestic human trafficking involving sexual exploitation occurring in Alberta. The integrated unit also works in collaboration with agencies and organizations involved in rescuing and supporting survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
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.
Alberta
‘Tragic accident’ blamed for recent death of giraffe at Calgary Zoo

The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo says a “tragic accident” led to the recent death of an adult Masai giraffe. A statement from the zoo says the female giraffe named Emara died May 19 after tangling one of her horns on a cable surrounding her enclosure. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo-Sergei Belskey
Calgary
The Calgary Zoo says a “tragic accident” led to the recent death of one of its adult Masai giraffes.
A statement from the zoo says a female giraffe named Emara died May 19 after tangling one of her horns in a cable surrounding her enclosure.
The statement says a necropsy revealed Emara fell against the enclosure fence and died almost instantly of a broken neck.
Emara, who had just turned 12, came to Calgary from the San Diego Zoo in 2016.
The statement says she was a treasured member at the zoo and was known for her cautious yet curious personality and gentle nature.
The zoo says it is checking fencing within its African Savannah Yard enclosure to see if changes are needed to better protect the other giraffes and animals that share the space.
Doug Whiteside, interim associate director of animal care and welfare at the zoo, said Emara was in her prime and was in excellent health when she died.
“Major life changes such as this not only affect our people but can affect our animal residents as well,” Whiteside said in the statement Monday.
He said the zoo’s remaining giraffes, Nabo and Moshi, are doing well.
Grief counsellors are being made available to Emara’s caregivers and other zoo staff.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2023.
2023 Election
Some of the memorable comments made during Alberta election campaign

United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith makes an election campaign announcement in Calgary on Monday, May 1, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Candidates for both the United Conservative Party and New Democrats have been campaigning over the last four weeks for their party to form the next Alberta government. Election day is Monday.
Here are some memorable quotes from the campaign:
“(The NDP) devastated the Alberta economy. They created policies that drove investment out, drove jobs out, and we had to reverse all of that,” UCP Leader Danielle Smith said on May 1, the day the writ was dropped. “The choice in this election couldn’t be clearer. It’s a choice between a UCP government that will cut your taxes and make life more affordable or an NDP government that will make you pay more across the board.”
—
“Over the past four years, our health care has been thrown into chaos by the UCP,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said during the first week of the campaign. “They’ll tell you they fixed it, but Albertans aren’t feeling it and they’re not buying it … our (emergency rooms) are still full, our ambulances are still delayed and many (patients) are waiting months and months for critical tests and surgeries.”
—
“I am satisfied Mr. Pawlowski intended to incite the audience to continue the blockade — intended to incite protesters to commit mischief,” Justice Gordon Krinke said in Lethbridge, Alta., on May 2, when he found Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski guilty of charges related to his role in protests against COVID-19 public health measures. In a leaked phone call between Smith and Pawlowski, before his trial, Smith told Pawlowski the charges against him were politically motivated and she would make inquiries on his behalf and report back.
—
“(Smith) has a policy of not speaking publicly on matters before the courts, except when she’s talking to the person who’s before the courts about how she’s going to interfere with the matter before the courts,” Notley said when asked to comment on Smith’s no comment on the Pawlowski case. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard from her. OK, maybe it’s not the most ridiculous, because there’s a lot of ridiculous.”
—
“COVID was a really difficult and frustrating time for everyone, including me, and I don’t think that there is a single one of us that wasn’t deeply impacted in some way,” Smith said on May 9, after past comments surfaced in which she equated those vaccinated against COVID-19 to Nazi supporters and said she would not wear a Remembrance Day poppy out of disgust for pandemic restrictions imposed by political leaders. “Sometimes I let my frustrations get to me during that time. I clearly shouldn’t have.”
—
“That little bit of poop is what wrecks it … it does not matter that we’re in the top three per cent in the world,'” said Jennifer Johnson, UCP candidate for Lacombe-Ponoka. In a tape from September, she said Alberta’s high-ranking education system counts for little when set against the issue of transgender students and compared their presence to a batch of cookies laced with feces.
—
“(Judicial independence) is a fundamental pillar of our democracy. The premier breached this principle by discussing the accused’s case,” ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler said in her report released May 18 into Smith’s actions as premier when she called her justice minister about Pawlowski’s case.
—
“I’ve asked the ethics commissioner to give advice,” Smith said May 19. “I am a non-lawyer. As premier, I do need to be able to get advice from my top official, my top legal adviser. If she has recommendations on how to do that better next time, I will absolutely accept them.”
—
“More and more conservatives are coming to me saying, ‘I’m a lifelong conservative voter, but what I see in Danielle Smith and this new UCP is not my values,'” Notley said on May 23.”They often say that they’re going to lend us their vote, and I say that’s just great. Because, quite frankly, I think all Albertans should always only ever lend their vote because leadership has to earn it.”
—
“(The phone call) was always about the charges, from the very beginning. I had nothing really else to say,” Pawlowski told reporters at the legislature in the final week of the campaign. “This phone call was always about the same thing: when are you going to introduce what you promised, the amnesty bill for people like me and thousands of other Albertans.”
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2023.
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