Latest news with #BoyleStreetCommunityServices
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Boyle Street, Katz Group reach ‘positive resolution' after $5M legal battle
Representatives from Boyle Street Community Services (BSCS) and Katz Group Real Estate say they have come to a 'positive resolution' following a legal battle over a $5 million donation. Last year, the Ice District Corporation (IDC), a subsidiary of local billionaire Daryl Katz's business conglomerate, sued BSCS in a civil lawsuit, claiming it didn't have to donate an agreed upon $5 million because the charity failed to adequately raise funds to build a new drop-in facility. A statement of claim filed in November 2024 argued that the Edmonton charity didn't make enough efforts to raise funds for the King Thunderbird Centre replacing the former location at 101 Street and 105 Avenue which IDC purchased from Boyle Street for $5 million in 2021. King Thunderbird updated rendering The most recent rendering of Boyle Street Community Services's King Thunderbird facility, released to CTV News Edmonton on May 3, 2024. BSCS announced a $28.5-million campaign to raise money for the project, needing at least $8.5 million to begin it. As part of the deal between the Ice District and Boyle Street, a $5 million donation, a 'backstop gift' was pledged by IDC in case BSCS didn't meet its fundraising goals that would decrease dollar by dollar if the charity exceeded its $8.5 million threshold. BSCS moved out of their former location in 2023 because the lease on the building was up and it was 'no longer financially viable' for them to stay. Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) said it finalized the purchase and lease agreement with BSCS for its former facility in 2021. A two-year lease was signed, ending in fall 2023. OEG said it offered an extension on the lease at the same nominal rate agreed upon in 2021 to allow BSCS to coordinate its relocation. BSCS' new location, King Thunderbird Centre at 107A Avenue and 101 Street, has been in the works for nearly a decade, and is expected to open this fall. As of April 2025, the centre had reached the halfway point in construction. CTV News Edmonton reached out to both groups to determine what a 'positive resolution' entails, but have yet to hear back. More to come … With files from CTV News Edmonton's Craig Ellingson
CBC
21-05-2025
- CBC
Edmonton man guilty of second-degree murder in 2023 shooting near homeless shelter
A man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in a fatal shooting near a downtown Edmonton homeless agency. Shane Bakewell, 32, was declared dead in hospital on the morning of Jan. 2, 2023, after staff at the Herb Jamieson Centre found him unresponsive outside the shelter, with a gunshot wound to his stomach. Video presented as evidence in court shows he was outside the building for more than 24 hours before shelter staff checked on him and called an ambulance. In a decision released last week, Court of King's Bench Justice Michael Lema found Harrison Belanger guilty in the killing, finding that video from the former downtown location of Boyle Street Community Services shows the moment of the shooting around 3 a.m. on New Year's Day. While a gun isn't visible in the video, Lema ruled that "overwhelming" circumstantial evidence leads to the conclusion that Belanger is the one who shot and fatally injured Bakewell. Belanger was arrested a few weeks after the shooting, but the Edmonton Police Service didn't release details about the charges for almost nine months. Court scrutinizes video evidence Lema's decision on May 15 details how the video shows Bakewell and Belanger encounter each other outside Boyle Street, then get into an argument that escalates to a physical fight. After some back and forth, Belanger walks away and retrieves a backpack, then lifts it toward Bakewell, appearing to hold an object that's concealed in the bag. In what the judge calls "the key moment," the footage captures the backpack moving up, and Bakewell clutches his abdomen and starts walking away, kicking his legs and then hunching over. "In immediate aftermath ... as Mr. Bakewell moved to the east, Mr. Belanger stalked him in what appeared to be an intimidating or menacing manner, seeking to chase Mr. Bakewell off and succeeding in doing so," Lema wrote in his decision. "He did not show any sign of concern for Mr. Bakewell or other indication that the shooting may have been accidental." Another camera captures Bakewell walking along 101st Street, and he eventually appears on surveillance footage outside the Herb Jamieson Centre, where he spends the next 27 hours. He alternates between lying in a snowbank, standing by the door, lying on the ground and sitting in a wheelchair. Eventually, he lies on a lounge chair with his arms splayed out, where shelter staff then check on him and call for help. Police didn't recover the backpack or the gun during their investigation, nor did they get any witness statements from people who were in the area at the time — some of whom are seen on video reacting to the moment Lema determined the victim was shot. Defence lawyer Ashok Gill argued on the final day of the trial that the video doesn't definitively show what happened. He said it requires a "leap of faith" to conclude it's the moment of the shooting and raises reasonable doubt that Bakewell could have been injured earlier, by someone else. Lema dismissed that as "fanciful and entirely speculative." "The idea that Mr. Bakewell was shot before the events in question effectively translates to 'anything can happen,'" Lema said. "That is insufficient to create a reasonable alternative inference or possibility, at least in the circumstances here." Belanger will be sentenced at a later date.
