Justice minister tight-lipped on transparency in murder case

The province’s justice minister was reserved Monday while responding to questions about the recent revelation that Edmonton police failed to disclose that a murder charge had been laid in the 2016 death of a two-month-old baby.

“I think anyone would be worried about lack of transparency, but whether this is a particular instance of that I think is an open question,” Kathleen Ganley told reporters at the Alberta legislature Monday.

She said there were “peculiarities” in the case, but that decisions about releasing information about homicides to the public is a police “operational” decision. She also said she is limited in her comments because the case remains before the courts.

On Wednesday, Brandon James Calahoo, 22, pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing the 2016 death of Raelyn Supernant in Edmonton’s Court of Queen’s Bench.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Calahoo was the boyfriend of the baby ’s mother and was living with them on July 25, 2016, when he picked Raelyn up and shook her after she woke him with her crying. The infant was left in her crib for hours before being taken to hospital. She died in hospital on Aug. 8, 2016, but it wasn’t until January 2017 that a medical examiner concluded the cause of her death was cranial trauma.

The original charge of aggravated assault against Calahoo was upgraded to second-degree murder, but police did not issue a news release about the murder charge.

Edmonton police said last week that information about the case was not deliberately withheld from the public, attributing the failure to issue a statement to the “unusual circumstances” and the long delay between the death and the second-degree murder charge.