Two men convicted in separate Banff murders and other important 2025 cases in Calgary court

It’s the jewel of the Canadian Rockies, but the darker side of the Town of Banff was on display in Calgary courts this past year.

The sentencings of two men convicted in separate killings in the picturesque locale west of Calgary were two of the major events in this city’s busy courtrooms in 2025.

John Christopher Arrizza was handed a mandatory life term without parole for a minimum 12 years when he was sentenced last April, for the fatal stabbing of Banff favourite son Ethan Enns-Goneau.

More than two-dozen Banff residents, including the town’s mayor, provided victim impact statements ahead of Justice Robert Hall’s sentencing decision in connection with Enns-Goneau’s killing, the first murder in the town in more than three decades.

Shockingly, it took less than a month for the next homicide to occur in the usually sleepy tourist town, in a fatal stabbing mere metres from where Enns-Goneau was killed inside a popular bar, the Dancing Sasquatch, in the early morning hours of Aug. 5, 2022.

Shortly after midnight on Sept. 3, 2022, Priddis resident Ryden Brogden, who was visiting Banff with a friend on the way to a B.C. fishing trip, was repeatedly stabbed on Banff Avenue, just outside the same bar where Enns-Goneau was killed.

As tragic as Brogden’s killing was, it didn’t have the shocking randomness of Enns-Goneau’s murder.

Enns-Goneau had stopped at the Dancing Sasquatch with a friend for a nightcap and had gone to the men’s room when Arrizza repeatedly stabbed him for no known reason.

The motive for convicted killer John Sproule, whom a jury found guilty of manslaughter in March, was clear.

He pulled a pocket knife to repel Brogden when the two men got into a physical altercation after Sproule, who was visiting Banff with his family from B.C., had asked him for a cigarette.

While jurors rejected arguments by defence counsel Cory Wilson that Sproule was acting in self-defence and should be acquitted, Justice Johanna Price found his crime didn’t warrant a prison term, instead handing the offender house arrest and probation for using excessive force in defending himself.

Other high-profile Calgary court cases in 2025

Of course, Calgary had more than its fair share of crimes that grabbed headlines as those cases wound through the courts in 2025.

The fatal stabbing of a city teen throwing hoops with friends at a southeast community centre, a Calgary man who went to Syria to join terrorist forces there, and the deadly ambush of a couple outside their southwest residence and the murder of a man in his home after he was hogtied by intruders, were all cases resolved during the last 12 months.

Danillo Canales Glenn, 18, was shooting baskets on the concrete pad of the outdoor hockey rink in the community of Copperfield when two brothers approached and, for no apparent reason, attacked.

One brother, just 16 at the time and whose identity is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was sentenced by Court of King’s Bench Justice Eleanor Funk in October, for manslaughter in the fatal stabbing. Funk said she could not determine which brother pepper sprayed the victim before the other inflicted the fatal blow.

His other brother, who can’t be named to protect his sibling’s identity, pleaded guilty just weeks later to the same manslaughter charge, admitting facts which put the fatal stabbing on the young offender. Both siblings were originally charged with second-degree murder.

The older brother is to be sentenced in the new year.

Jamal Borhot learned his fate on Dec. 1, after a lengthy Calgary Court of King’s Bench trial which included multiple sessions of closed-door proceedings due to national security concerns when a judge found him guilty of three terrorism-related offences.

Justice Corina Dario found Borhot went to Syria in May 2013 and joined the terrorist group ISIS. He returned to Canada in 2014.

She found he not only engaged in fighting with ISIS but took part in administrative and leadership duties for the terrorist organization. Borhot, who was free on bail before Dario’s verdict but was taken into custody upon his convictions, will face sentencing in the new year.

Chad Kowalchuk fell in with the wrong crowd and it ultimately cost him his life. Three of those convicted in his killing were handed lengthy prison terms in September, in connection with the death of the Calgary man, who was found hog-tied and beaten to death in the master bedroom of his burned out Douglasdale home, five days after he was slain.

Ronald Abraham was handed a life sentence without parole for a minimum 15 years after he was convicted of second-degree murder in Kowalchuk’s Feb. 13, 2022, killing, while Robert Sims and Justin Boucher were each handed 12-year terms for manslaughter.

All three were part of a botched robbery at Kowalchuk’s home where the offenders hoped to find drugs and money in his safe.

Calgary businessman Talal Fouani will never forget the morning of Aug. 18, 2022.

On that day, Edmonton man Michael Tyrel Arnold, who was hired by unknown individuals, attempted to murder Fouani as he backed out of the driveway of his southwest Calgary home, shooting him in the face. Arnold then trained his handgun on Fouani’s wife, Nakita Baron, and fatally shot her.

Arnold was sentenced in October to life imprisonment without parole for a minimum 18 years for the murder of Baron, the more serious of his two charges.

Despite the horrific attack, Fouani told Arnold’s sentencing hearing in July, he forgave the cold-blooded killer.

KMartin@postmedia.com

X: @KMartinCourts