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Alberta law society clears former cabinet minister Tyler Shandro of misconduct

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EDMONTON – The Law Society of Alberta has cleared Tyler Shandro of professional misconduct after he confronted a physician at the edge of his driveway four years ago over a social media post, when Shandro was the province’s health minister.

In a decision released Thursday, the law society panel found Shandro not guilty on three citations surrounding his conduct.

Regarding the citation over the driveway dispute, two of the three society panel members said Shandro’s actions that day were as a family man and did not reflect his role as a lawyer. Shandro was not practising law at the time.

“It is clear that Mr. Shandro attended at the home of (Dr. Mukarram Zaidi) as a father and husband, and not principally as the minister of health,” wrote committee members Bud Melnyk and Grant Vogeli.

On that committee member Edith Kloberdanz dissented.

In the report, she said she would find Shandro guilty for his behaviour during the confrontation, saying he didn’t need to visit the doctor’s home uninvited in an emotional state to resolve his concerns.

“The public’s trust and confidence in lawyers is based on the ability of lawyers to manage their behaviour in highly stressful situations and circumstances,” she wrote.

Kloberdanz said the impact on Zaidi and his family “was not given sufficient weight” by the majority, and that she was troubled Zaidi’s children were present for at least some of the incident.

The incident dates back to March 21, 2020. It was a turbulent time. The province had just invalidated its master working agreement with physicians, and COVID-19 was taking hold around the world.

Shandro told the committee that he and his family had been facing serious threats.

The incident began after Zaidi posted on social media a message critical of Shandro while referencing his wife’s company.

That day, Shandro, a Calgary legislature member at the time, went to the Calgary home of Zaidi, asking two boys playing basketball on the driveway to get their father.

Zaidi told the committee that Shandro was crying and “emotionally charged” during a conversation that lasted less than two minutes.

“(It) was a very intimidating experience, seeing the Crown’s representative and a lawyer attending at my house to tell me to delete a post,” Zaidi said, describing Shandro as “his ultimate boss.”

Shandro remembered the incident differently.

The social media post was personal, since it referenced his wife’s business, and the conversation came out of a concern for the safety of his wife, Shandro said, adding he was not yelling or crying.

Shandro testified that Zaidi looked “embarrassed” and asked, “What do I do? Delete the post?”

Shandro said he replied: “You have to decide that for yourself.”

Then-premier Jason Kenney defended his minister at the time, saying it’s understandable that a husband or wife will get passionate when their spouse is being attacked, threatened or defamed.

The committee also looked into Shandro’s decision around that time to phone two other doctors who had been critical of government policy, and to use his government email to respond to a member of the public who had sent his wife’s company a complaint email.

Law society lawyers argued the incidents were examples of inappropriate and intimidating behaviour by Shandro meant to muzzle public dissent.

On those two counts the panel unanimously ruled that while Shandro’s behaviour was at times inappropriate, it did not rise to the level of sanction.

Shandro lost his seat in the legislature in last year’s general election and has returned to practising law. He has been a law society member since 2005.

In January, he was appointed to the board of directors of Covenant Health, a publicly funded provincial health provider.

In an emailed statement to The Canadian Press, Shandro said he was pleased to be exonerated.

“These complaints were the culmination of years of politically fuelled personal attacks on me and my family,” he wrote.

“These complaints were also based on false allegations, and I have maintained the allegations were baseless and frivolous.

“I look forward to continuing to serve my community.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2024.

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The week in sports photos

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Toronto Argonauts clinch second in East with 38-31 home win over Ottawa Redblacks

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TORONTO – Chad Kelly and the Toronto Argonauts ensured there will be one more home game in their season.

Kelly threw three touchdown passes and ran for another as Toronto held on for a wild 38-31 home win over Ottawa on Saturday afternoon. The Argos (10-7) clinched second in the East Division with their third straight victory and will face the Redblacks (8-8-1) in the opening round of the CFL playoffs Nov. 2 at BMO Field.

Ottawa suffered a fifth straight loss but created plenty of angst for both the Argos and their season-high gathering of 20,487. The Redblacks outscored Toronto 25-0 in the fourth quarter to turn a seemingly one-sided game into a nail-biter that came down to the final play.

“We’ve got to finish, we’ve got to finish a lot better,” said Kelly. “It’s part of the game where you play a full 60 minutes.

“They’re a professional football team, they’re not going to give up and we’ve got to be better.”

Kelly finished 31-of-43 passing for 331 yards. He also ran 10 times for 25 yards before giving way to Cameron Dukes late in the fourth.

Ottawa’s Dru Brown completed 31-of-43 passes for 400 yards with four TDs and an interception. He began the Redblacks’ comeback by hitting Bralon Addison on a 32-yard scoring strike at 2:30 of the fourth to cut Toronto’s lead to 38-12 as the two-point convert was unsuccessful.

After being intercepted by Toronto’s Tavarus McFadden, Brown found rookie Nick Mardner on a six-yard TD pass at 12:21, then passed to Justin Hardy for the two-point convert. After Kene Onyeka recovered the onside kick, Brown connected with Hardy on a 14-yard touchdown toss and Addison for the two-point convert at 12:56.

Amazingly, Ottawa recovered another onside kick — this time via Jaelon Acklin — at the Toronto 52. Lewis Ward’s 38-yard field goal with 1:12 remaining cut the Argos’ lead to 38-31.

Toronto’s Daniel Adeboboye recovered the third onside kick at the Ottawa 42. The Argos didn’t get the first down and punted with the Redblacks taking possession at their 12-yard line with 30 seconds remaining.

With Ottawa at its 37-yard line and two seconds to play, Brown completed his final pass to Hardy at Toronto’s 52-yard line. Following a series of laterals, the game ended with offensive lineman Dariusz Bladek being tackled.

“They don’t give up, they’re no pushover,” Toronto linebacker Wynton McManis. “They have a lot of fight in them.

“The way this team is built, we know that’s not us. We know we’re a lot better than that … this will never happen again. It won’t.”

Dejon Brissett, with two, Ka’Deem Carey and Makai Polk scored Toronto’s other touchdowns. Lirim Hajrullahu booted five converts and a field goal.

Addison finished with two TDs for Ottawa.

Redblacks’ head coach Bob Dyce wasn’t surprised by his team’s resiliency and fight. But he said how the Redblacks played in the fourth is how they must play throughout an entire contest.

“I’m always going to be proud of these guys in the way they fight but we can’t allow ourselves to get into a situation where you’re down like that,” he said. “We have to start games faster than what we have.”

Ottawa finishes its regular season hosting Hamilton (7-10) on Friday. Although the Tiger-Cats have been eliminated from playoff contention, they’ve won five of their last six games.

“It’s a very meaningful game for us because we have to show we can play like that for four quarters,” Dyce said.

Before the fourth-quarter fireworks, Toronto appeared to be on cruise control. Kelly and Brissett combined to finish a 13-play, 82-yard march on a 10-yard TD pass at 13:13 of the third that put the Argos ahead 38-6.

Brown’s seven-yard TD pass to Addison at 12:23 of the second cut Toronto’s halftime lead to 28-6. Addison put the finishing touches on a five-play, 75-yard march but Benji Franklin blocked Ward’s convert try.

Toronto was dominant to that point, scoring touchdowns on its first four possessions. Kelly completed his first 12 passes for 238 yards and two TDs while also running for another before finishing the half with three straight incompletions.

Still, Toronto rolled up 297 net offensive yards, converted nine-of-15 second-down chances and held the ball for more than 19 minutes. Polk had three catches for 104 yards and a TD.

Brown was 10-of-13 passing for 123 yards, much of that coming on the scoring drive. But Ottawa had only 113 net offensive yards and ran half as many offensive plays (19) as Toronto (38).

Kelly’s 47-yard TD pass to Polk at 4:57 extended Toronto’s lead to 28-0. It followed a 29-yard TD strike to Brissett 14 seconds into the second that was set up by Wynton McManis’s fumble recovery.

Kelly’s one-yard run at 14:12 of the first put Toronto ahead 14-0 and culminated a 14-play, 98-yard march. Carey opened the scoring with a one-yard TD run on third down at 5:07.

It was the seventh play of the 91-yard drive that followed Ward’s missed 43-yard field goal try.

UP NEXT

Argonauts: Visit the Edmonton Elks (6-11) on Friday.

Redblacks: Host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (7-10) on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.



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Messi and Inter Miami finish with best record in MLS history, roll past New England 6-2

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have put together the best regular season in Major League Soccer history.

Messi had three goals and an assist in the second half alone, Luis Suarez had a pair of first-half goals and Inter Miami beat the New England Revolution 6-2 on Saturday night, finishing the season with an MLS-record 74 points — one more than the Revolution had in 2021.

It was Messi’s first hat trick for Inter Miami, the team the Argentine superstar joined midway through the 2023 season in a huge victory for Major League Soccer.

At 22-4-8 in league play, Inter Miami finished the season with a .765 winning percentage for another MLS record. There were four teams — D.C. United (24-8) and the LA Galaxy (24-8) in 1998, LAFC (21-4-9) in 2019 and New England (22-5-7) in 2021 — that finished an MLS season with a .750 winning percentage, which was the top spot until Saturday night.

Now, the top spot is Inter Miami’s by any measure, both in terms of points and best won-lost-tied mark. Inter Miami also became the eighth team in MLS history to get through a regular season with only four losses, tying another record.

Messi — who played about 35 minutes and still scored three times Saturday — finished the regular season with 20 goals and 16 assists in 19 matches.

Suarez got to 20 goals in his first MLS season, his strikes — coming about three minutes apart — helping Inter Miami erase an early 2-0 deficit. Luca Langoni and Dylan Borrero had the goals for New England.

The rest of the match was all Miami. The team had a stage pulled onto the field after the match to recognize the Supporters Shield win, which the team claimed on the road earlier this month, and fired pink confetti into the air when time expired.

Suarez’s brace pulled the hosts into a tie by halftime and Benja Cremaschi scored the go-ahead goal in the 58th minute. Messi had an assist on Cremaschi’s goal, one that came just seconds after the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner subbed into the match.

There had been some question about whether Messi would play at all, especially since Inter Miami had already wrapped up the Supporters’ Shield and No. 1 seed in the MLS Cup playoffs. All that was at stake for Inter Miami on Saturday was the record.

And there was a scare in the 74th minute when Messi was fouled, yelled in pain and grabbed at his right ankle as he was on the ground. He’s missed 15 of Inter Miami’s MLS matches in 2024, either because of commitments to Argentina’s national team or the two-month absence that he needed to recover from a badly injured ankle — an injury that happened during his nation’s run to the Copa America title in July.

It was just a scare.

Messi scored about two minutes apart in the second half, turning a 3-2 lead into a 5-2 rout and it was only a matter of time before the record would belong to Inter Miami. And the capper came in the 89th minute, Suarez flipping the ball to Messi for an easy score that finished off the hat trick.

Next up for Inter Miami: Game 1 of a best-of-three first-round series, at home Friday night. It will be the first home playoff match in club history.

___

AP soccer:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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