{"id":392907,"date":"2026-01-07T01:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/392907\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:44:08","slug":"podcaster-accused-of-harassing-former-ahs-board-member-says-he-was-hired-by-edmonton-lawyer-court-records-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/392907\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcaster accused of harassing former AHS board member says he was hired by Edmonton lawyer, court records show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Edmonton Law Courts are shown on July 8, 2020.JASON FRANSON\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A podcaster who has been accused of harassing a potential witness in a high-profile wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the Alberta government told solicitors that he was retained by an Edmonton-based lawyer for \u201cunspecified work,\u201d new court records show.<\/p>\n

That lawyer, identified in court records made public Tuesday as Bryan Ward, has acted a number of times for Sam Mraiche, an Edmonton-based medical equipment entrepreneur whose companies are at the centre of a procurement controversy that has roiled Alberta politics for the past year. <\/p>\n

Athana Mentzelopoulos, the former chief executive of the province\u2019s health authority, filed a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the government of Premier Danielle Smith, alleging she was fired because she refused to shut down an internal investigation into the agency\u2019s procurement staff and their relationships with Mr. Mraiche\u2019s companies. The matter is now under investigation by the RCMP. <\/p>\n

Since launching her lawsuit, Ms. Mentzelopoulos and other individuals connected to the Alberta Health Services probe have been subject to reputational attacks by the podcaster, David Wallace, a self-described political fixer who hosts a show called The Political Dark Arts Report. <\/p>\n

Among the people targeted by Mr. Wallace are Globe and Mail journalists Carrie Tait and Tom Cardoso, who have written about the probe, and Sandy Edmonstone, a former board member at AHS who encouraged Ms. Mentzelopoulos to report her findings to the RCMP.<\/p>\n

Mr. Edmonstone recently obtained a rare court order to seize evidence from the homes and electronic devices of Mr. Wallace and James Di Fiore, another podcaster who has hosted Mr. Wallace on his show. <\/p>\n

An Alberta-based former investment banker, Mr. Edmonstone alleges that Mr. Wallace spread false rumours about him on the podcast and threatened to dig into his private life. Mr. Edmonstone successfully argued that the court order was necessary to find evidence about the \u201cwell-funded individuals and organizations\u201d who he alleges are bankrolling the podcasters and trying to intimidate him as a potential witness in Ms. Mentzelopoulos\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n

When lawyers descended on Mr. Wallace\u2019s Quebec home in mid-December, armed with the court order, he disclosed that he was \u201cretained by Bryan Ward at Park Law in Alberta to do unspecified work for him,\u201d states a report prepared by the Ottawa law firm that supervised the search. <\/p>\n

Public records show Mr. Ward acted as Mr. Mraiche\u2019s counsel in a civil lawsuit, as well as in a dispute Mr. Mraiche had with Elections Alberta. Other records show Mr. Ward acted as a witness in several of Mr. Mraiche\u2019s real estate transactions, and Mr. Ward is also listed as the registered agent for companies owned in part by Mr. Mraiche.<\/p>\n

The Globe contacted Mr. Ward and a lawyer for Mr. Mraiche, Scott Hutchison, for comment Monday evening. Neither responded by Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Neither Mr. Wallace nor Mr. Di Fiore responded to a request for comment. Mr. Wallace has denied on his podcast that he works for Mr. Mraiche. He has said on his podcast that he was paid by \u201cthree employers,\u201d whom he did not identify.<\/p>\n

Lawyers with Conway Baxter Wilson, the Ottawa law firm appointed by the court to oversee the execution of the search, said in their report that two court-appointed solicitors, a bailiff and a security firm employee arrived at Mr. Wallace\u2019s home the morning of Dec. 16. <\/p>\n

After being served with the court papers, Mr. Wallace was asked to put on his dining-room table any devices and documents sought by Mr. Edmonstone, the report states. Mr. Wallace made references to his retainer with Mr. Ward \u201cseveral other times throughout the execution process,\u201d the report states. The contents of the report have not been proven in court.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wallace said he needed legal advice and was provided with a cellphone because the court order prohibited him from using his own device, the report states. Mr. Wallace went into a bedroom to speak privately with Mr. Ward, the report states.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ward later spoke with the supervising lawyers and confirmed to them that he advised Mr. Wallace to comply with the orders. \u201cAt times, Mr. Ward indicated that his firm had retained Wallace and Di Fiore on behalf of a \u2018third party\u2019 client,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, two other lawyers, a bailiff and two Ontario Provincial Police officers executed the order at Mr. Di Fiore\u2019s home in Ontario. <\/p>\n

According to the report, Mr. Di Fiore told the search party that Mr. Ward was one of his lawyers.<\/p>\n

Mr. Di Fiore objected to the search, arguing that it constituted a violation of freedom of the press, and that one of his phones and a laptop shouldn\u2019t be searched because \u201cthose devices were provided to him by CSIS,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

Eventually, both Mr. Wallace and Mr. Di Fiore handed over their devices, which were returned to them the next day after their contents had been copied. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Edmonton Law Courts are shown on July 8, 2020.JASON FRANSON\/The Canadian Press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-392907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}