A man who vandalized a sign in the window of an Edmonton gay bar has been spared a criminal record after completing a restorative justice program with members of the city\u2019s LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n
Cameron Mason, 48, was given a 12-month conditional discharge in the Edmonton Court of Justice Wednesday after pleading guilty to a count of mischief.<\/p>\n
A forklift operator who lived in St. Albert, Mason admitted to damaging the window of downtown Edmonton\u2019s Evolution Wonderlounge after a night of heavy drinking. Court heard Mason used a key to gouge a sign that read \u201cProtect Trans Kids,\u201d then carved a crucifix into the window glass.<\/p>\n
Mason declined a chance to address court, but prosecutor Sean Bodnarek said the accused sought out a restorative justice program shortly after his arrest. Mason later sat down for a \u201cpeace making circle process\u201d with members of the LGBTQ community, including Evolution owner Rob Browatzke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a space that has unfortunately been been vandalized many times, and we\u2019ve never been able to actually sit down with the people that did it and hear what was going on in their head, and then (have them) hear what our reaction to the action was,\u201d Browatzke said in an interview. \u201cI certainly think it\u2019s a much more productive vehicle for a better kind of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mason spent the day leading up to the vandalism \u2014\u00a0Dec. 21, 2024 \u2014\u00a0drinking heavily after a poker tournament. He passed out in a friend\u2019s vehicle, then awoke early the next day, cold and angry at having been left behind. While walking to a bus, he saw Evolution\u2019s 103 Street bar, took out a key and began scratching the window over the \u201cProtect Trans Kids\u201d decal.<\/p>\n
Police obtained CCTV footage of the vandalism but were unable to identify Mason. They released the images<\/a> to media Feb. 19, 2025, after which Mason turned himself in.<\/p>\n Mason admitted what he had done in an interview with police, but also shared his views about the LGBTQ community, \u201cwhich were disparaging in nature,\u201d Bodnarek said.<\/p>\n Mason nonetheless took police up on their suggestion he contact the Organization for the Prevention of Violence<\/a>, an Edmonton group that offers programs for people seeking to disconnect from extremist ideologies, which organized the peace making circle.<\/p>\n Browatzke said since the pandemic, Evolution has had to replace half a dozen doors and windows as a result of vandalism \u2014 not all of it hate related. Someone also ripped down and threw a pride flag in the garbage<\/a>, though Browatzke was unclear whether anyone had been charged.<\/p>\n Browatzke said in he would participate in restorative justice under the right circumstances again, though \u201cobviously, we would prefer that (the vandalism) never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, that\u2019s not the world that we are living in,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it is something that we would absolutely do again, because I think it does just end up with a with a healthier sense of closure \u2014\u00a0rather than just \u2018here\u2019s jail time, here\u2019s a criminal record.\u2019 That\u2019s just compounding complications and problems in someone\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n Browatzke added: \u201cpeople\u2019s views take a lifetime to learn, and an equally long lifetime to unlearn. And situations like this are the start of that unlearning.\u201d<\/p>\n Mason has been ordered to make $1,500 in restitution for the damage to the window. His legal counsel, Emilia Elliott, said Mason is currently of \u201cvery limited income\u201d and asked that a victim fine surcharge be waived.<\/p>\n Justice Thomas O\u2019Leary found the conditional discharge proposed by Crown and defence was appropriate. Mason will be required to regularly report to a supervisor and complete any programming they recommend, as well as perform 20 hours of community service.<\/p>\n \u201cYou, sir, have the absolute right to believe whatever you want,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. \u201cBut we draw the line with the criminal law when beliefs cross over into actions.\u201d<\/p>\n jwakefield@postmedia.com<\/p>\n x.com\/jonnywakefield <\/p>\n @jonnywakefield.bsky.social<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who vandalized a sign in the window of an Edmonton gay bar has been spared a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,133137,48,212665,212666,194381,23752,17443,78393,128858,212667,212668],"class_list":["post-545361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-cameron-mason","tag-canada","tag-conditional-discharge","tag-conditional-sentence","tag-downtown-edmonton","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-police-service","tag-lgbtq-community","tag-restorative-justice","tag-rob-browatzke","tag-sign-in-the-window"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545361","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=545361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}