{"id":731128,"date":"2026-06-12T03:27:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731128\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:27:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:27:22","slug":"rcmp-investigating-calgary-city-hall-corruption-allegations-court-documents-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731128\/","title":{"rendered":"RCMP investigating Calgary city hall corruption allegations, court documents reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mounties are investigating allegations money was offered in exchange for a council vote at Calgary city hall<\/a> last summer, according to court documents obtained by Global News.<\/p>\n

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The new revelations into the probe come months after the RCMP carried out search warrants at the homes of former Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek<\/a>, former Ward 4 councillor Sean Chu, and sitting Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot.<\/p>\n

The court documents are part of an application to extend the warrants, which would allow police to keep Gondek\u2019s phone for several more months.<\/p>\n

According to an affidavit signed by Det. Matt White \u2014 a Calgary Police Service investigator who has been seconded to the RCMP unit investigating the matter \u2014 the probe centres around allegations of municipal corruption, obstruction of justice and fabricating evidence.<\/p>\n

None of the allegations have been proven in court and no charges have been laid.<\/p>\n

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The court documents reveal the Calgary Police Service began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding a proposed land-use change in downtown Bankview area that was in front of council on July 16, 2025.<\/p>\n

The application, which aimed to change the zoning of several properties to a Direct Control District, was defeated in a 6-6 tie.<\/p>\n

Gondek wasn\u2019t present for the vote, in which Chu was one of the votes in opposition.<\/p>\n

Later in the meeting, Chu tabled a motion to reconsider the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realize that I voted wrong,\u201d he told council during the meeting.<\/p>\n

The land-use change was ultimately approved 8-5 after Chu changed his vote; Gondek was also present and voted in favour.<\/p>\n

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It all happened four months before the fall municipal election.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial information received by police was that David White, who runs a company that assists developers navigate City of Calgary processes called CivicWorks, had been offering campaign donations that exceeded the maximum allowed to councillors, in exchange for them tabling a reconsideration motion,\u201d reads the affidavit.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, White\u2019s phone was seized on Sept. 16 and the search \u201cyielded evidence of the offences.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was determined that Gondek had provided guidance to White on a tactic to approach another councillor in an effort to secure a reconsideration motion,\u201d the document read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reconsideration created an opportunity to reopen voting on the application so Gondek could cast a ballot in favour of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

White\u2019s phone was returned to him, the document read, and Global News has learned Chabot\u2019s phones were also returned.<\/p>\n

Allan Fay, the lawyer representing White, said his client has \u201cno comment at this time.\u201d\u00a0Chu\u2019s lawyer did not respond to Global News\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n

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Police now want to keep Gondek\u2019s phone as investigators believe it \u201cwill afford evidence pertaining to Gondek counselling White,\u201d but officers have been unable to unlock it without the passcode.<\/p>\n

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Gondek\u2019s lawyer, Rebecca Snukal, won\u2019t comment on the allegations in the affidavit, but is arguing against the application to extend the hold on her client\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n

In Snukal\u2019s response, she said the investigators\u2019 application is \u201con the basis of speculation alone,\u201d and that Gondek\u2019s vote was \u201cmathematically superfluous to the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hopes to cross-examine police at a hearing scheduled for later this month.<\/p>\n

Municipal Lobbyist Registry<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s current mayor, Jeromy Farkas, said the situation has raised \u201cimportant questions\u201d about how influence is exercised at city hall and how decisions are made.<\/p>\n

He told reporters Thursday he and other city councillors plan to introduce a motion that explores establishing a municipal lobbyist registry, as a tool to improve accountability and transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalgarians deserve to know who is seeking to influence public policy, who they are meeting with, and on whose behalf they are acting,\u201d Farkas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Calgary grows, our accountability measures must grow alongside us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Farkas said it would be \u201cinappropriate\u201d to comment on the RCMP investigation, he said \u201crecent events\u201d have reinforced the importance of stronger transparency measures.<\/p>\n

Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness, who served on the previous city council, said a lobbyist registry is simply a \u201cheadline grabber\u201d and won\u2019t solve the issue the RCMP is alleging happened.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think what we\u2019re seeing is council jumping to conclusions without allowing a police investigation to conclude,\u201d Wyness said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go and make policy changes without allowing the RCMP to conclude its investigation, you are creating problems and opening doors for other negative impacts on council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyness noted councillors already disclose who they meet with in their offices.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mounties are investigating allegations money was offered in exchange for a council vote at Calgary city hall last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,71388,177137,12459,48,2169,28462,714,216199],"class_list":["post-731128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-city-council","tag-calgary-city-hall","tag-calgary-police-service","tag-canada","tag-crime","tag-investigations","tag-politics","tag-rcmp-investigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731128","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=731128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}