On 14 October 2022, Duncan Kinney of Edmonton was charged by the Edmonton Police Service with mischief. Kinney is the editor of The Progress Report/Progress Alberta which, according to its website, is a “non-profit news organization focused on uncovering and unpacking the news through original investigative and explanatory journalism.”
In August 2021, an act of vandalism occurred at an Edmonton community centre. Members of the community described this act of vandalism as a hate crime. Kinney actively promoted the story that this vandalism was perpetrated by persons unknown when, in fact, he has now been charged as being the perpetrator.
Commenting, the UCCLA’s director of research, Professor Lubomyr Luciuk, said: “In August 2021 Mr. Kinney widely broadcast a story about how a person or persons unknown trespassed onto private property and committed an act of criminal vandalism. According to the Edmonton Police Department, Mr. Kinney was the actual perpetrator of this crime. We recall how he then hoodwinked mainstream journalists with a completely ‘fake news’ account of what happened and why, provoking social discord and, intentionally or not, furthering Vladimir Putin’s excuse for waging a genocidal war against Ukraine and Ukrainians. It now seems as if this self-styled ‘investigative journalist’ deliberately staged this incident for the purpose of promoting his political opinions.
“If found guilty of this crime, we believe he should be required to pay reparations for the damages done, be prohibited from coming near this site and other Ukrainian Canadian community centres, places of worship and cemeteries that have also been targeted by vandals, and be obliged to publicly apologize for his wrongdoing. His illegal action was widely perceived as a hate crime and brought a measure of fear into the lives of Canadian Ukrainians, and not just in Edmonton.
“We believe all Canadians have the right to enjoy their property without being subjected to intimidation or threats. Furthermore, and tragically, Mr. Kinney’s alleged behaviour might have a further and very negative impact – leaving the general public skeptical about future reporting on hate crimes directed against other minorities. Reasonable people might be left wondering whether any such accounts are indeed credible or were manufactured to serve a partisan agenda, as appears to have been Mr. Kinney ‘s intention. We applaud the Edmonton Police Department for diligently investigating this incident and laying charges, and we look forward to justice being done.”
