Calgary Daily Digest — Jan. 20, 2026

Heads up: RCMP have charged 46-year-old Chad Jensen of Brooks with human trafficking and other offences involving a woman over a five-year period; the probe began in February 2025, a search warrant was executed on Mar. 25, 2025, and Jensen was arrested on Jan. 8, 2025. He faces eight charges, is due in court Feb. 11, 2026, and police say there may be more victims — anyone affected should call Brooks RCMP at 403-362-5535 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Quick note: NDP leader Naheed Nenshi accused Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP of playing politics after the Bearspaw South feeder main — which supplies 60% of treated water to Calgary’s 1.6 million residents — failed again; the province has launched a review going back two decades and Minister Dan Williams has asked for documents by the end of the month. The main ruptured for the second time in less than two years, independent findings pointed to years of underinvestment, and both parties are already positioning ahead of the Oct. 2027 provincial election.

Important update: Calgary police have arrested 62-year-old Muhammad Zia-Ur Rahman and charged him with parental child abduction after he allegedly took his five-year-old son from Calgary on Dec. 3, 2023, and travelled through Montreal to Turkiye, cutting off contact. Authorities say he used forged documents and multiple passports, moving through Turkiye, Russia, Azerbaijan and Vanuatu; father and child were located and detained in Mauritius on Dec. 16, 2025, reunited with the mother Dec. 20, 2025, and Rahman was brought back and charged on Jan. 17, 2026 (next court Jan. 21, 2026).

On the radar: The Insurance Bureau of Canada says 2025’s severe-weather insured losses topped $2.4 billion, making it the 10th-highest year on record — notable events include the Mar. 28–31 Quebec/Ontario ice storm ($490M), May wildfires near Flin Flon and La Ronge ($300M), Calgary’s $160M hailstorm, Prairie August storms ($235M) and recent B.C. atmospheric rivers ($90M). IBC warns such losses have jumped sharply (2016–2025 losses $37B vs $14B in 2006–2015) and urges governments to rethink where and how homes are built.

Heads-up about health care: NDP’s Naheed Nenshi is asking Premier Smith to reconvene the Alberta legislature five weeks early amid a hospital-capacity crisis — hospitals are reportedly at about 102% capacity and Nenshi wants a state of emergency after recent reports of long waits and at least one death after an almost eight-hour ED wait. The government says it has tools and will launch a triage liaison physician program on Feb. 1, while critics say clearer provincial command and more hospital capacity (including plans halted in 2024) are urgently needed.