WESTLOCK – A Bigstone Cree Nation woman who led RCMP on a chase through Calling Lake in 2019 and also refused to provide a breath sample following a December 2021 accident in Athabasca, received a 40-plus-day jail sentence and has been barred from driving for the next year.
Appearing in Westlock Provincial Court Sept. 28 via CCTV from the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre, Ramona Adele Cardinal pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property under $5,000, failing or refusing to provide a breath sample and obstructing a peace officer, amended from an original change of flight from police. Additional charges of theft under $5,000, failing to stop after an accident and failing to hold a valid operator’s licence were withdrawn by Crown prosecutor Alison Moore, who noted Cardinal’s criminal record stretched back to 2009 and included a handful of “low level property” crimes.
Judge Karl Wilberg agreed to the joint-sentence submission from Moore and defence lawyer Jeff Klassen on a 42-day jail sentence for Cardinal that was deemed served by 28 of the 50 days she’s spent in jail. Judge Wilberg also barred Cardinal, who’s a mother of three, from driving for the next 12 months but did not impose a victim-fine surcharge.
Klassen told court that Cardinal’s maternal grandparents went to a residential school in Wabasca “and addictions seem to be a bit of an issue that have run throughout the family given the trauma that her grandparents would have experienced going through the residential school.”
“And she has experienced some other traumas in her life and would prefer that the other traumas are not spoken about in open court,” said Klassen, who noted Cardinal has a Grade 9 education.
Moore told court that around 8 p.m., Sept. 2, 2019, Athabasca RCMP members were in their police vehicles on Borderline Drive in Calling Lake when they saw a white GMC Yukon with a burned-out tail light being driven in a “fast and aggressive manner.” Police gave chase throughout the hamlet and the vehicle took off down a dirt road — they eventually caught up with Cardinal after the SUV hit a tree. Police apprehended Cardinal as she was trying to flee the scene on foot and after checking on the Yukon, they learned it was stolen.
“She told police that when she saw them, she tried to flee because she’s used to being on the run,” said Moore.
Then on Dec. 17, 2021, RCMP were called to a collision in the Town of Athabasca and learned that the “occupants of one of the vehicles in the collision were seen passing alcohol bottles around and were believed to be impaired.”
Cardinal then got into the driver’s seat of one of the vehicles involved in the crash and drove away. RCMP found the vehicle in an alley a short distance away and Cardinal was behind the wheel with an open bottle of vodka — when asked by police, she declined a demand to provide a sample of her breath.
