The year 2025 in Calgary's courtrooms was marked by high-profile cases, but few captured public attention like the sentencings of two men convicted in separate, shocking homicides in the iconic mountain town of Banff. These events, which shattered the community's peaceful image, were central to the city's legal narrative over the past twelve months.
Two Tragedies That Shook a Mountain Paradise
Banff, renowned globally as the jewel of the Canadian Rockies, saw its darker side exposed in Calgary court proceedings this year. The sentencings stemmed from two separate fatal stabbings that occurred just weeks apart in the summer of 2022, leaving the tight-knit community reeling.
In April 2025, John Christopher Arrizza received a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 12 years. He was convicted for the fatal stabbing of Ethan Enns-Goneau, a well-known local, in the early morning hours of August 5, 2022. The attack occurred inside the popular Banff bar, the Dancing Sasquatch.
Justice Robert Hall heard more than two dozen victim impact statements before delivering the sentence, including one from the town's mayor. This murder was the first in Banff in over three decades, making its random nature particularly devastating for residents.
Shockingly, less than a month later, a second homicide occurred. Shortly after midnight on September 3, 2022, Ryden Brogden, a visitor from Priddis on his way to a fishing trip in British Columbia, was repeatedly stabbed on Banff Avenue. The attack happened mere metres from the Dancing Sasquatch, where Enns-Goneau was killed.
Contrasting Motives and Legal Outcomes
The two cases, while geographically and temporally close, presented starkly different circumstances to the courts.
The killing of Ethan Enns-Goneau was an act of shocking randomness. Enns-Goneau had stopped at the bar for a nightcap and was in the men's room when Arrizza attacked him without any known motive.
In contrast, the death of Ryden Brogden followed a confrontation. In March 2025, a jury found John Sproule, a British Columbia man visiting Banff with his family, guilty of manslaughter. The court heard that Sproule had asked Brogden for a cigarette, which led to a physical altercation. Sproule pulled a pocket knife, claiming self-defence.
While the jury rejected the argument for a full acquittal, Justice Johanna Price later determined the crime did not merit a prison term. Instead, she sentenced Sproule to house arrest and probation, ruling he had used excessive force in self-defence.
A Broader Look at Calgary's Court Docket
Beyond the tragic events in Banff, Calgary's courts dealt with numerous other cases that grabbed headlines throughout 2025. The city's legal system remained busy with a wide array of proceedings, though the twin Banff murders stood out for their impact on a community unaccustomed to such violence.
The resolutions of these cases brought a measure of closure to the families and the Town of Banff, while underscoring the challenging and varied nature of the work undertaken in Calgary's justice system each year.
