A vigil was held for Charlie Kirk in Winnipeg on Tuesday, with a crowd of more than a thousand people “full of kindness,” says one woman who attended.

Mellissa Gladue, 31, told the National Post that she was drawn to the event because of her admiration for Kirk, how he spoke openly about his Christianity, and was able to debate people openly. The resident of Niverville, about a 30-minute drive from Winnipeg, went to the vigil with her fiancé outside of the Manitoba Legislative Building around 7:30 p.m. CT (6:30 p.m. ET).

“Charlie Kirk was the epitome of Christians across the world. He was brave enough to speak the bold truth about the gospel and not being afraid to have public debate and discussion on values aligning with Christianity,” said Gladue. “It is not easy as Christians to go against the norm and debate God with people who may not believe.”

She said she didn’t know what to expect when she arrived at the legislature building, but people of all backgrounds and ages were there, “hugging, praying, laughing, crying.”

Kirk was killed on Sept. 10

after being shot at an event he was hosting at Utah Valley University in Orem, UT. The political influencer was known for debating a wide range of topics such as religion, racism and abortion, and for his promotion of Christian values. He was a divisive figure due to some of his stances. The 31-year-old was a husband and father of two. The man suspected in his murder,

Tyler James Robinson

, is being held without bail and has been charged with aggravated murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The Winnipeg vigil was organized by Patrick Allard, per

local radio station CHVN-FM

. He shared a photo of the event on Facebook with the message, “We are all Charlie Kirk.”

In 2023, Allard

ran as an independent candidate for St. Johns

, a provincial riding in Winnipeg, according to Elections Manitoba. He was described by CHVN-FM as an “outspoken critic of COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates.”

“Feels like a lot of love is in the air,” Allard said, speaking to those in attendance on Tuesday night, CHVN-FM reported. On Facebook, Allard posted about another vigil being held on Sept. 20 in La Broquerie, a predominantly French-speaking community southeast of Winnipeg.

Also on Tuesday evening, a vigil was held in Regina, Saskatchewan, with roughly 200 people in attendance,

local radio station CKRM reported

. The event’s organizer Marlissa Butz told the publication that she was deeply affected by Kirk’s death.

“I couldn’t sleep, and I was just crying for his wife,” she said. “And I have an 18-month-old on my own, and to think about if his dad wasn’t there, and how do I explain that to him.”

Earlier this week, other vigils were held for Kirk across Alberta.

CTV News reported

that hundreds attended a Calgary vigil. Some held signs or candles, and many were singing and praying. Vigils were also held in Edmonton and Red Deer,

per CityNews

.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra reposted a video of the vigil in Calgary. “Thank you, Calgary, for standing with us,”

he wrote on X

.

A large-scale memorial for Kirk is scheduled for

Sept. 21 in Glendale, Arizona at State Farm Stadium

. According to the stadium’s website, it has “a fixed seating capacity of 63,400, expandable to over 73,000 for larger events.”

The event is first come, first serve, with doors opening at 8 a.m. MT.

• Canadian citizens celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death could be impacted by visa revocations, U.S. lawyer says
• Alleged killer of Charlie Kirk emotionless during first court appearance as intent to seek death penalty announced

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The Alberta Court of Appeal has upped the sentence of a child pornographer and child abuser, saying the trial judge made a mistake when refusing to accept a joint sentence submission from the defence and the Crown and declining to view the images made by the accused pedophile.

The accused, who is unnamed and referred to as R.P.A., amassed a collection of child pornography beginning in 2014 and sexually abused his daughter, named only as K.S. in court documents, between 2016 and 2022, and made child pornography featuring her, “mirroring some of the abuse depicted in his acquired collection,” the court ruling says.

He was arrested in 2022 and, on the first day of his trial in 2024, pleaded guilty to charges of sexual interference, making child pornography and possessing child pornography. The graphic collection of child abuse material comprised thousands upon thousands of images and video recordings, including 288 of his daughter, who was four years old when the abuse began.

In the sentencing hearings — the Crown and defence had both called for 18 years imprisonment — the judge expressed concern that similar cases had ended with lower sentences. The Crown “invited (the judge) to view the child sexual abuse material (CASM) to better understand the severity of the offences,” but the judge, Jordan Stuffco, declined.

“Given the explicit descriptions of the CSAM, I did not need to view the images. It was clear the offender committed grave, disturbing offences. Viewing the images would objectively add nothing to what the offender admitted,” Stuffco wrote in his sentence.

The judge also found that sentences of higher than 14 years were “reserved for offenders committing crimes ‘more depraved and egregious than those perpetrated by the offender in the case at bar,’” the Court of Appeal noted. In his sentence, Stuffco concluded that the joint submission was “unhinged and so far out of the appropriate range it offends the public interest test and reflects a breakdown of the proper functioning of the administration of justice.”

The three-member panel of the Alberta Court of Appeal concluded that Stuffco had wrongly opted for a sentence of 14 years less 198 days served.

The judge also erred, the Court of Appeal concluded, in declining to admit as evidence and view the images and videos of child abuse that R.P.A. had kept and created.

“In the case of possession or making of child pornography, the images

are

the crime, so they are by definition relevant,” the court wrote.

However, the justices note that across the country, some judges are refusing to view child sexual abuse material at trial, arguing that they could be prejudiced by viewing such content, that written descriptions appropriately cover off what the material includes and that it contributes to the revictimization of those depicted.

“In short, it appears from a review of these decisions that a presumption has emerged that viewing child sexual abuse material is inherently and deeply prejudicial,” the Court of Appeal wrote.

Other judges, however, have concluded that viewing the material is important to get a full picture of what crime was committed as written descriptions might diminish the shockingness of what occurred.

While the Court of Appeal declined to make a declaration that a judge must always view such images, it did conclude that there are times that the images must be viewed: “In this circumstance, there may be no words that adequately convey the gravity of the offences and the moral culpability of the offender.”

In the end, the Court of Appeal concluded that the judge, in determining that the joint submission was too harsh — a major disagreement between himself and counsel for the Crown and the accused — should have viewed the image submissions.

“He should have done so to ensure that he was not failing to grasp something about the nature and gravity of the offences that could only be appreciated by viewing the material,” the justices wrote.

“As she grows over the next four years, baby teeth are lost, fewer hairbows are worn, and the normalization of the abuse becomes evident.”

• B.C. man’s ‘relatively modest’ child porn collection doesn’t merit jail time, judge rules
• Chris Selley: Governments won’t save your kids from internet smut

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