Jonathan Denis

Jonathan Denis is the son of a soldier in the Canadian forces.[3] He graduated in 1993 from Luther College,[4] a private school in Regina, SK.[5] He received a commerce degree from the University of Regina in 1997 and a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in 2000. While in law school, Denis was invited as a speaker at an international law conference in Montreal, Quebec.[6] In 2018, Denis completed his ICD.D designation with the Institute of Corporate Directors, a program from Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto.[7]

Later in his career, Jonathan completed a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree from the University of Arizona, graduating with high honours.[8]

In 2009, Denis was appointed Queen's Counsel of Alberta.[39] This is a designation given to lawyers who have exhibited "outstanding contributions to the legal profession or in public life".[40]

Denis was also named as one of Avenue Magazine's "Top 40 under 40" in 2010, which the magazine describes as "an annual selection of the brightest and most active leaders under the age of 40".[41]

In 2011, the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation wrote an article praising Denis for reducing spending in his department by 39% while still achieving targets.[22] The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation has also twice given Denis a "nice" award for having the best expenses in the entire Alberta government, calling his expenses "boring".[42]

After leaving politics, Denis became a lawyer for Guardian Law Group in Calgary.[43] In June 2021, Denis represented Edmonton city councillor and mayoral candidate Mike Nickel during a hearing regarding Nickel's personal conduct and use of emails obtained as a councillor for campaign purposes.[44]

In 2021, he was part of a high-profile call by several lawyers advocating for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands to investigate the discovery of 215 deceased indigenous children in Kamloops, BC.[45] The Calgary Herald published an op-ed authored by Denis and two other lawyers regarding this matter.[46]

While no longer named in the lawsuit arising from former Alberta chief medical examiner Dr. Anny Sauvageau's allegations of wrongful dismissal, lawyers at Denis' firm Guardian Law Group [47] representing Denis have threatened future legal action against Dr. Sauvageau on the basis of defamation in the media.[48] Court of Queen's Bench Justice Doreen Sulyma, presiding over the trial, noted that this letter was "unprecedented" in her experience [48] and the timing of the letter as "disastrous".[49] Sulyma found Denis in contempt of court, finding he did intend to intimidate Sauvageau and to "obstruct her testimony and the trial process itself".[50] On October 31, 2022, the Alberta Court of Appeal unanimously overturned the contempt citation and cleared Denis of any wrongdoing,[51] with the Edmonton Journal noting that the ruling from the bench was "rare".[52]

In September 2022 Jonathan Denis apologized for a series of videos released by an anonymous source which showed a crude negative caricature of indigenous people referencing casinos and alcoholism "if they depict real events"; in his apology, Denis claimed he "had no recollection of the events".[53] Calgary City Counsellor Dan McLean who also was in the videos stated "I do want to take responsibility and demonstrate that I am willing to learn to grow, change and be better. That does start with the circle of elders," McLean also stepped down from all City Council boards as a result of the racist videos.[54]

In an interview Craig Chandler who was also in the videos stated that "Some comedy is not politically correct, but this is a private function of my close friends. The video was taken by a close friend, I thought. Quite frankly, this cancel culture is killing society … I should be able to joke on an issue in the confines of my own home."[55]

Chandler went on to say what was said in the videos was correct but only the accent had been altered. In an interview with CBC Chandler would say something else during that interview. He said Denis had a contact in Hollywood who had done an audit of the video. That contact, Chandler said, had determined that though the video was "correct," and the words had been said, the Indigenous accent had been "manipulated" and "exaggerated." [56]

The Western Standard later reported that Reality Defender, a New York based company specializing in deepfake detection, said they were "LIKELY FAKE not 100% fake", giving probabilities of 78%, 66%, and 69% of the three videos having been manipulated.[57] further added only that the Indigenous accent had been "manipulated" and "exaggerated." Reality Defender's report "determined that the audio was 99% likely manipulated".[58]

Symeon Papadopoulos, principal researcher at the Information Technologies Institute and head of the MeVer group, also tested the videos. Papadopoulos stated "...it would be surprising if the videos were fakes, Papadopoulos said. They don't bear any of the usual artifacts of deepfake videos ⁠— artifacts being visual clues left behind in the finished product by the deepfake generation model ⁠— and some angles at which the videos are shot are very challenging to fake."[58]

Regarding manipulating the voices, Hany Farid of the National Academy of Inventors said "Is it possible that somebody took that recording, took the audio of him and put it through some type of morphing, or modulation to change his intonation or his accent? Sure, that's possible. But I don't know a voice modulator that makes you sound insulting."[58]

On August 18, 2023, Andrea Petzold was charged with "extortion, uttering threats, possession of a prohibited firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm and unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon."[59] with specific reference in the RCMP's press release about "a report of an individual attempting to extort money from the victim and threatening to release to the public a reportedly fake video."[60] with Denis being identified as the victim.[61] Petzold was previously facing criminal charges of uttering threats against three other people.[62]

Denis has represented numerous clients in high profile cases, including a class action alleging serial abuse by a former Calgary [63] representing the victim of a random stabbing in downtown Calgary,[64] and a case against a Calgary long term care facility where a senior was allegedly assaulted.[65]

Denis is a member of the Board of Directors of Horizon West Infrastructure Fund [66] and the Board of Advisors of the Global Chamber.[67] He has also been involved in raising funds for charities such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society.[67]