Ronald Feniuk, a 61-year-old former Stony Plain basketball coach and Alberta government employee, was sentenced to six months in jail on May 20, 2025, after pleading guilty to possessing child sexual abuse material.
Back in June 2022, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) National Child Exploitation Crime Center received a tip about someone in Alberta uploading child sexual abuse material to a social media platform.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) took over the investigation, and by January 2023, they traced the activity to Ronald Feniuk, a 58-year-old man living in Stony Plain.
On January 19, 2023, police searched his home and seized two phones and a government-issued laptop.
The devices contained disturbing evidence: three videos and 381 images of child sexual abuse, including material showing assaults on young girls.
Some files had been deleted, but thumbnail copies remained in cache folders, which helped police build their case.
Later, Feniuk was arrested and charged with possessing and transmitting child sexual abuse materials.
At the time, he was a well-known figure in Stony Plain; he worked as a policy analyst for the Alberta Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture, coached youth basketball with Parkland Community Basketball, volunteered with Scouts Canada from 2012 to 2019, and taught Sunday school at his church.
Ronald Feniuk Later Pleaded Guilty To Only Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Material!
For almost two years, the case went through the courts. At first, Feniuk was charged with both owning and sharing illegal content, but in October 2024, he admitted to just owning it in an Edmonton court.
After his arrest, ALERT informed Parkland Basketball, which immediately banned Feniuk from the organization.
The group sent a statement to players’ families, assuring them that no members were believed to have been exploited by Feniuk.
Scouts Canada also confirmed that Feniuk had passed their required police checks during his time as a volunteer, and there was no evidence he harmed scouting youth.
The Alberta government fired him from his job soon after the charges were made public.
The investigation, led by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit, found no evidence that Feniuk produced the material or victimized local children. However, the nature of his roles as a coach and volunteer raised concerns about his youth access.
A Stony Plain resident and basketball coach, Ronald Feniuk, aged 60, has admitted to charges of possessing and accessing child pornography during a court appearance at the Court of King's Bench in Edmonton on October 16.
— YEGWAVE (@yegwave) October 22, 2024
Feniuk's arrest occurred at his residence on January 19,… pic.twitter.com/VlcQVKIcd1
Police asked people to share any information, but no more victims were found. It took time to check Feniuk’s devices because investigators carefully studied the evidence to build a strong case.
For nearly two years, the case moved through the legal system. Feniuk was initially charged with both possessing and transmitting child pornography, but by October 2024, he pleaded guilty to a single charge of possession in Edmonton’s Court of King’s Bench.
The plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors, who dropped the transmission charge.
An agreed statement of facts revealed that Feniuk had accessed the material through his devices, including his work laptop, which contained hundreds of images and videos.
During sentencing on May 20, 2025, Crown prosecutor Craig Krieger pushed for a 12- to 18-month jail term, given the severity of the crime and the need to deter others.
Feniuk’s lawyer, Kristofer Advent, argued for a conditional sentence to be served in the community, pointing to Feniuk’s efforts to seek treatment and his history as a victim of childhood abuse.
Advent pointed out that Feniuk lost important parts of his life, like his job and volunteer work.
However, Justice Shaina Leonard decided that a community sentence was too light and stressed how serious it is to have child sexual abuse material.
She sentenced Feniuk to six months in jail, three years of probation, and a 20-year requirement to register as a sex offender.
Leonard also criticized the term “child pornography,” preferring “child sex abuse material” to reflect the non-consensual nature of the content.
