CTV Regina's top trending stories of 2024

Top trending stories of 2024 in Sask. WATCH: Cole Davenport brings us the top trending stories of the year in Saskatchewan.

Whether it was hard news or light-hearted features, the year of 2024 hosted some very compelling stories – with several being widely shared online and reaching new audiences.

According to the numbers, here were the top viewed stories on CTV News Regina in 2024.

7. Fire and brimstone

A Regina church was the victim of attempted arson early in 2024. While not a rare occurrence – what was rare was the fact the crime was captured on video, by none other than the church’s doorbell camera.

The footage was shared by Priest James Hentges of Regina’s Blessed Sacrament Parish, and showed a masked individual empty a jerry can near the office entrance of the church.

After several failed attempts, the suspect lit the contents of the can on fire – and nearly themselves in the process.

An investigation into the incident by the Regina Police Service (RPS) began immediately and eight days later, officers arrested 31-year-old Jordan Willet and charged him with arson, disguise with intent, as well as failure to comply with a probation order.

6. A ‘Sweet Escape’ gone wrong

The inaugural running of a music festival in the heart of Regina’s downtown got a lot of attention – and not necessarily for the right reasons.

The Sweet Escape Festival was billed as a two-day event held from Aug. 30th-31st which would include 24 hip hop artists and DJs in Regina’s Victoria Park.

However, the festival was marred by a lack of security, lack of advertised services and several performers taking the stage and claiming they were not paid by the event’s promoters.

“It felt weird because, like there was a fight on the left of the stage and then on the right, like there's going to be a brawl at some point and get trampled or something,” Travis Murray, who attended the festival, explained.

“It didn't feel very safe.”

To supplement the lack of security, RPS increased its presence in the downtown.

Ultimately no arrests connected to the event were made – and the festival’s promoters claimed all performers were eventually paid.

Regardless, those who attended and spoke with CTV News said they wouldn’t be lining up for another Sweet Escape Festival.

5. Regina contractor pleads guilty to $275K fraud

A Regina fraud case came to an end after the owner of Prairie Boy Windows and Doors pleaded guilty to defrauding more than 50 of his customers out of a combined $275,000.

Beginning in June of 2022, victims began coming forward to RPS, alleging that a local contractor requested a deposit and then failed to complete any of the promised repair work to their homes.

Individual payments from victims ranged from $700 to $18,000. The reported fraud lasted from April of 2021 to June of 2022 and cost a total of $277,787.75.

RPS arrested Prairie Boy’s owner, Joseph Alan Myers, on Dec. 6, 2023.

During court proceedings, it was explained that Myers used the funds from customer’s deposits to pay for day-to-day operations of his business – including salaries for employees.

Additionally, by the time of the trial’s conclusion, Myers had paid the full amount of lost funds into a trust where it would be distributed back to the victims.

As a result of the restitution, Myers avoided jail time.

“I do feel awful,” Myers said during proceedings. “It just snowballed.”

“I apologize to everybody for what I put you through,” he added. “I am sorry.”

4. Moving to Moosomin

The town of Moosomin, Sask. moved into the limelight in 2024 as it unveiled its plan to double its population – by offering $30,000 cheques to those building homes in the community.

“A cheque will be cut from the town directly to the builder, so hopefully that will attract some developers or people just building their own home,” Coun. Murray Gray told CTV News.

Moosomin has seen an uptick in construction in recent years but is now looking add more homes for new workers coming in.

The incentives were made possible by the federal government’s housing accelerator fund.

The community of just 2,600 residents is excited to expand and grow.

“It’s tremendous to see a community take a step forward with all the good things that have been happening between adding daycares and our busy hospital, we have 14 doctors,” Gray explained.

“A lot of those things create an excitement in our community and people are proud of our community and our area.”

In Saskatchewan, a community must have a sustained population of at least 5,000 before it can be under consideration to become a city.

3. Refusing a breath sample

A court decision revolving around a traffic stop in Regina raised fundamental questions about where police powers lie when demanding breath samples from drivers.

The decision, published in late October, found that an RCMP officer who had pulled over a driver in Regina after receiving an impaired driving report had made several errors and ultimately did not have the authority to demand a breath sample from Victoria Kopperud.

After boxing Kopperud into her parking spot at her place of work, Cst. Rinholm demanded a breath sample. When she questioned the officer’s authority, he responded by saying:

“In Saskatchewan, if I find you driving a vehicle, I can make a demand that you provide a breath sample – ok – I don’t have to have any reason. I could randomly see you on the street, stop you, for no other reason than to have you provide a breath sample."

Kopperud refused twice more before being arrested and charged for her refusal. She was never charged with any impaired driving or traffic safety infraction.

In his decision, Justice Rybchuk noted that the Traffic Safety Act allows officers to conduct random stops on highways – an authority that does not transfer to private parking lots – where Kopperud was stopped.

Additionally, Rinholm did not witness any erratic driving or signs of impairment from Kopperud – meaning his stop and his breath sample demand were not lawful.

Rybchuk went on to highlight that the decision does not raise any incentive for citizens to withhold their cooperation with police requests on private property – but rather acts as a “consequence of the courts’ responsibility to address and uphold Charter rights.”

2. Space junk lands in Sask.

A group of farmers near Ituna, Sask. were bewildered after finding several strange objects lying in their fields.

"From a far distance we thought it was garbage and then after that we got closer. We don't know what it is,” explained Barry Sawchuk, of Sawchuk 89 Farms.

The largest piece, weighing around 100 pounds was brought to the Sawchuk farm as the family searched for answers.

Discussions quickly pointed to the debris being from a satellite.

Several astronomers agreed with the theory, pointing to the re-entry path of a SpaceX rocket that passed directly over Saskatchewan in February of 2024.

It would not be the first time a piece of debris from space landed in Saskatchewan – as a similar incident was reported near Wollaston Lake in 1968.

"Wollaston Lake in 1968, a hunter found something kind of like that. It was a little more metallic but it turned out to have been a part of a satellite, possibly even Canada’s own Alouette satellite,” science writer Chris Rutkowksi explained.

In June, two men who identified themselves as employees of SpaceX travelled to the Sawchuk farm to collect the eight separate pieces of space junk that had been recovered from five farms in the area.

Sawchuk was reportedly compensated by the aerospace company – and he planned to donate the funds to Ituna’s community ice rink.

1. Holy Grail of hockey cards

Saskatchewan was host to “the greatest unopened find in the 21st century” according to Heritage Auctions – when a case of 16 boxes of O-Pee-Chee hockey cards were discovered in a Regina basement.

For serious collectors, only 20 of the approximately 7,680 cards mattered – as they represented the statistical probability of how many pristine 1979-1980 Wayne Gretsky rookie cards might be inside.

According to Steve Hart of the Baseball Card Exchange in Indiana, the owner, who remained anonymous, believed they had cards from Gretsky’s sophomore professional year in the NHL – which are far less valued.

“The family who have had this case for 40 some years, always assumed this was a 1980 case of hockey [cards], Hart said. “That’s not so bad [worth] $300,000 to $350,000, but one day someone finally asked them, ‘You might want to check and see what’s exactly in there.’”

The discovery captured international attention and led to a multimillion-dollar bidding war, with the cards fetching $5 million CAD at online auction.

“Up until now we weren’t exactly sure one of these existed, Hart added. “This is absolutely unbelievable.”