Judge grants Calgary police a year to search former mayor's and councillor's seized phones

A Calgary judge has ruled that police can hold onto iPhones seized from former mayor Jyoti Gondek and former city councillor Sean Chu for up to a year while investigators continue working to unlock them.

Justice Allan Fradsham approved the extension on Wednesday, July 22, saying the devices "continue to be necessary for the purposes of the investigation" and that Calgary Police Service has met the legal threshold for keeping them. Police seized the phones in March as part of a probe into allegations of municipal corruption.

The core problem: investigators can't fully unlock the devices using Cellebrite, the software police typically rely on to access phones. Detective Matt White, leading the investigation, said in a sworn affidavit that the phones cannot be "brute forced" with current technology. Police are banking on a future Cellebrite update that would crack the latest iPhone security functions, though there's no guarantee when—or if—that will happen.

Fradsham acknowledged the investigation has "reached an impasse" but said he's satisfied police intend to continue once technology permits. "This is not a case of an investigation having been metaphorically left to languish, out-of-mind, in a file drawer," he wrote.

The investigation centers on a land-use vote in Bankview that took place July 16, 2025. The vote initially tied 6-6, then was revisited after Chu tabled a reconsideration motion. In the second vote, it passed 8-5 after Chu changed his position and Gondek—who was absent the first time—cast her vote. Police believe the locked phones contain evidence related to the circumstances surrounding those votes.