Herald confirms council candidate has past criminal history
By Herald on September 18, 2021.
Lethbridge council candidate Bradley Whalen has a past history of criminal convictions, the Herald has confirmed. Herald file photoTim Kalinowski – Lethbridge Herald
A Lethbridge city council candidate has past convictions for child luring, robbery, having his face masked while committing an offence, theft, two fraud offences, and committing mischief in the form of property damage when he resided in Nova Scotia.
Court documents provided by the Nova Scotia Judiciary Office, and information provided by the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service, indicate that Bradley Lawrence Whalen, also known as Bradley Patrick Allen Sampson, born Oct. 29, 1982, was convicted of eight different offences, and sentenced on April 11, 2006 to over three years in prison to be served at a federal penitentiary.
The Herald has been able to independently determine that the Whalen in Nova Scotia and the one in Lethbridge both share the same birth date.
Whalen/Sampson was arrested and charged with child luring stemming from an incident on March 3, 2006 when he unlawfully used a computer to communicate with a person thought to be under the age of 14 years for the purpose of committing an indecent act. He was sentenced to six months in jail on this charge.
Whalen was also convicted of robbery for stealing from Fairlanes Ltd., a bowling alley in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Sept. 23, 2004, receiving three years on this charge.
Whalen also received prison sentences of one year for having his face masked related to the robbery of the bowling alley, one month for each fraud charge (one committed at Atlantic Superstore and another committed at a business called Ultramar Ltd. in Halifax, NS), and one day for mischief and property damage on a property located in Bedford, NS.
The Herald recently spoke with a former employer of Whalen’s who knew him personally when he was involved with these crimes. This individual, whom we are not identifying publicly, confirmed the local city council candidate and the Whalen/Sampson who committed these crimes in Nova Scotia are the same person.
The Herald did reach out for comment on these matters to Whalen, the owner of Coco Vanilla Cantina and a former mayoral candidate prior to quitting the mayor’s race in favour of running for a council seat.
“I believe your information is incorrect and you may want to reach out to Lethbridge Police before you proceed to slander my name,” Whalen stated in an email response to The Herald when first asked about these convictions in mid-August.
The Herald sought comment from Whalen again prior to publishing this story in the newspaper, but received no response prior to press time on Friday.
Whalen had also recently been under fire after several former female employees publicly accused him of sending inappropriate texts and engaging in other forms of unwanted sexual advances toward them while they were on the job. Whalen referred to the incidents as harmless “flirting” when he spoke to The Herald about them last month, and noted he hadn’t been charged with any crimes over these allegations.
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