Arson case related to cemetery fire adjourned once again
By Lethbridge Herald on February 7, 2026.
By Alejandra-Pulido Guzman
Lethbridge Herald
The case of Audrey Small Legs, who is charged with arson in relation to a fire that burned through a southside coulee and areas of the Mountain View Cemetery, appeared in court Friday.
A representative of Robin McIntyre, lawyer of Small Legs, appeared in court Friday to apply for McIntyre to be removed as council on record due to a breakdown of the solicitor-client relationship.
Because of this, the case was adjourned for a week to provide Small Legs with sufficient time to contact Legal Aid and obtain a new lawyer.
Small Legs charges stem from an incident earlier this year, when on January 13, at approximately 12:45 p.m., police and Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services responded to a report of a fire in the coulees between the 1200 and 1600 blocks of Scenic Drive South near Mountain View Cemetery.
Crews from five stations responded and extinguished the flames. A number of homes and buildings in the Scenic Heights apartment complex were evacuated as a precaution, but no one was injured.
Police on scene were alerted to a suspicious female running from the fire. She was quickly located near the cemetery fence line and taken into custody without incident. Investigation determined witnesses had observed a lone female near the fire who proceeded to flee as it spread rapidly due to the wind.
Personal property belonging to the subject was seized nearby along with a lighter. The woman was subsequently charged with arson.
There was no damage to gravestones in the cemetery and firefighters remained on scene for several hours after the fire to ensure there were no flare-ups.
Small Legs is charged with three counts of arson, disregard for human life and failing to comply with the conditions of a probation order.
Small Legs will be in court on Feb. 13 to be able to obtain a new lawyer.
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I am trying to be optimistic there will be justice served in this matter, but it already appears that once again the judicial system is been played by the offender.
When you look at close the fire came to some of the homes south of the cemetery, up to the fencelines, the trees that are not going to survive by the cemetery, and there were ornamental flowers damaged on some of the gravestones, mostly in our Veterans section . . . you must make sure a deterrent is set . . . I don’t care if the outcome is a certain amount of time in drug treatment, completing that treatment or both mental health and addiction treatment, or if refused, incarceration, but there has to be a message sent!
If incarcerated, how will that help? Our penal system is a joke and there are 5 Overdose Prevention Sites in our Canadian Penitentiaries where inmates can go to do drugs. Drugs they get smuggled in!!! Our local correctional facility is not immune to drug use issues and from time to time there are overdoses there as well.
So until the feds get their act together and change policies and secure prisons and focus are actually rehabilitating offenders, I have little faith in most getting rehabilitated in them . . . in fact, some have gone in not being an addict and come out an addict!
-Function: Inmates use their own (smuggled) drugs under the supervision of medical staff, who are on standby with oxygen and naloxone in case of an overdose.
-Needle Exchange Program (PNEP): Separately, a Prison Needle Exchange Program (PNEP), which provides sterile equipment but does not supervise the injection, was operating in nine (9) federal penitentiaries as of 2022.
-Scope: These sites are located within the health-care sections of specific federal prisons (serving sentences of two years or more), and there has been discussion and some opposition to implementing them in provincial jails.
How sad it is that we cannot even secure a ‘secure’ facility like a jail!!!
There are several hotspots in the coulees the addicts who refuse to use the shelter frequent. . . . One area which seems to be picking up in this warm weather, is near the Galt Museum in view as you walk in the entrance and look West . . .there are 3 areas flattened down within 50 feet where they have been hanging out in the bushes, with the garbage slowly building up, and those tall bushes are tinder dry! Luckily the Galt is a brick building with concrete around it!
There are also others who are sleeping rough around that building on benches and it is easy to spot . . . with their cardboard left and all the other garbage!
It is only a matter of time before the bushes go up in flames near the Galt Museum when an addict builds a warming fire and it gets out of control!
I know many of the hotspots and walk by them often . . . is there no one on the city payroll who can do this and be proactive in dealing with the issues instead of waiting until the public calls in the issue?
That is a problem in itself, because when the public calls in an encampment, a process begins which takes too long, is getting to heavy with several agencies and often takes a week to see the encampments removed, then no one is assigned to make sure that those removed, don’t just set up again.
Like a make work project that will never see an end to cleaning up the encampments!! It isn’t rocket science!
I have researched encampment strategies across North America, and you must stop them when they first setup, and prevent them from setting up again!
Our shelter has room for these people but they will not stay there because it constricts their criminal activities. For Lethbridge, most you see sleeping rough or in encampments are committing criminal acts and by doing so continue to increase their lawlessness, increasing crimes.
We have dedicated people willing do the job, but some in leadership have bound their hands from doing so! Time to get out of their way and let them do their jobs please!
I do hope Audrey Small Legs gets the help she needs so she can live a life that isn’t on the streets . . . life on the streets often leads to early death!