EDMONTON – Alberta’s attorney general and justice minister has asked for a judicial review after his federal counterpart ordered a new trial for a man convicted of killing an Edmonton woman almost four decades ago.
Roy Allan Sobotiak was sentenced in 1991 to life in prison for the murder of 34-year-old Susan Kaminsky, but federal Justice Minister Arif Virani has said there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
In a court document filed last week on behalf of Alberta Attorney General and Justice Minister Mickey Amery, lawyer John-Marc Dubé said Virani provided no reasons as to why a new trial is warranted.
“Directing a new trial after determining there is a reasonable basis to concluding a miscarriage of justice likely occurred is an extraordinary remedy,” Dubé said in the filing.
“The public is entitled to receive reasonable, sufficient, intelligible and transparent reasons for the minister’s decision.”
Sobotiak, then 26, was charged with first-degree murder a little more than two years after Kaminsky’s killing in 1987. The Edmonton mother, whose body was never found, was last seen with Sobotiak.
The trial heard he told an undercover police officer that he tortured, sexually assaulted, killed and dismembered Kaminsky before disposing of her body in the garbage.
Sobotiak was convicted of second-degree murder and has been serving his sentence at a federal penitentiary in Alberta. A conviction appeal was dismissed in 1994, and a leave to appeal to Canada’s top court was dismissed in 2004.
Dubé said the province’s justice minister only learned of Virani’s decision to order a new trial one day before a public announcement. Virani told Amery by letter on Feb. 25 that he “thoroughly reviewed the matter,” concluding that a miscarriage of justice “likely occurred.”
The document said the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service must know and understand what led Virani to believe a new trial is warranted.
“By ordering a new trial for Mr. Sobotiak, the Attorney General of Alberta is responsible for reviewing the available evidence and determining if there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction and whether a continued prosecution is in the public interest,” Dubé said in the filing.
“However, without reasons, the Attorney General of Alberta has no discernable way to determine or evaluate the basis of the Minister’s finding … the Attorney General is limited to speculating about the nature of the reasonable grounds to establish the miscarriage of justice occurred.”
Innocence Canada, which worked on Sobotiak’s case, said in February that the 62-year-old Sobotiak has always insisted on his innocence. The organization said it hopes he will be “a free man soon.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2025.
