Documents seem to show how Alberta inmate was wrongly released from jail | Globalnews.ca
There’s been another twist in the bizarre case of an Alberta inmate being wrongly released from jail last month.
Global News has been sent documents and email screenshots appearing to show how an alleged fake stay of proceedings letter tricked the justice system into letting out the woman, who has since been sharing her life on the run on social media.
Mackenzie Dawn Hardy, 24, was in custody at the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre (FSCC), after being arrested in Red Deer twice in the span of a week for similar alleged offences back in March involving stolen vehicles, theft, possession of methamphetamine and driving without proper documentation. Hardy told Global News said she is innocent/not guilty of those charges.
A fraudulent “stay letter” was allegedly submitted under the name of a Crown prosecutor and sent through a bogus “defence counsel,” according to a whistleblower Global News has agreed not to identify due to the risk of them losing their job.
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service also told Global News Hardy was released after the correctional centre was presented with fraudulent documents.
The documents sent to Global News this week include what appears to be that letter, along with court documents related to the charges and what look like interactions with people working in Alberta’s justice system.
The emails are dated April 25 — the day Hardy was released from the jail northeast of Edmonton.
They appear to show conversations with someone posing as a Crown prosecutor and Alberta Justice department employees.
The correspondence uses the identity of a real Crown prosecutor (whose name Global News is not disclosing), but the email address is a fake and altered to look similar to the standard email addresses used by the province’s attorneys.
Global News has not verified the identity of the anonymous person who provided the documents, but we can say metadata in those documents leads our team to believe they are the ones used to free Hardy.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The person who sent the documents used a Proton Mail email address, which is used by some people to remain anonymous and untraceable.
“What happened wasn’t some elaborate scheme on (Hardy’s) part. It was me acting alone. And I did it to expose how dangerously unprotected our justice system is,” the emailer claimed in their memo sent to Global News and Alberta Justice on Monday night, alleging they have been quietly researching Alberta’s court and corrections processes.
“This wasn’t a hack. This wasn’t insider access. This was a stress test using nothing but public resources, basic social engineering, and a system too trusting of its own paperwork.”
Their claims have not been proven and they would not disclose their identity to Global News.
After reading the letter allegedly used to facilitate her release, an Alberta criminal defence lawyer who does not represent Hardy said it looks legitimate.
“That is one pretty professional, believable looking letter,” Ari Goldkind said. “That is a pretty good dupe and whoever relied on it, I don’t think should be faulted.
“I think the fault lies with the person who committed the fraud — not the person who fell for it.”
The alleged fraudster claimed they do not know Hardy, have never spoken to her and picked her as their test subject because her court information was readily available.
Global News interviewed Hardy on Saturday after she surfaced online, posting videos to TikTok under the handle kensies.on.the.lamb.
The first post on the account contained Global News’ first story about her release. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had more than 150,000 views.
In some of the videos, she appears to taunt police and the justice system. Goldkind believes that may come back to bite her.
“Particularly, the one that calls the prison officers and police ‘piggies.’ The taunting of the jail officials that released her I think will be a big problem for her when she’s caught, wherever she’s caught — whether it’s in Alberta or Canada wide.”
“I think that that kind of speaks volumes and we’ll just see how seriously a judge takes this when she is caught.”
Hardy did not tell Global News where she is, only stating she isn’t in Alberta anymore and had nothing to do with her own release. There is a warrant out for Hardy’s arrest in Alberta, but RCMP said it could be extended if she is found in another province.
“The most important thing she can do to try and reverse this and come clean is turn herself in,” Goldkind said.
“The courts look very differently on a person who turns themselves in as opposed to two officers having to get on a plane with a Canada-wide warrant and bringing her back because they arrested her while hiding.
“Makes a very, very big difference in our system. “
Hardy said while in jail, she was pursuing bail because her boyfriend had been diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor and has about a year left to live. Global News has not verified that claim.
Hardy told Global News she heard from her lawyer after a week of being released, saying she wasn’t supposed to be out.
When speaking with Global News on the weekend, Hardy said she does not currently have a lawyer, and she hasn’t thought about the legal consequences her boyfriend could face if he assists Hardy in continuing to be on the run.
Goldkind said fraud of this scale does not happen often and when the alleged perpetrator is found, their punishment needs to serve as a deterrent.
“I think the attention really has to come on finding the person who wrote the fraudulent letter, prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law and using them as an example.”
Last week when Global News broke the story, the province’s department of public safety said it is investigating what happened.
On Tuesday, the department said it has made changes as a result of this investigation but did not disclose what those changes were for security reasons.
Global News has reached out to the RCMP for an update on the whereabouts of Mackenzie Hardy, but as of publishing had not heard back.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
