Arrest of Regina Man Charged in HW#39 Shooting Death Captured by Dumpster Company
Chris Fahlman - The accused
Tanya was known as “the baby whisperer” and “the animal whisperer” because she could get babies and animals to calm down better than their own parents. Her siblings and friends often relied on her to help with their children, especially on cross country moves. Read her obituary “only the good die young” seems apt for her passing:
https://www.rdfamilymemorialchapel.com/obituary/Tanya-Myers
It’s the kind of story that says everything about Canada’s media landscape in 2025 — a 42-year-old man arrested for manslaughter, a community reeling from the death of a woman described as an “energy healer and animal lover,” and the arrest footage provided not by a traditional news crew, but by Just Bins Waste Disposal.
The video of Chris Fahlman’s arrest in Regina — the man charged in the shooting death of 44-year-old Tanya Myers on Highway 39 — came courtesy of a dumpster-emptying company. Because when Facebook blocks Canadian journalism and Meta laughs at the legislation meant to make them pay, it turns out the only thing reaching your feed these days is a trash bin camera doing the real reporting.
The RCMP Major Crimes Unit arrested Fahlman on Saturday, after a seven-week investigation that pulled together forensic evidence, public tips, and cooperation from multiple law-enforcement agencies. RCMP Sgt. Ashley St. Germaine told media Monday that the investigation determined a firearm was discharged toward the highway, striking two vehicles. One of those bullets killed Myers instantly as she travelled toward Weyburn with a friend on the evening of September 12.
At a briefing, Sgt. St. Germaine said investigators “determined some of those answers,” though she emphasized that motive remains under investigation. There is no known connection between Fahlman and the occupants of the vehicles.
Fahlman now faces four charges: manslaughter with a firearm, careless use of a firearm, carrying a weapon for the purpose of committing an offence, and occupying a motor vehicle knowing there is a firearm inside. He made his first appearance in Regina Provincial Court on Monday morning, appearing via video from custody. The hearing lasted only minutes — just long enough for the Crown to oppose bail and for the case to be adjourned until Friday, November 7, so Fahlman can consult a lawyer. A publication ban is in place on evidence presented at the bail hearing.
If you were following the story earlier in the fall, you might recall that the RCMP had appealed for dash-cam footage and public tips. That plea generated dozens of online discussions — some legitimate, others deeply bizarre — which mushroomed across Facebook in the weeks after Myers’ death.
That’s where the next twist begins.
Before disappearing from Facebook entirely, an account under Fahlman’s name had been active throughout September, sharing posts about gun control, hunting, and a scattering of political memes. The day after Myers’ death, that same account shared the RCMP’s own post about the Highway 39 incident, calling it “disgusting” and asking “what the world is coming to.”
Commenters, ever the armchair detectives of social media, didn’t miss the irony. Some accused him directly, others mocked the sudden moral outrage of a man whose own feed was dotted with firearm photos and videos of shooting ranges. Then, today, the account vanished. (His Instagram and TikTok are still visible)
Fahlman posted images like this one, of himself out hunting, on social media.
Screenshots survived — as they always do — but so did questions about how online ecosystems encourage exactly this kind of performative empathy and denial. The same account reportedly shared a post about the “shooting death of Charlie Kirk” — an event that happened around the same time, and has been heavily saturated with conspiracies and AI-generated misinformation circulating across social media at the time. (it’s a growing / evolving problem - Deepfakes etc)
Every share, every reaction, every “disgusting, what’s the world coming to” post becomes another engagement metric in a system where outrage is the product.
Now place that in the context of rural Saskatchewan — a province where hunting is part of life, firearms are common, and most people are reasonable, law-abiding, and responsible. But also a province increasingly online, increasingly divided, and increasingly flooded by algorithmically-boosted rage bait imported from U.S. culture wars.
I rely on Just Bins for my Regina-based news.
When a woman dies on the side of a prairie highway, and the accused killer’s feed is full of both gun-pride and moral panic posts about violence, it forces an uncomfortable question: are social networks and AI recommendation systems helping to manufacture tragedies like this one?
RCMP investigators aren’t speculating on motive, and neither should the public. But the pattern feels familiar — digital spaces that glorify weaponry, reward emotional reactivity, and blur the line between fiction and news.
That’s what makes the Just Bins Waste Disposal footage such an unintentionally poetic artifact of this era. A blue-collar company, more known for rolling garbage than rolling cameras, ends up documenting the saga, and getting videos and photos from local fans and followers, essentially crowdsourcing the local news. WE LOVE THAT. Meanwhile, legitimate journalists in Canada are still shadow-banned from your feed because Meta refuses to negotiate with Ottawa.
The result: Canadians scrolling social media can’t see the CBC or Global News, but they can watch a dumpster company’s exclusive arrest video. Garbage in, garbage out — literally.
Sgt. St. Germaine thanked the public for its cooperation and cautioned against speculation. “Part of policing is not only finding the answers to what happened,” she said, “but making sure we hold integrity to the investigation so it can proceed fairly in court.”
For Tanya Myers’ family, there’s relief that someone has been charged, but the pain remains. They’ve asked for privacy while expressing gratitude to investigators who “worked tirelessly” to bring answers.
As the case moves forward, one truth remains: Canadian journalism may be blocked on social platforms, but reality has a way of breaking through the algorithm — sometimes in the lens of a garbage truck, sometimes in the silence of a grieving family, and sometimes in the fragments of a deleted Facebook profile that still echo the contradictions of our age.
