How to use a variable in an if statement in g:evaluate in jelly

[MooseBeast]

Hi - apologies but I am fairly new to jelly, ServiceNow etc

I am trying to use a radio button to either show all records or only those where i am the owner.  I am using local storage to preserve the selection when the page reloads 

Everything is fine including the admin test but i cant get following if statement to xeute - it just ignores it and applies the addQuery anyway - thanks in advance

  if (sMode ='Me') // this isnt executing ***

            gr.addQuery('u_owner',sUserID);

<script>

var sMode = localStorage.getItem("sModeKey");

document.getElementById(sMode).checked = true; // check the displayed option

buildJourneys();

function buildJourneys(){

<g:evaluate var="jvar_journey" object="true" jelly="true">

  // load the journeys

  // ** NEED to only include those the user is allowed to access **

    var objs = [];  

    var sCompanyID = ''+gs.getUser().getCompanyID();

    var sUserID = gs.getUserID();

    var sUserName = gs.getUserName();

    var gr= new GlideRecord('x_ka2_cozpro_journey');

    if (!gs.hasRole('admin'))

        gr.addQuery('u_company',sCompanyID);

    if (sMode ='Me') // this isnt executing ***

            gr.addQuery('u_owner',sUserID);

    gr.orderBy('journey_name');

    gr.query();

    while(gr.next()){

        objs.push({'sys_id': gr.getDisplayValue('sys_id'),

        'number':gr.getDisplayValue('number'),

        'company':gr.getDisplayValue('u_company'),

        'name':gr.getDisplayValue('journey_name'),

        'desc':gr.getDisplayValue('u_description'),

        'owner':gr.getDisplayValue('u_owner'),

        'asset_gen_status':gr.getDisplayValue('u_generation_status'),

        'timestamp_gen_status':gr.getDisplayValue('u_timestamp_status'),

        'status':gr.getDisplayValue('u_status'),

        'status_date':gr.getDisplayValue('u_status_date')

        });

    }

  objs;

 </g:evaluate>

}