System ‘isn’t working’ for some: lawyer

The suicide of a young Indigenous man is raising questions about the province’s efforts at reconciliation in the justice system.

Ethan Wildcat was arrested in 2021 at age 19 following a gun incident at a Winnipeg home that resulted in no injuries. The first-time offender pleaded guilty in court and received a three-year prison sentence.

A formal Gladue report was not prepared for the sentencing.

“Our system isn’t working the way it’s supposed to,” said criminal defence lawyer and MLA Mark Wasyliw, noting Indigenous Manitobans make up 18 per cent of the general population and 82 per cent of those incarcerated.

“There needs to be a separate, independent Gladue report system that is not part of corrections and is well-funded and can find wraparound supports for those they are assessing,” he said.

A Gladue report can identify relevant systemic and background factors in an Indigenous offender’s life that a court can take into consideration when sentencing.

Manitoba does not have a publicly funded Gladue program. They are prepared privately by Indigenous organizations or by probation officers as “a Gladue component” of pre-sentence reports, as was the case for Wildcat.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the province is working on a number of fronts to improve the justice system for Indigenous Manitobans.

He called the death of Wildcat “an absolute tragedy.”

Wildcat was released on bail to St. Boniface recovery centre Morberg House while awaiting sentencing. In the 20 months he spent at the facility, he embraced the idea of a life beyondgangs, guns and drugs, Morberg House executive director Marion Willis previously told the Free Press.

“My heart goes out to the family,” Wiebe said. “This is the kind of outcome that we’re trying to avoid with better support for the Gladue process and, more broadly, supporting Indigenous people in a variety of ways in our justice system, such as restorative justice, incorporating Indigenous cultural practices, Indigenous court navigators. These are all ways that we can help to avoid the kind of tragic outcome that we saw here.”

Nearly 1,400 Gladue reports are prepared every year — with probation officers doing most of the work, Wiebe said.

“The path forward is to partner with Indigenous organizations because they have the expertise and the knowledge, and we know with the proper funding, they can really write the kinds of reports that will have the biggest impact on the justice system,” the minister said.

There were 1,276 Gladue reports prepared during the 2024-25 fiscal year and 1,351 in 2025-26, according to numbers provided by the province.

Wiebe said more cases than ever have been diverted to the restorative justice system.

In 2020-21, 4,046 Crown diversions took place, and by 2024-2025, there were 8,175.

“This is a way that we can address those root causes through the Gladue report writing process, understanding what those root causes are and then, where appropriate, move people through to the restorative justice program… This is a positive step forward,” Wiebe said.

The minister said Crown attorneys consider restorative justice approaches in all cases.

”They’ve taken these recommendations from the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, the Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission. These are the ways that we’re going to impact that over-representation,” he said.

Wildcat was living in an Edmonton halfway house last November when he was picked up by family and driven to visit his mother at nearby Ermineskin Cree First Nation. He panicked after family members didn’t return to pick him up later in the day, believing he would be sent back to prison.

He died by suicide in the basement of his mother’s home.

The Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys declined Monday to comment on the value of Gladue reports.

The Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba was not available for comment.

One member of the association says Premier Wab Kinew has made matters worse in Manitoba.

“He has doubled down on tough-on-crime policies,” said Wasyliw, the independent member for Fort Garry who’s been an outspoken critic of Kinew since being ousted from the NDP caucus in September 2024.

“We are arresting more people. Our jails are double- and triple-bunked and over capacity on the NDP watch,” Wasyliw said.

In March, Wiebe promised an additional $14 million in funding for corrections this year. Wasyliw said there appears to be no impetus to reduce the number of arrests.

“People are trauma-affected — that’s how they get into conflict with the law,” Wasyliw said. “We don’t deal with that trauma and wonder why people reoffend,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca