Man who left mom to die on floor released on bail

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This article was published 06/03/2020 (2204 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man convicted of leaving his elderly mother to die on the floor after she fell out of bed has been released on bail, pending his appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Ronald Siwicki, 67, was released from custody Thursday, nearly five months after the Manitoba Court of Appeal overturned his 90-day jail sentence for criminal negligence causing death and replaced it with one of 21 months.

“He was unbelievably happy, he was crying, he became very emotional,” said his lawyer Mike Cook.

Siwicki won his release following a hearing before Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Jennifer Pfuetzner.

Siwicki admitted he had left his 89-year-old mother Elizabeth Siwicki on the floor for about three weeks after she fell out of bed in November 2014. Court heard at Siwicki’s 2018 sentencing his mother did not want him to call for medical help and he left her on the floor until she developed bedsores, which became infected and caused fatal sepsis.

Siwicki, who lived with his mother all his life, gave her daily nutritional supplement drinks and water, but didn’t call 911 or try to clean her up until she had died.

Prosecutors had recommended Siwicki be sentenced to nearly three years in prison, but Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche ruled that too harsh, saying Siwicki acted not out of cruelty or self-interest, “but out of ignorance and a misplaced sense of loyalty or obedience.”

Prosecutors appealed the 90-day sentence, with the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruling last October that Suche erred in focusing on Siwicki’s personal circumstances, instead of denunciation and deterrence.

“These errors affected the sentence in more than an accidental way and, in my view, resulted in a sentence that is demonstrably unfit,” Justice Janice leMaistre said in a written decision on behalf of the three-judge panel.

Justice Michel Monnin came to a dissenting conclusion, finding that the original sentence was “fit and proper,” opening the door to a defence appeal before the Supreme Court.

“Essentially we are arguing the moral blameworthiness of Ronald Siwicki,” Cook said. “I’m saying his moral blameworthiness is a little bit less because of the very unique relationship he had with his mom.

“This case stands on its own, but it probably has a broader application with Canadian society about adult people refusing medical help,” Cook said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca