Two Winnipeg seniors would still be alive had Ethan Powderhorn received the social supports he needed before setting a $1-million blaze at a downtown Manitoba Housing complex, a lawyer for the 28-year-old mentally disabled man told a judge Monday.
“In my view, these offences were entirely preventable with appropriate levels of support and supervision of Mr. Powderhorn,” defence lawyer Scott Newman told King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond.
“Obviously, the justice system needs to hold Mr. Powderhorn accountable for his actions, for his choices,” Newman said. “But I wonder how many more arsons have to happen, how many more homicides do I have to come to court over where vulnerable accuseds who are flagged as high risk at every stage and need intensive supports are denied those supports for fiscal reasons.”
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Ethan Powderhorn pleaded guilty to manslaughter and arson for the Dec. 25, 2022 fire at the Warwick Apartments on Qu’Appelle Avenue, where Powderhorn was one of approximately 200 tenants.
Powderhorn pleaded guilty to manslaughter and arson for the Dec. 25, 2022 fire at the Warwick Apartments on Qu’Appelle Avenue, where Powderhorn was one of approximately 200 tenants. In a sentence jointly recommended by the Crown and defence Monday, Powderhorn was handed a 15-year prison term.
“I actually agree that this is the right sentence in this case,” Grammond said.
“The events in this case are tragic from beginning to end. Reading Mr. Powderhorn’s file in anticipation of this hearing, it’s one of the worst I have seen. He should never have been living in an apartment by himself, he should not have been living anywhere by himself without the supports that he needed.”
Powderhorn has been diagnosed with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder, has a brain injury and was using the drug “down,” a street opioid, at the time of the fire.
According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Powderhorn was alone in his third-floor suite around 12:20 a.m. when he used a propane torch to light a blanket on fire, which caused the smoke alarm to go off.
A neighbour tried to extinguish the fire before calling 911. Firefighters were able to put it out before it caused significant damage. Firefighters and building security staff told Powderhorn to leave and not come back without permission.
Security video showed Powderhorn returned to his suite about 10 minutes later. At about 4 a.m., he was smoking the drug while using a propane torch, passed out and knocked the torch over, igniting his bed sheets and mattress.
“Ethan knew that lighting a torch in his apartment and smoking drugs could cause a fire inside his apartment,” said the agreed statement of facts. “Ethan also knew that there were hundreds of people living in the apartment building with him at the time. Ethan knew that if a fire started in his apartment, it would be dangerous to everyone in the building.”
Powderhorn’s neighbour again tried to put out the fire, but was turned back by the flames as black smoke filled the entire floor of the building. The neighbour handed Powderhorn a fire extinguisher before leaving to warn other residents to get out of the building.
“The events in this case are tragic from beginning to end. Reading Mr. Powderhorn’s file in anticipation of this hearing, it’s one of the worst I have seen.”–King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond
Powderhorn left his apartment without using the fire extinguisher.
Two neighbours, Roger Glen Doblej, 63, and Suzanne Helen McCooeye, 70, opened the door to their suite and immediately collapsed in the hallway. First responders took them to hospital, where they died of smoke inhalation. Four other residents were treated in hospital and released.
In an interview with police Dec. 30, 2022, Powderhorn said he “has a fascination with fire” and that he set garbage bins on fire weekly, “purely for the fun of it,” said the agreed statement of facts.
Just days before the fatal blaze, Powderhorn removed a mattress from a garbage bin outside the apartment building and set it on fire. When confronted by a neighbour, he ran away.
Earlier that month, he ignited a fire in a garbage bin behind a Kennedy Street apartment complex.
Powderhorn has previous arson convictions. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to arson with disregard for life, and other related offences, for which he was sentenced to 293 days in jail.
He was identified as being at risk before he was even born and has been failed by the system ever since, Newman said.
His mother’s substance abuse while pregnant led Child and Family Services to conclude her son could be born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder or other cognitive challenges, but “nothing seemingly was done at that stage to… head off those concerns,” Newman said.
Between the ages of two and eight, Powderhorn was in and out of foster care before finally becoming a permanent ward of CFS.
By age five, he was entering vacant homes and trying to start fires, with “seemingly no intervention by CFS, police or his mother,” Newman said.
At age eight, Powderhorn’s then-foster parents told CFS they could no longer handle him and that he required intense supervision and therapy to deal with his cognitive challenges. Powderhorn was placed in a hotel for several months before finding a new home with New Directions, which provides housing and support services for adults and children living with mental disabilities. Staff said he participated in counselling and did “exceptionally well” in the highly structured setting before aging out of the program at 13, Newman said.
He returned to the CFS system until he aged out at 18 and “fell off the radar,” Newman said.
Powderhorn was living in Ontario in 2020 when he was assaulted and suffered a serious brain injury, further compromising his intellectual functioning. In 2021, he was unable to care for himself or make day-to-day decisions when a doctor filed an application to place him under the care of the Public Trustee.
“This is the first notation by a professional that he really requires supports,” Newman said.
In 2020, Powderhorn was denied funding to access support services through Community Living Disability Services, because his IQ — 72 — scored just above the 70 IQ basepoint for an intellectual disability. CLDS took the case to the social services appeal board, which granted him coverage in 2021.
Newman said it is unclear how Powderhorn was living alone at the Manitoba Housing complex, with no supports.
“It’s not appropriate for him, given his challenges,” Newman said.
Powderhorn’s drug use has resulted in dozens of overdoses and repeated hospitalizations. In December 2020 alone, he overdosed 11 times. Because of his cognitive challenges, he is unable to understand the need to regulate his drug use to avoid overdosing, Newman said.
“The greatest tragedy in all of this is Mr. Powderhorn isn’t the only person before the courts with cognitive challenges, usually Indigenous, some of them cognitively delayed, who end up before the courts with very serious charges, including manslaughter, where… professionals see trouble coming, and for whatever fiscal reasons, the government doesn’t provide sufficient resources to head off the trouble,” he said.
“The result is that we, as a society, pay the price through physical damage, through physical harm and in death.”
Doblej’s sister Barbara Doblej and McCooeye’s granddaughter Marianne Goebel both provided victim impact statements urging Powderhorn to get the help he needs in prison.
“The way (Doblej) passed away is difficult to come to terms with,” Barbara Doblej said.
“Moving forward will be difficult for you, too, I’m sure, and you have to live with this burden, like us,” she told Powderhorn, who sat in the prisoners box crying. “I want peace for you, too, so you can someday live and have a family of your own.”
Goebel had connected with her grandmother five yeas ago after a lifetime of separation.
“I’m not only grieving a person I loved so deeply, I am grieving the loss of our reconnection,” Goebel said.
“My hope for you, Ethan, is that you move forward with your life and receive the help that you need,” she said. “I’m not able to talk about forgiveness at this time, but I wish you peace, and I wish you safety and I wish you healing.”
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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