'Nothing short of insanity,' advocates say of sentence for man with recovery centre success story

Early last fall, Ethan Wildcat’s life was on the upswing.

He had spent the last couple of years undergoing a recovery program at Winnipeg’s Morberg House while facing serious drug and weapon charges, a program that provided schooling and allowed him to reconnect to his Indigenous culture.

But then, in November, the 22-year-old was sentenced to three years in prison, despite a similar case receiving a conditional sentence order from the same judge only a week before.

What was shaping up to be a success story for an emerging model of recovery for those struggling with addiction was stopped in its tracks, advocates say. Now they’re hoping that an appeal could set things right.

“Ethan Wildcat came into our program, and the young person who was the least likely to succeed … he excelled beyond expectations, like incredibly so,” Marion Willis, of Morberg House, told CTV News.

“The sentence is nothing short of insanity, in my view.”

The program at Morberg House was one of the first times in Wildcat’s life that he had hope for a different future for himself.

“I felt like I was living on the other side, you know what I mean? Like, not in the problem,” he said. “I got a break from all the negativity, I would say, for a little bit. It was good.”

Wildcat comes from an Alberta First Nation, forced out because of gang violence. He had little schooling, and from the age of 16, he was on his own.

By 19, he was in Winnipeg, and was arrested, intoxicated, after “accidentally firing a shotgun” in a house of full of people and children.

Police said they found more weapons and ammunition, as well as drugs.

Wildcat said he was addicted to cocaine and opioids at the time, and the night he was arrested is still a blur in some ways.

“Before I was arrested, that’s all it was, just crime. I just grew up in the problem, I guess.That’s all I knew,” he said.

He pleaded guilty, and was placed into a recovery program at Morberg House.

There, he would spend the next two years addressing long-buried issues and achieving goals that previously had seemed impossible.

“I really liked it there. I felt safe,” he said.

“I met a lady named Marion. She was kinda like a mom to me, I would say.”

Willis said that Wildcat was a first for the program due to his age — most people at the program were older than him.

“We accepted him because he was facing serious charges but he had no criminal record, and he would be the youngest person that we would ever take into Morberg House,” she said.

For his first six weeks, Wildcat was slow to open up, she said, and they were worried he might even flee.

“Once Ethan realized that he was safe there, he settled in,” she said. “He was no longer shy. He was bubbly, he was happy.”

Soon, Wildcat was thriving within the program, beating his addictions and working hard to make up for lost years of schooling, according to those who witnessed his success.

When he arrived, he had “very low Grade 3 and Grade 5 literacy and math skills,” Willis said.

“By the time that Ethan was sentenced, he was ready to start Grade 9. That’s just how dedicated he was.”

He started working in an outreach program helping others, earning his own paycheque and paying child support for his son.

And the program connected him with an elder in Winnipeg who helped him learn about his Indigenous culture.

“I never used to do that before,” Wildcat said. “Started out with sweat lodges, and then fasting, and then he asked me if I wanted to go to a Sun Dance. And I went to the Sun Dance and it was good. I liked it. And then he asked me if I wanted to dance.”

But the unexpected ruling in November changed the trajectory Wildcat was on.

“I was supposed to dance this year,” he said. “I’ll go eventually.”

In the decision sentencing Wildcat to three years, the judge noted “significant Gladue factors” — a term that refers to a Supreme Court ruling that Canadian courts must consider an Indigenous offender’s background when sentencing them for a crime — as well as “strong rehabilitation efforts,” but found that they weren’t exceptional. And Wildcat, she said, was motivated by greed.

Just a week before, the same judge had sentenced another young man who was also addicted, facing serious weapons charges and in the same rehab program at Morberg House.

That offender, who came from a white, middle-class family, was given a conditional sentence order, while Wildcat was sent to the penitentiary.

“We bring him from the hood into Morberg’s House,” Willis said. “He spends two years with us, excels beyond everyone’s expectations, wants to stay, wants to continue on.”

“And then we go to court, and the judge took it all away from him.”

The decision is baffling not just to Willis, but to some other experts as well.

“They were eligible, both eligible for a (conditional sentence order), and yet only one got the benefit of that, and not the other, and I don’t know why,” Debbie Buors told CTV News.

Buors is a former Crown attorney. She’s not connected to this case, but shared her view of the ruling with CTV News.

“Jail is just a stop-gap measure,” she said. “To keep society safe, we need to put the resources at the front end, and that’s not happening.”

For a time, the system seemed to be working for Wildcat. He found success in restorative justice. Until it was taken away.

“Ethan feels betrayed,” Willis said. “He feels betrayed by the system, and what’s extremely heartbreaking for me is he feels betrayed by us too.”

When Wildcat heard the sentence, it registered as a “weird feeling in my body,” he said. “Nervous, like really nervous. I don’t know, scared, I guess.”

He said he was blindsided.

“Felt betrayed from them,” Wildcat said. “Everybody got my hopes up. I didn’t expect to come to jail at all.”

“I went in there thinking I was going to stay at Morberg House.”

Now after four months in prison, there is new hope. Lawyers are working on an appeal for Wildcat, one that will hopefully see his life returned to the path Morberg House had put him on.