Canadian soldier accused of trying to kill her children

Woman on trial for allegedly setting fire to her home on CFB Edmonton

A Canadian soldier accused of trying to kill her children by setting fire to her CFB Edmonton home took the kids on a shopping spree in the days leading up to the blaze and wrote a letter to a friend saying she would soon be either dead or in jail, a prosecutor said Monday.

The woman — who cannot be identified under a publication ban to protect the identities of the children — began a long-delayed Court of King's Bench trial Monday on two counts of arson and three counts of attempted murder related to the 2015 blaze.

During the Crown's opening address, prosecutor Dallas Sopko framed the fire as the final act in a bitter custody fight.

“This case is about a mom who came to the conclusion that she would rather kill herself and her three children rather than comply with a court order to give primary custody of the children to an ex-husband she despises,” he said.

Sopko said the accused took the children on an “unusual” shopping spree at West Edmonton Mall starting July 17, 2015, — a few days before they were to return to the primary custody of their father.

Sopko said the mother drained her bank account during the outing, which included a stay at the Fantasyland Hotel.

While at the hotel, the mother is alleged to have used a pad of Fantasyland-branded stationery to write a note to a friend, which begins, “By the time you get this I will either be in jail or dead.”

Sopko said the family then returned to their home on the base. The children were supposed to attend a camp on July 19, 2015, but fell ill and spent the day in their mother's bedroom dozing and watching movies.

The Crown alleges that around 1 a.m. on July 20, 2015, the accused went into the basement and started a fire.

Neighbours noticed the smoke and helped evacuate the house while fire crews made their way to the scene.

Military police conducted two investigations into the cause of the fire in 2015 and 2016 but closed the files without charges.

The case was eventually reopened and the woman was charged in 2019.

Wearing a thick scarf and loose-fitting grey sweater, the woman pleaded not guilty at the start of Monday's trial.

Defence lawyer Curtis Steeves told Justice John Little his client may require occasional breaks due to health issues that “could impact her ability to participate” in the trial.

The Crown began its case by calling Master Cpl. Evan Hensing, a military police investigator, who produced the alleged suicide note from a plastic envelope in his briefcase. Hensing also obtained banking records on the accused's spending, which were entered as evidence.

Court then heard from John Dunbar, a neighbour who was among the first to notice the smell of smoke early July 20, 2015.

Dunbar described leaving his home and hearing a child screaming from the upstairs window of his neighbour's residence. He ran home to grab a ladder and recalled the child repeatedly saying, “I'm going to die,” as he helped the child off the roof.

Another child then emerged from the front door. A second group of neighbours searched the home and located the mother and the third child.

Dunbar and three other rescuers were later awarded medals of bravery by Canada's Governor General.

Dunbar said fire crews took around 15 minutes to respond.

Sopko said the Crown must prove the accused started the fire and intended to cause her children's deaths.

He said the woman is the only one who had the motive and opportunity to do so.

He said the Crown expects to be able to prove mens rea, the mental element of the crime, using the Fantasyland note.

Sopko noted that “ironically” all three of these elements form an acronym: M.O.M.

Two weeks have been scheduled for the trial, which Little is hearing without a jury.