Accused arsonist's notebook suggested plans for future Winnipeg targets: search warrant docs

Jesse Wheatland, 35, was supercharged after a months-long string along of fires go under end-to-end 2025, including at restaurants and clubs in Winnipeg's downtown and change District, a provincial treatment centre and the constituency offices of Manitoba cabinet ministers Nahanni Fontaine and Bernadette Smith.

Those claims are among many unproven allegations made in the documents by police, as they tried to get warrants to search for evidence in the case.

Police allege in those documents that during searches of a storage unit and an apartment linked to Wheatland after his arrest, they found a long list of potentially fire-starting items. Some of those were seized by the bomb unit, including a Molotov cocktail in a Jose Cuervo bottle.

Those searches also allegedly turned up a cigarette wrapper with a "target list" on the blank side, a training program on transporting dangerous goods and a note about a plan to commit arson at 190 Disraeli Fwy.

Court documents say Wheatland, who remains in custody, is charged with setting a fire to a hydro transformer near that site last August, where the province previously planned to open a supervised consumption site. A plan for a different location was announced in September, following opposition from area residents.

Wheatland had previously voiced concerns in a Facebook group about the government's plans to open the site there.

Former employers among Winnipeg businesses allegedly targeted by accused arsonist

Police allege after Wheatland's arrest, he admitted to setting several fires he was accused of — at a number of restaurants and bars, and Fontaine and Smith's offices — and discussed plans for future arsons, including at Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara's office.

In a statement, Asagwara wouldn't comment on specific allegations in the search warrant documents because the case is still before the courts, but called the incidents "frightening."

"BIPOC, women and 2SLGBTQI+ leaders face disproportionate levels of threats, harassment and intimidation simply for showing up in public life," the statement said.

That "can have a chilling effect, especially for people from communities that have too often been pushed out of politics and public leadership."

Wheatland, who is considered innocent unless proven guilty in court, is scheduled to stand trial before a judge next year. His lawyer, Martin Glazer, didn't respond to a request for comment by deadline.

The court documents also say Wheatland ended up on investigators' radar after a fire at La Roca Mexican restaurant in downtown Winnipeg last November. Surveillance video showed a man hopping a fence onto the patio, climbing a set of stairs and pouring fluid under a section of tarped-off tables, before starting a fire and taking off, the documents say.

There wasn't much distinctive about the man's appearance in the video: dark clothes, gloves, black runners with white soles and something covering his face. But police did notice one thing — he walked with a limp in his left leg.

Two days later, police were at the Tipsy Cow restaurant on Portage Avenue for a similar fire when a constable noticed a man nearby, walking with a limp and wearing black runners with white soles.

He said his name was Jesse Wheatland, the documents allege, and told the constable he'd been in the area for the Santa Claus Parade before going home and returning for a walk. When officers asked if he'd seen anything suspicious, Wheatland allegedly described a man in yellow clothing outside a nearby Giant Tiger store.

That's when police decided to start surveillance on Wheatland, the documents say, hoping to confirm or rule him out as a suspect as they investigated a string of overnight arsons stretching back to June.

Not long after, officers allegedly watched Wheatland set a fire at the River Point Centre treatment facility on Magnus Avenue. He ran away before detectives could get him, but they found him later that morning at a bus stop on Main Street, carrying a leg brace he said he used for a torn quadricep, the documents say.

After Wheatland's arrest, police searched two locations linked to him: an apartment on St. Mary's Road, where an old friend told police Wheatland stayed a couple of times a week, and a four-by-four-foot storage unit on Higgins Avenue, where Wheatland's father said his son sometimes slept, the documents allege.

The father had rented the unit for Wheatland earlier in 2025, "when Wheatland had become transient," the documents say.

The man who lived at the St. Mary's apartment, which Wheatland had given police as his address, told police he and Wheatland had been friends since kindergarten. 

Accused arsonist's notebook had plans for future targets, police allege

He said Wheatland had messaged him on Facebook in August 2025 — during the string of arsons — asking if he could leave some things at his place, before bringing over items including a laptop, a TV, some bags and a butane tank, the documents say.

The man told police "he did not know Wheatland's regular place of residence," and said Wheatland on occasion gave him $10 to stay there. 

He said while Wheatland would sometimes knock on his window to get inside as late as 2 a.m., he never made any comments about fires, and the man never saw any injuries or burns on him.

The man said he believed Wheatland had a job, "and has seen him leave for such in the mornings," the documents say. "He does not, however, know Wheatland's occupation."

Wheatland's trial is scheduled to start in May 2027.

Reporter

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