Family of man found not criminally responsible in parents' deaths suing health officials
CBC
The family of a couple killed by their son in 2021 is suing Manitoba health officials, alleging the man sought help for mental health issues before the killings but did not get adequate care.
Last week, Trevor Farley, 39, was found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder in the Oct. 27, 2021, deaths of his parents, Judy Swain and Stuart Farley. Farley also attacked his former supervisor at a Winnipeg hospital on the same day.
A statement of claim filed Tuesday with Manitoba Court of King's Bench by three of his siblings — Russell Farley, Paul Farley and Sharon MacLeod — alleges the Mental Health Crisis Response Centre in Winnipeg failed to properly care for Trevor when he went there for help a day before the killings.
It names as defendants the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and the Winnipeg-Churchill Health Region — the legal entities responsible for health-care services and facilities in Winnipeg — as well as the provincial health organization, Shared Health.
The statement of claim says on or about Oct. 26, 2021, Trevor went to the Mental Health Crisis Response Centre — next to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg — in an effort to seek assistance for mental health issues and spent the night there.
Between 12:24 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 27, he was assessed by a clinician at the crisis centre and reported experiencing "delusions and hallucinations as well as suicidal thoughts," the statement of claim says.
A few hours later — around 8:50 a.m.— he was assessed by a physician assistant at the centre and it was decided he should undergo an involuntary psychiatric assessment, the statement of claim said. At that point, a physician at the centre completed what's known as a "Form 4."
A Form 4 allows an individual to be taken to a psychiatric facility for an assessment by a psychiatrist when they are either unwilling or unable to consent to a voluntary assessment.
If a person under a Form 4 is deemed to be at risk of harming themselves or someone else, they are to be moved to a locked, secure room under the constant supervision of staff, the lawsuit says.
However, the Crisis Response Centre is not a locked facility, meaning that unless a person is in a locked room, they may be able to leave.
The suit says although he was under the "belief he was a prophet, having delusional and auditory hallucinations and … suffering from intense suicidal thought," Trevor was not placed in a locked room for monitoring, "contrary to established procedure."
About three hours after being seen by the physician assistant at the crisis centre and at some point after the Form 4 was completed, he left the centre.
Staff called 911 so police could look for him, the statement of claim said.
As a Manitoba court heard earlier this month, Trevor then went to the home of his father, Stuart Farley, on Toronto Street in Winnipeg, where he killed him.
Shopping local may be the desire, but affordability might decide where shoppers spend their money this Christmas season.
As classes across New Brunswick pause for the holidays, it’s not yet clear which schools are making a dent in chronic absenteeism — a stubborn post-pandemic trend that mostly afflicts the high school cohort, especially in the Anglophone West school district.
CBC Quebec has launched its Make the Season Kind campaign. It's our annual campaign that focuses on food insecurity, while also celebrating kindness, generosity and community spirit around the province.
Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will hold a public inquiry as soon as 2026 into the former Progressive Conservative government’s post-election efforts to approve an environmental licence for sand-mining company Sio Silica.
Premier Scott Moe has led the Saskatchewan Party through two straight elections, winning majority governments each time.
Eight weeks after adding a GM BrightDrop van to the fleet of his plumbing and heating business, Marty Salliss has no complaints, only praise.
Nearly half of Alberta’s Grade 6 students failed the provincewide math test in 2024, three years after the province started rolling out its new elementary school curriculum.
Toronto could get new cars on the road whose drivers will never get frustrated by gridlock — because the cars would be driving themselves.
Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, some London-area organizations say they have noticed a decline in donations this holiday season.
Prominent northern leaders have been touting the Arctic economic and security corridor as a "nation-building" project that will bring economic benefits to the two territories it straddles, but others are split on how much good will come out of it.
When the federal government tabled its 2025 budget last month, it included a proposal that tax fraud experts say is long overdue — if also a belated acknowledgement that the Canada Revenue Agency has been repeatedly duped into paying out untold millions in bogus tax refunds to scammers.
Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study.
While some are writing wishlists for Santa Claus, a group of Newfoundland and Labrador youth are writing their wishlist for the provincial government.