ManitobaA man who tried to stab a pastor in the middle of a Winnipeg church service earlier this year has been found not criminally responsible due to an untreated mental disorder that caused him to lose the ability to know the difference between right and wrong.Man, 50, arrested in February after trying to stab pastor during Holy Ghost Parish service on Selkirk AvenueBryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Aug 20, 2025 5:19 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoThis still from a video submitted to CBC News shows a man who walked up to the front of a church and moved toward the pastor. (Submitted)A man who tried to stab a pastor in the middle of a Winnipeg church service earlier this year has been found not criminally responsible due to an untreated mental disorder that caused him to lose the ability to know the difference between right and wrong.Provincial court Judge Lisa LaBossiere delivered her decision June 23 in Winnipeg, based on a doctor’s mental health assessment, which found the man was suffering from delusions and psychotic symptoms at the time of the attack.”He had grandiose delusions that he was a famous celebrity who had inspired popular songs,” LaBossiere said, reading from the doctor’s report. “His delusions of persecution reached a crescendo and caused him to lack an understanding that what he was doing was morally wrong.”Crown prosecutor James Wood and the accused, who represented himself in court, jointly recommended the judge find him not criminally responsible.His older brother previously told CBC News the man was discharged from hospital in January, despite raising concerns with his doctors and nurses about hearing voices that were telling him to kill a priest.His brother showed the CBC a text he said the accused sent him on Jan. 11, while the man was hospitalized. It said he felt threatened and voices told him to kill a priest to save his own life.Less than a month later, on Feb. 9, the man walked to the front of Holy Ghost Parish on Selkirk Avenue during a service and moved at the pastor with a four-inch blade. It was caught on video.The pastor escaped without being stabbed, and the man then stuck the knife into the altar. An off-duty RCMP officer present for the service detained the man.He was charged with assault with a weapon, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and disturbing a religious worship service.WATCH | Man tries to stab priest during mass (February 2025):Pastor attacked with knife at Winnipeg churchWinnipeg police say nobody was hurt when a man tried to attack a pastor with a knife during a church service Sunday evening.The judge, prosecutor and the man all acknowledged he approached the pastor with a knife during the church service.However, the medical assessment suggested the man had a longstanding belief that he was being “continuously recorded by the church and government of Canada.”He was “genuinely distressed by his perceived infamy” and felt he had to escalate the matter to a member of the church, the report says.Court also heard he was previously diagnosed with delusional disorder, hospitalized for it and prescribed medicine for the condition, but his compliance with taking the medication in the past was poor.The Canadian Criminal Code has provisions that allow the courts to find someone not criminally responsible for their actions due to mental disorder.”Jail is … not an ideal place for me to be, especially if I am having mental issues. It’s better for me to be in a hospital,” the man told the judge.LaBossiere approved his request to be transferred from jail to a mental health unit where he will be held in custody once a bed opens up.”I am certainly in agreement that being at the hospital, receiving mental health treatment, is certainly what’s best here,” she said.The man told court he is already in the process of seeking a pardon.”I am very satisfied with today’s hearing and I can’t show my respect and gratitude for your professional conduct. I really appreciate that,” he told the judge and prosecutor.A review board will hold a meeting this summer to determine the conditions of the man’s treatment, counselling and potential release. ABOUT THE AUTHORBryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC’s Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.Selected storiesEmail: bryce.hoye@cbc.caFacebookMore by Bryce Hoye
Man charged in attempted knife attack on Winnipeg pastor found not criminally responsible
