Article contentInsight Optometry was operating under COVID-19 public health protocols at the time of the homicide.Article contentAt 9:11 a.m., an employee opened the front door to screen an incoming patient. While the door was being held open, Cormier pushed his way past the patient and ran into the clinic.Article contentCormier threw the sheath for a knife on the floor and began stabbing Nader, who was seated at a workstation.Article contentSurveillance cameras recorded the attack. Cormier can be seen wearing a bright yellow jacket, a black backpack, a toque, gloves and a medical mask.Article contentCormier chased Nader throughout the clinic, stabbing him while saying “this man raped me.”Article contentJordan tried to intervene but was struck with the butt of the knife by Cormier, who continued to attack Nader.Article contentArticle contentCormier dropped the knife before fleeing the clinic just before 9:12 a.m. His pants were saturated with blood when he was arrested on Victoria Road at about 9:25 a.m.Article contentPolice recovered the knife and sheath inside Insight Optometry, Cormier’s backpack in the parking lot of the clinic, and his jacket, toque, gloves and mask on nearby Doyle Street.Article contentDiffering assessmentsArticle contentPolice obtained a warrant to seize and examine Cormier’s tablet. The device had been used Dev. 27, 2021, to conduct Google searches for the terms retribution, vengeance and feelings of revenge and Dec. 30 to search for the address of Insight Optometry. There had also been searches Dec. 29 about being raped while sleeping.Article contentTwo psychiatrists performed forensic assessments on Cormier. Dr. Julian Gojer, who was retained by the defence, and Dr. Joel Watts agreed the accused was mentally ill but disagreed on whether that illness made him not criminally responsible for his actions.Article contentArticle contentGojer said Cormier had undiagnosed schizophrenia. He said Cormier was experiencing psychotic delusions that Nader had sexually abused him and believed he had to confront him with a knife to extract a confession.Article contentThe doctor said Cormier articulated a complex belief that his actions on the day of the killing were morally justified by community standards and that the homicide was in some way approved by God.Article content“It is likely that … Mr. Cormier was unable to exercise rational choice secondary to this intense psychotic state,” Gojer wrote. “He would not have been able to weigh the pros and cons of his actions, and his delusional thinking robbed him of the ability to know that what he was doing was morally wrong.”Article contentWatts said Cormier does not have a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia. He opined that well after the incident, the accused began exaggerating or embellishing his psychotic symptoms and his claim of having no memory of the attack.Article contentThe judge found there was no evidence from the weeks and days before the offence or from the attack to support a finding that Cormier was psychotic.Article content“The attack was brutal and frenzied, which can sometimes suggest conduct driven by a mental disorder,” Brothers wrote. “In this case, however, there is evidence of a perceived harm giving rise to an act of revenge.”Article content
Cymon Cormier appealing murder conviction for December 2021 stabbing at Halifax optical clinic
