Lives in the balance

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This article was published 29/10/2017 (2879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Robert Chaulk was a 15-year-old boy when he and a friend brutally stabbed and bludgeoned an elderly Winnipeg man to death in the man’s own home.

Both boys would gain their freedom through a plea of insanity, but only a few years after being set free, Robert Chaulk would brutally kill again.

‘Many in the public can’t believe that it’s genuine. They think it’s fake and it’s a con artist that is acting out his con’– Chris Summerville, the executive director of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society

It was Sept. 3, 1985 when Chaulk and his 16-year-old friend Francis Morrissette broke into the St. James home of 83-year-old George Haywood.

The two teens attacked Haywood, stabbing the elderly man 17 times, beating him and leaving him to die.

About a week after the killing, Chaulk and Morrissette turned themselves in and confessed to the killing.

Both boys would also claim that because of severe mental illness, they did not have the capacity to know what they were doing was wrong when they killed Haywood, and that claim would set the stage for a case that would go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

When the case went to trial, Chaulk and Morrissette pled insanity within the meaning of Section 16 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which deals with “defence of mental disorder.”

Section 16 of the Criminal Code states “No person is criminally responsible for an act committed or an omission made while suffering from a mental disorder that rendered the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or omission, or of knowing that it was wrong.”

Lawyers for Chaulk and Morrissette would create one of the more bizarre defences in Canadian criminal history, as they would argue Chaulk and Morrissette both suffered from a paranoid psychosis that made them believe they had the superhuman powers, and that they were destined to rule the world.

The defence also claimed the boys believed those powers would be increased if they killed Haywood.

The defence argued because the boys believed they had superhuman powers, neither of them believed they were subject to the same laws as the rest of Canadian society and therefore believed they had a right to kill the victim.

The verdict in the trial now rested on the fact lawyers for Chaulk and Morrissette would have to prove because of their mental conditions they were not aware they were doing wrong when they stabbed and beat an 83-year-old man to death.

Unlike the provision in Canadian law where a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, under the Criminal Code of Canada in the case of a mentally-ill plea, a person is presumed sane until proven insane.

A jury rejected Chaulk and Morrissette’s pleas of insanity, and the boys would both be found guilty of first degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

An appeal of the case was launched, however, and that appeal went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court ruled even if the boys knew they were breaking the law when they killed Haywood, they could be found not guilty by reason of insanity if they didn’t realize at the time that killing Haywood was morally wrong.

After the Supreme Court ruling, Chaulk and Morrissette went on trial again for the killing, and in 1990 they were both found not guilty by reason of insanity for the killing.

Chaulk would be sent to a mental-health centre in Manitoba and begin treatment for his mental illness, and after just four months of treatment he was granted his freedom, as it was deemed he was no longer a danger to society.

Chaulk would stay in Winnipeg, but nine years after his release he committed two more vicious murders.

On New Year’s Eve Day of 1999 Chaulk, who was then in his late 20s, brutally stabbed to death 37-year-old Mirzet Zec, and 39-year-old Debrah Leah Beaulieu, neighbours who lived in the same downtown Winnipeg apartment building as he did.

Both victims are reported to have known Chaulk through living in the same building, but also reported to have known nothing about the murder he committed in 1985, or anything about his violent past.

Chaulk would plead guilty to manslaughter and receive a life sentence for the killings, and he remains in prison to this day.

In an article published in the Winnipeg Free Press in 2009 Jeff Sinclair, who said he was a close friend of Zec and Beaulieu, talked about his grief at losing his friends, but also talked about his concern about a similar high-profile case in Manitoba.

It was in 2009 that Sinclair raised concerns about freedoms that were being considered for Will Baker, the man formerly known as Vince Li, who stabbed, beheaded and cannibalized 22-year-old Tim McLean on a Grey Hound bus just outside of Portage la Prairie in 2008.

“It just sickens me. This keeps going on and on and on,” Sinclair said in 2009.

The stories of Chaulk and Baker have gained notoriety for their sensational and brutal details, and raised debate about mental illness and the criminal system in Canada.

Chris Summerville the executive director of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society said, “high profile NCR cases are not a reason for the public to assume NCR killers will kill again.

“Few mental health issues in Canada stir public and media interest, and generate as much controversy as events involving persons with a mental illness who come into contact with the justice system,” Summerville said.

“Whether through tragic events involving police interactions with mentally ill individuals, or verdicts of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder, mentally ill individuals tend to become highly visible in rare but dramatic events, which can often lead to misperceptions and misconceptions about mental illness and reactive policy-making.”

Summerville has spent countless hours with Baker during his recovery, and said Baker lives every day with the goal of making certain that he never does to anyone what he did to Tim McLean in 2008.

“He’s reserved and he’s cautious, because he knows what he did, and he doesn’t want to ever do anything like that again, so he’s guided by that,” Summerville said. “He’s guided each day by guilt and by remorse.”

He added he has watched as every professional that has worked with Baker has marvelled at his progression since beginning to take medication and receive treatment for his mental illness.

“They were taken aback,” Summerville said.

“Once the medication kicked in and he came back to full reality he would break down in tears and say “I should have died. I should have been killed for this.’”

He now hopes the public can engage in “intelligent debate” when it comes to issues of mental illness and NCR, but he also said he knows that “some minds will never be changed.”

“Many in the public can’t believe that it’s genuine,” Summerville said. “They think it’s fake and it’s a con artist that is acting out his con.

“Psychologically when people read about what he did, they just can’t imagine that we would let anyone like that back on the streets.”

On Feb. 10, 2017, the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board ordered that Baker be discharged.

Baker was granted an absolute discharge, and there are now no legal obligations or restrictions pertaining to his independent living.

Through what he said has been thousands of conversation and media interview about Will Baker, Summerville said the one question he is almost always asked is if he can give a guarantee that Baker will never kill again.

He said he can’t and won’t give that promise, just like there was no guarantee that Robert Chaulk would not kill again.

“So many people ask, ‘Can you guarantee it? Can you guarantee he won’t kill again?’ And I always give the same answer.

“The answer is no.”

Dave Baxter is a freelance reporter, photographer and editor who writes about Manitoba crimes for the Sunday Special.

crimefilesmanitoba@gmail.com

Twitter:@davebbbaxter