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A doctor who tackled a knife-wielding man who had just stabbed a coworker inside Winnipeg’s Seven Oaks Hospital is being honoured by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon.
Dr. Kenneth Hahlweg will be presented with a medal of bravery on Thursday at an awards ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, along with some two dozen other people from across Canada.
The award recognizes people who have risked their lives to save or protect another, defying their own survival instinct in hazardous circumstances. The medal of bravery is the third-highest award for bravery within the Canadian honors system, following the cross of valour and star of courage.
Thursday’s ceremony will also honour several people with the star of courage.
Hahlweg was walking toward the waiting room on Oct. 27, 2021 when he heard a scream then saw a cluster of people struggling near the information desk inside the hospital atrium.
Hahlweg then saw a man holding a large knife as two people scrambled to get away and a woman fell to the ground. The man then approached the woman and placed the knife across her neck, Hahlweg told CBC News a few days after the incident.
Hahlweg put his head down, charged at the man and knocked him off the woman. The man started running from the hospital and Hahlweg gave chase, following him outside where police had already arrived and arrested him.
Back inside the hospital, the woman who had been attacked was bleeding from wounds to her neck and abdomen. Hahlweg provided first aid and the woman was rushed into emergency surgery.
The woman, Candyce Szkwarek, survived. Her attacker, Trevor Farley, was eventually found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder.
Szkwarek was Farley’s former nursing supervisor at the hospital.
Prior to attacking Szkwarek, Farley had killed both of his parents in the small community of New Bothwell, about 40 kilometres south of Winnipeg.
At his trial in 2023, court heard Farley was experiencing religious delusions at the time. He was ultimately designated a “high-risk accused” — a rare designation that requires the man to be in hospital, and allows him to be conditionally or absolutely discharged only if approved by a superior court judge.