Stabbing of child in Halifax reflects lack of mental health care access

Elliott Chorny, centre right, is escorted into a Halifax courtroom as shown in this still image taken from a video recorded on Monday. The 19-year-old woman is accused of stabbing a six-year-old boy in downtown Halifax on Sunday. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael MacDonald)

HALIFAX — A mother’s lament that she had been desperately seeking treatment for her daughter, who was later charged with stabbing a child in Halifax, points to the need for better mental health care, says a legal expert.

Nineteen-year-old Elliott Chorny was charged with attempted murder after a six-year-old boy was stabbed multiple times on Sunday on a Halifax sidewalk.

Anita Szigeti, a Toronto-based legal expert in mental health and the law, says that while she can’t comment on the specifics of the case, it is extremely rare that someone experiencing a mental health crisis causes harm to another person.

But Szigeti says the best way to prevent such violent incidents is to ensure people have access to voluntary mental health treatment.

“So often, due to a lack of resources, people who are seeking help are turned away at hospitals and emergency room doors, and are told to get help in the community. But we don’t have sufficient services,” she said.

The lawyer said there is a lack of community-based mental health care options across the country.

“The Number 1 preventive measure we could take to head off these very rare, atypical, outlier violent incidents committed by people in mental health crisis is to provide people with serious mental health issues the help that they need,” Szigeti said.

Andrea Hancock, who is Chorny’s mother, said Monday on Facebook that her daughter was having a “psychotic break” when the child was stabbed. “As I can imagine it happened very quickly and with no warning,” she said in the post, which was confirmed by a friend of Hancock’s to be authentic.

Hancock said her heart goes out to the boy and his family, and that Chorny is “severely unwell” and the family had been trying for years to get her treatment. “Elliott did not get the help that she needed and the little boy has suffered needlessly despite our efforts to try and protect the community,” she said in the post.

Hancock said she had called police, child protective services and doctors in hopes of getting Chorny help.

Archie Kaiser, a professor at Dalhousie University’s law and psychiatry departments, said he is unable to comment on the case, but said that under-investment in mental health care has been an “ongoing problem.”

“There has been this historic inequity wherein people with mental health problems don’t get all of the supports and services they need,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

However, he cautions against relying on statements from family members about their relative’s mental health.

“Families are often very powerful advocates for their loved ones. But with that said, unless they’re specially qualified, they wouldn’t necessarily have a firm grasp of what the law is nor what the person’s diagnosis is and how it might relate to their behaviour,” he said.

On Tuesday, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston called the stabbing a “tragic situation for everyone involved” and said his prayers are with the boy, his family and those impacted.

When asked about Hancock’s post and the indication that Chorny didn’t get the mental health care she needed, Houston said it’s up to the government to make programming available but that “people have to be ready to accept that (help). You can’t force somebody.”

After the stabbing on Sunday, Houston posted to X: “The person who did this is clearly a threat to the public and should be kept locked behind bars.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press