College suspends licence of Winnipeg nurse who killed his parents

A nurse found to have not been criminally responsible in the killing of his parents will be barred from practising until he's deemed to no longer be a danger to the public.

Trevor Farley's certificate of practice will be suspended until a committee is satisfied his mental health no longer impairs his ability to work, a College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba panel said in a decision dated Aug. 28.

Farley killed his mother and father, Judy Swain and Stuart Farley, and stabbed his former supervisor at Seven Oaks General Hospital in the space of a few hours on Oct. 27, 2021.

The night before, he checked himself into the Health Sciences Centre's Crisis Response Centre and was issued an involuntary admission, but was able to leave on his own in the morning. In between the killings and the stabbing, he had sought treatment at the St. Boniface Hospital emergency room and the crisis centre.

During his trial in 2023, a team of health experts said Farley was suffering from an atypical form of bipolar disorder at the time of the attacks.

The judge found he was not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder and declared him a high-risk accused — a rare designation that requires Farley to be in hospital, and allows him to be conditionally or absolutely discharged only if approved by a superior court judge.

The panel's decision said any reinstatement of Farley's licence presupposes his hospital detention order has been removed. 

"The process on any future application for discharge of the high-risk accused order by the registrant is sufficiently layered and rigorous that the protection of the public will be considered and protected before a reinstatement application is even considered," it said.

In a hearing held in June, Farley didn't plead guilty to the charge of professional misconduct, arguing he'd been found not criminally responsible for the killings and the attempted murder.

The man did acknowledge he'd demonstrated an "incapacity or unfitness to practise registered nursing," and that his illness may put the public in danger.

Argued conditions 'morally inappropriate': panel

The decision said Farley was adamant he was mentally capable to deal with the disciplinary matters.

He argued that it would be "morally inappropriate" and discriminatory to prevent him from practising or imposing conditions on his reinstatement because of his mental illness.

The college's complaints investigations committee will be in charge of assessing any future reinstatement applications. Farley said directing it to consider the public interest in its decisions — as the committee had argued — would be infringing on his Charter rights.

"The registrant stated that they were a good nurse before their mental illness flared up and they can be a good nurse once treated," the decision said.

"They said that it is in the public interest to have another good nurse on the front lines in a nursing shortage."

The panel said Farley's Charter rights may come up in any future review, but that it wasn't its place to address those matters.

It said it was its view the committee already had to consider public interest based on the college's mandate, but that it also wasn't its place to direct it on how to do its job.

The panel did decide not to order Farley to contribute to the proceedings — which he argued would have also been discriminatory and unjustified — as he had not committed professional misconduct, and had attempted to get treatment before the killings.

"The panel was of the view that ordering costs against the registrant where they were the subject of the NCR finding affixes responsibility on the registrant which they should not bear," it said.

The panel also said it hopes Farley's treatment continues to "proceed in a positive manner."