The B.C. Supreme Court says a Chilliwack, B.C., man who stabbed his wife to death in 2024 was suffering from a “delusional belief” when the violent killing occurred, finding him not criminally responsible for her murder.
The court ruling posted online Wednesday says Joseph Berkiw, now 70, killed his wife, who can’t be named under a publication ban, while believing he was “saving her” from being tortured or raped by people who were targeting the couple.
It says Berkiw worked as a machinist and had become “preoccupied” with concerns about not getting paid from his job, and began acting in unusual and paranoid ways in the lead-up to the killing.
How do the courts define ‘not criminally responsible’?
The ruling says the couple lived with their adult son, who had called police over his father’s “bizarre behaviour” on Jan. 8 and Jan. 12, 2024, but officers determined he didn’t meet the criteria to be apprehended “under the Mental Health Act because nobody indicated he presented an immediate risk to himself or anyone else.”
The court ruling says Berkiw attacked his wife with a knife on Jan. 17, stabbing her before being taken to the ground by his son, and she called police in “extreme distress,” telling the call-taker that her husband was mentally ill and “trying to kill everybody.”
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The ruling says Berkiw broke free of his son’s grasp and got another knife, slashing his wife’s throat and cutting his son, who had tried to protect her, and the court found he was suffering from a mental disorder that included “delusional beliefs” that rendered him “incapable of knowing that his actions were morally wrong.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
