When Jonathan Meikle and Matthew Shorting saw a transit passenger being threatened with a knife in November 2018, they couldn’t just sit back and watch.
After confronting the knife-wielding man on a bus, Meikle was stabbed.
“That drew up a lot of feelings of the desire to protect a fellow member in our community,” Meikle said. “Everything just happened so quickly … initially it wrote me off for seven days, I had eight staples.”
During dangerous situations like this one, Winnipeg Transit and Winnipeg Police ask to people not to take actions into their own hands and instead call 911 and leave it to professionals.
“A lot of people have that view that this is a bad person doing something bad, but we try to step back and look at the whole entirety of everything and acknowledge that there are social problems in our communities and this is not an isolated occurrence,” Meikle said.
Meikle has made a full recovery from the incident. He and Shorting are now being honoured by Lieutenant-Governor Janice C. Filmon with Royal Canadian Humane Association Bravery Awards.
While Meikle and Shorting appreciate the medals with their names engraved on them, they want to spread an important message.
“This is happening over and over again in Winnipeg,” Meikle said.
“Winnipeg is notorious for events like this so we need to address the real problems at the base of this and those are social conditions … poverty, addiction, the over incarceration of Indigenous people.”
“I see those rates as a result of our failing systems and brought upon by our government’s darker past,” Meikle said.
The Royal Canadian Humane Association was established in 1894 and aims to recognize the deeds of heroism by Canadians. Each award recipient is recognized for their concern, save or attempt to save a life, especially when their actions are outside of ordinary duties.
Meikle and Shorting said they haven’t heard anything from Transit since the incident.
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