Playwright forgives attacker

(Staff)  TWO YEARS AFTER being brutally stabbed and choked, an Edmonton playwright has publicly forgiven her attacker, Kenneth Peter MacWatt. 

Heidi Janz, 41, who has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair, was found bloody and unconscious on Jan. 28, 2008 by her elderly father.

"I could have very easily died at Mr. MacWatt's hands," Janz told the court in her victim impact statement. She said that she had never experienced such terror yet she feels no malice towards her attacker.

"Mr. MacWatt, I want you to know that as a follower of Jesus Christ I’m compelled to forgive you for the wrongs you have committed against me. I do indeed forgive you, and I hope you will find forgiveness from God."

Before he was sentenced, MacWatt was teary-eyed and told the judge he wanted to change: "I almost killed a person, and I feel bad about it." MacWatt was sentenced Jan. 25 to 12 years in prison for assaulting Janz and was also given long term offender status.

Janz told reporters she thought MacWatt's sentence was fair and said it was "very moving" to hear him read his statement. Having the court hear her statement offered her closure, she said.

Janz’s plays have been staged at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Her 2001 drama, Returned to Sender, examines the lives of two teenaged girls disabled by severe forms of cerebral palsy and living in a post-Tracy-Latimer society. Her 2006 play, Voices at Dying, Dying to be Heard, explores bridge-building between the palliative care community and the disability community.

Janz is also a Post-Doctoral researcher in Disability Studies at the University of Manitoba and a Visiting Scholar with the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre at the University of Alberta.