Celebrated architect, Ellis Galea Kirkland, who was born in Malta and raised in Canada, is being held in police custody in connection with a violent stabbing incident last week, Canadian media report. She was arrested after allegedly stabbing a 67-year-old doorman, Mark Markandu at her apartment block at 120 Rosedale Valley Rd.
Canadian media report that on Thursday 10 March at around 7.30am, police received a phone call about a stabbing. Markandu was helping Kirkland move some boxes when he walked up to Joseph Glazner, who lives a floor above Kirkland, “holding his hip and bleeding”.
Glazner said that the doorman was “stunned” and the entire ordeal seemed “surreal”.
Residents in the area were perplexed at the news that police were looking for Kirkland, with one saying he had been there for 10 years “and she’s always been fabulous”, speaking also about her being very well-dressed with a great sense of humour.
Meanwhile, police responded to a call about a “person in crisis” who had entered a hotel and residence a few blocks away. On the 27th floor, a woman with dark hair, who was later confirmed as Kirkland, was being spoken to by an officer from a floor below as she periodically seemed like she was going to jump by sitting on the ledge.
After four hours, at around 3:30pm, two officers swung down from the roof into the balcony and detained the disgruntled architect who was later confirmed as being Kirkland by Constable Craig Brister.
Ellis Galea Kirkland has been a vice-president at the NATO Association of Canada since 1999, and has written and researched extensively on global development. In 2003 she founded the NATO Paxbuild Economic Platform, whose aim is to foster growth and prosperity in post-conflict zones, failed states and areas affected by natural disasters.
Educated at the University of Harvard, she was nicknamed the Maltese Falcon in the 1980s by her colleagues at the architecture firm in which she worked due to her dogged determination in sealing international deals. Kirkland has been considered an inspiration to women everywhere for decades due to her work in the fields of architecture and international trade.