B.C. Premier Eby says province will overhaul Mental Health Act after Lapu-Lapu Day festival attack
Adam Lo, 30, the Vancouver man accused of using his SUV to kill 11 people attending a Filipino street festival in Vancouver, is detained by police on April 27.Morgan Brewster/Supplied
B.C. Premier David Eby says his government will overhaul the province’s Mental Health Act in response to the weekend killing of 11 people by an SUV that rammed through a crowded cultural festival in Vancouver.
A man who had previously been detained under the act and was under supervision by a health team at the time of the Saturday attack has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder. Police have said more counts are expected. Some 16 people remain in hospital, including a 22-month-old boy in serious condition.
Mr. Eby told reporters in Victoria on Wednesday that his Minister of Health will handle the coming review, which he said will “modernize” the Mental Health Act that passed 30 years ago. The law sets out the rules for how people with mental illness are to be treated when they need to be protected from harming themselves or others.
The act is subject to a decade-old legal challenge to its constitutional validity by groups arguing it is inhumane and reinforces harmful stereotypes about people with mental-health issues.
“Other provinces have lost a very similar challenge to the one that we face here in British Columbia around compelling people into treatment,” Mr. Eby said. “We need those provisions, we need to be able to force people into care – that’s why we’re defending the Act.
“And the sensitivity around it has led us to delay doing this modernization of the act that everybody agrees needs to happen. But I don’t think we can delay it anymore: We need to bring it forward.“
On Tuesday, Mr. Eby committed to calling a public inquiry into the deaths, which he said would begin after the completion of the coming trial of Adam Lo, the 30-year-old man accused of ramming the crowd at the weekend’s Lapu-Lapu Day festival.
Mr. Lo had a long history of contacting police with complaints. Mr. Eby said the inquiry will investigate whether gaps in the health care system failed him.
After The Globe and Mail reported Monday that Mr. Lo was under supervision, the Vancouver Coastal Health authority released more information Tuesday saying Mr. Lo’s care team was following him closely and that there was no indication he was violent.
The Globe has also reported his mental-health team had concerns in the past that he was unwilling to take his medication for schizophrenia and that, at the end of last year, he tried and failed to lift the conditions forcing him into some treatment
Mr. Eby has also called an inquiry to come up with new security guidelines by the end of June for organizers of the myriad of summer events across the province to ensure they can protect their patrons.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim earlier on Wednesday bristled at the coming inquiries, saying they may be important, but that more concrete action is needed now.
“How many more reviews do we need? We see a recurring pattern of people suffering from significant mental-health challenges that lead to significant negative incidents,“ he told reporters at city hall.
Mr. Sim called on the province and Ottawa to expand the number of beds for people forced into psychiatric treatment “beyond the 400 currently committed.”
Vancouver’s Interim Police Chief, Steve Rai, said his force supports the coming reviews and noted his officers are often responding to incidents that are related to someone’s mental health.
Mr. Sim was elected in 2022 on a pledge to hire 100 more police officers and 100 more mental-health nurses. On Wednesday, he said the Vancouver Coastal Health authority has since identified there is a need for 49 full-time mental health staff to work with the police. So far, he said, 38 of these positions have been filled.
In addition, Mr. Sim said, Vancouver police has doubled the capacity of its Car 87/88 program, which began as a pilot in 1978 that paired an officer with a registered nurse to react to calls.
In 2020, a member of the department’s mental-health unit told the police board at the time that the 13-member team could use double the personnel to respond to these complex calls.
The mayor also said the city had started a comprehensive internal review of the events surrounding the Lapu-Lapu Day festival, including permitting, site safety, planning and emergency response, and will identify steps forward for future events with a preliminary report out in a few weeks.
He said the review will examine areas at risk in the city, including schoolyards, restaurant patios and beaches. While authorities can’t secure every possible target in the city, they will do their best to make sure risks are reduced, he said.
With a report from The Canadian Press