Close X
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
ADVT 
National

B.C. accepts change for psychiatric care after alleged attack by mentally ill man

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 13 Sep, 2024 12:21 PM
  • B.C. accepts change for psychiatric care after alleged attack by mentally ill man

A report into a triple stabbing at a festival in Vancouver's Chinatown last year says the man accused of the crimes had been let out of a psychiatric care facility 99 times in the year prior without incident.

The report, authored by former Abbotsford Police chief Bob Rich, says the suspect in the stabbing, Blair Donnelly, was on his 100th unescorted leave from the BC Forensic Psychiatric Hospital on Sept. 10, 2023, when he allegedly stabbed three festivalgoers at the Light Up Chinatown Festival. 

The external review, ordered by the provincial government after the stabbings, says Donnelly was found not criminally responsible for killing his daughter in 2006 while "suffering from a psychotic delusion that God wanted him to kill her." 

Rich's report makes several recommendations to better handle "higher-risk patients," including bolstering their care teams, improving policies around granting patient leaves, shoring up staff training in forensics and the use of "risk-management tools," such as GPS tracking systems. 

The B.C. Ministry of Health says it has accepted all of Rich's recommendations and has already begun implementing them including "following new polices for granting leave privileges at the hospital."

Court records show Donnelly is due back in Vancouver provincial court in March 2025. 

MORE National ARTICLES

B.C. man who pushed senior during dispute outside Costco loses manslaughter appeal

B.C. man who pushed senior during dispute outside Costco loses manslaughter appeal
The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the manslaughter conviction of a man who claimed he lashed out in self defence, in part because of his claustrophobia, resulting in an elderly man's death at a Vancouver Costco in 2017.  A ruling released Monday says Thomas Toth was convicted of manslaughter in 2020, three years after he got into a physical altercation with 86-year-old Orlando Ocampo "that had tragic consequences." 

B.C. man who pushed senior during dispute outside Costco loses manslaughter appeal

B.C. to add 240 complex-care housing units in communities throughout the province

B.C. to add 240 complex-care housing units in communities throughout the province
British Columbia is planning to add 240 new units to its complex-care housing program, providing homes for people with mental-health and addictions challenges that overlap with other serious conditions. The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions says in a statement 200 of the units will be located in Abbotsford, Burnaby, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, New Westminster, Prince George, Sechelt, Surrey, Vancouver and Victoria.

B.C. to add 240 complex-care housing units in communities throughout the province

B.C. port terminal among sites blocked in co-ordinated pro-Palestinian protests

B.C. port terminal among sites blocked in co-ordinated pro-Palestinian protests
A blockade by pro-Palestinian protesters at a major port terminal in Metro Vancouver disrupted operations for several hours before dispersing on Monday. Terminal operator GCT Canada said the protesters' actions were illegal and stopped container trucks from accessing the Deltaport facility by blocking the Roberts Bank causeway for several hours.   

B.C. port terminal among sites blocked in co-ordinated pro-Palestinian protests

B.C. woman found dead after alleged abduction, man arrested: RCMP

B.C. woman found dead after alleged abduction, man arrested: RCMP
An RCMP investigation into the alleged abduction of a woman from Lumby, B.C., has turned into a probe of a suspicious death. Mounties say in a statement that officers with the North Okanagan detachment found the woman's body in a rural area on Sunday, and a man believed to have been involved was arrested in the vicinity. 

B.C. woman found dead after alleged abduction, man arrested: RCMP

B.C. celebrates 10 billion seedlings planted since 1930

B.C. celebrates 10 billion seedlings planted since 1930
British Columbia officials are celebrating the planting of 10 billion seedlings since reforestation efforts began nearly a century ago. A statement from the Forests Ministry says two billion of those seedlings have been planted in the last seven years.

B.C. celebrates 10 billion seedlings planted since 1930

B.C. home sales slide almost 10 per cent in March despite mortgage rate drop

B.C. home sales slide almost 10 per cent in March despite mortgage rate drop
Home sales in British Columbia fell by almost 10 per cent in March compared with the same period last year, in a slowdown an analyst says could be buyers waiting for lower interest rates. The B.C. Real Estate Association says the province saw 6,460 residential unit sales in the Multiple Listing Service systems last month, a 9.5-per-cent decline from March 2023.

B.C. home sales slide almost 10 per cent in March despite mortgage rate drop