By Canadian Press

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

Sep 13, 2024 | 12:19 PM

VANCOUVER — 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.”

roster shakeup

Nanaimo Clippers lose two major players to Major Junior ranks

5h ago

armed robbery

Knife-wielding man robs south Nanaimo liquor store

13h ago

Shorthanded

Clippers fall short hosting Bulldogs

20h ago

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

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press