Mental Health Trouble Leads to Public Safety Issues, Vancouver’s Mayor Says

Mental Health Trouble Leads to Public Safety Issues, Vancouver’s Mayor Says
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim (right) and Vancouver police acting Chief Steve Rai leave after visiting the scene Sunday where a vehicle drove into a crowd at a street festival on Saturday evening in Vancouver. The Canadian Press/Rich Lam
The Canadian Press
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Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says people are “sick and tired” of inquiries and reviews into the recurring pattern of people in a mental health crisis that become a public safety crisis.

Sim says the man accused of killing 11 people by driving a vehicle through a street lined with festival goers Saturday was under the care of a mental health team and on extended leave.

He says the information was incredibly difficult to hear and even harder to accept because it points to the deeper failure in the mental health care system in British Columbia.

Premier David Eby has said he will call an inquiry if the criminal trial doesn’t have answers into the attack.

But Sim says he wonders how many more such reports are needed into what they know is a pattern of mental health challenges that lead to “significant negative incidents.”

The mayor says the city has started a comprehensive internal review of the events surrounding the 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.