B.C. government appoints former chief justice to review festival safety measures
Premier says report will help event organizers 'maximize safety'
The British Columbia government has appointed a former chief justice of the B.C. Supreme Court to report on safety measures for event organizers and police after 11 people were killed when a driver rammed into a crowded street festival in Vancouver.
Premier David Eby said Christopher Hinkson has agreed to serve as commissioner to conduct the review "in a very short period of time."
Eby said Hinkson is expected to report back by June 30 to help guide event organizers across B.C. to "maximize safety," while not retreating from the fact that people want to get together and celebrate.
The premier said he knows there is a lot of anxiety from organizers and those planning to attend events this summer, and that they have questions about security, so he's glad that Hinkson is willing to take on the job.
Elenore Sturko, public safety critic for the B.C. Conservatives, accused the premier of scrambling for a solution that fails to address the underlying mental health concerns.
"Even bollards, even concrete blocks, even dump trucks cannot protect everyone if there is someone with a severe mental illness and violence," Sturko said.
Meanwhile, B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said Hinkson will speak with experts to understand what the best safety practices for events might be.
"I have every confidence in him that he has the tools and skills available to be discerning and to use his best judgment to understand how we can produce a really good product for British Columbia," said Sharma.
The commission will study procedures around traffic control, deploying trained security personnel, and engaging first responders, according to the commission's terms of reference.
Sharma said the government won't make the guidelines from Hinkson's report mandatory but the suggestions can be seen as a guideline.
"We'll encourage local decision makers to take a look at those best practices and think about how they incorporate that into their processes," she said.
"Please continue to do the important work that you do in your community by bringing people together," Sharma said in a message to event organizers.
B.C.'s Ministry of Health said last week that the suspect in the case, Kai-Ji Adam Lo, was under the care of Vancouver Coastal Health's mental health team and was "being supervised under the Mental Health Act" at the time of the tragedy.
Police have said that Lo had a significant history of mental health interactions with officers in the months prior to the incident, and confirmed that he came in contact with authorities in a neighbouring jurisdiction the day before the alleged attack.
Lo has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder in connection with the Lapu-Lapu Day incident.
A judge in the 30-year-old's case has ordered that he undergo a mental health assessment to determine if he is fit to stand trial.
Mayor Ken Sim said in a statement that the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Police Department are also conducting an internal review on event safety with a preliminary report due next week.
Sim called on the province to look at the root causes that may have contributed to the tragedy.
"We are seeing more and more cases where untreated mental health issues are escalating into public safety incidents," the statement reads.
"Vancouverites cannot afford to wait. Improvements to mental health care, early intervention, and support services must be fast-tracked alongside these broader reviews."
One size doesn't fit all, event planner says
Event planner Laura Ballance, who has organized thousands of events in B.C., said the incident was an unimaginable tragedy. However, she said it's not always easy to prevent incidents like what happened at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival.
She said security and safety have always been the top priority of event organizers, and safety measures also occupy a very large portion of their budgets.
Ballance said a one-size-fits-all security policy could make many events financially out of reach and reduce Vancouver's 2,000 events a year down to 12.
"And we will lose our city and the soul and the culture and the creativity and the connectivity," she added.
Conservative Opposition Leader John Rustad said Wednesday that there was no doubt about the safety issues at the Lapu-Lapu festival, but the "real issue at core here is the mental health issue."
Rustad said there are many questions about how someone who suffers from such mental health troubles can have a driver's licence and gain access to a vehicle that they later use for a weapon.
Rustad said the current mental health system is failing the people in B.C. by putting them at risk.
With files from Katie DeRosa and Jason Proctor