B.C. government appoints former chief justice to review festival safety measures

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 in a vehicle attack in Vancouver. 

Premier David Eby said on Wednesday that 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. 

Adam Kai-Ji Lo, 30, faces eight counts of second-degree murder for the alleged ramming attack on April 26 and police have said more charges are likely. 

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. 

Event planner Laura Ballance, who has organized thousands of events in B.C., said the Lapu Lapu festival attack is an unimaginable tragedy, but it's also important to understand that such "lone wolf" attacks are difficult to prevent. 

She said security and safety have always been the top priority for event organizers, and safety measures also occupy a very large portion of their budgets. 

Ballance said she is worried about rationalizing the acts of a "madman" by implementing a one-size-fits-all security policy for events. 

It would make many events financially out of reach, and could reduce Vancouver's 2,000 events a year down to 12, she said. 

"And we will lose our city and the soul and the culture and the creativity and the connectivity,” she added. 

Ballance said event organizers can always implement more security procedures, but if a person is willing to die or go to prison for a bad cause, "there is very little" that any amount of security can do. 

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. 

The B.C. government has said Lo was under the care of a mental-health team when he's alleged to have driven an SUV through the crowd at the Lapu Lapu festival. 

A judge in his case has ordered that he undergo a mental-health assessment to determine if he is fit to stand trial. 

Sharma said they 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. 

— With files from Wolfgang Depner

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick