Wednesday, February 11, 2026
ADVT 
National

Mental health trouble leads to public safety issues, Vancouver's mayor says

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 30 Apr, 2025 11:00 AM
  • Mental health trouble leads to public safety issues, Vancouver's mayor says

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 healthchallenges 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.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rich Lam

MORE National ARTICLES

B.C. Labour Relations Board finds Starbucks made threats against pro-union employee

B.C. Labour Relations Board finds Starbucks made threats against pro-union employee
The B.C. Labour Relations Board has found Starbucks wrongfully made "threats of adverse consequences" against an employee for her unionization activity, but found the company had a "legitimate business reason" to close down its only unionized location in Vancouver. 

B.C. Labour Relations Board finds Starbucks made threats against pro-union employee

Flu activity in B.C. peaking as COVID-19, respiratory virus decline

Flu activity in B.C. peaking as COVID-19, respiratory virus decline
The BC Centre for Disease Control says influenza A infections remain high and continue to increase, with the percentage of tests returning positive up to 24 per cent in the week ending Feb. 1. That figure is more than double that of the 11.7 per cent reported between Dec. 22 and Dec. 28. 

Flu activity in B.C. peaking as COVID-19, respiratory virus decline

Workers at B.C. LifeLabs file 72-hour strike notice over wages, benefits

Workers at B.C. LifeLabs file 72-hour strike notice over wages, benefits
The union representing about 1,200 workers at LifeLabs throughout British Columbia says it has issued a 72-hour strike notice to the employer. The B.C. General Employees' Union says in a news release that the action comes after months of negotiations and LifeLabs' refusal to bring wages and benefits in line with the cost of living.

Workers at B.C. LifeLabs file 72-hour strike notice over wages, benefits

Canada still top of mind for Trump, 'not a good place to be'

Canada still top of mind for Trump, 'not a good place to be'
As President Donald Trump signed an executive order for reciprocal tariffs on Thursday that escalates his trade threats, his administration took aim at Canada's digital services tax as a major trade irritant. The White House sent out a document calling digital taxes in both Canada and France "unfair" for taxing American companies.

Canada still top of mind for Trump, 'not a good place to be'

B.C. cancels $1,000 grocery rebate and pauses some hiring over Trump's tariff threats

B.C. cancels $1,000 grocery rebate and pauses some hiring over Trump's tariff threats
The British Columbia government is cancelling a promised $1,000 grocery rebate and will freeze hiring of some public service positions to "find dollars" in its budget as it prepares for "four years of unpredictability" from the United States, Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says. Bailey said Thursday that the impacts of the "reckless" and "destabilizing" tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump are impossible to predict.

B.C. cancels $1,000 grocery rebate and pauses some hiring over Trump's tariff threats

GST break brought a lot of work but little — if any — gains for businesses

GST break brought a lot of work but little — if any — gains for businesses
About two months after the federal government temporarily knocked the GST off a holiday-centric array of goods, Dave Doyon says he considers the move “a gift” even though a hoped-for flurry of sales never fully materialized.

GST break brought a lot of work but little — if any — gains for businesses