British Columbia's police watchdog agency is investigating the death of a woman who fell from Vancouver's Granville Street Bridge in an incident that unfolded over more than nine hours.
The Independent Investigations Office says in a news release that the incident began around 3 p.m. Tuesday.
It says the bridge was shut and officers tried to communicate with the woman for several hours before she fell to her death around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The IIO says it has launched an investigation into the case, that will initially consider if police action or inaction played a role in the woman's death.
Since the woman's death, Crisis Centre BC has issued a letter to the City of Vancouver, criticizing council's decision to remove funding for suicide barriers on the bridge from its 2027-2030 budget plan.
It is calling on the city to immediately restore the funds to move the project forward as soon as council receives a report on the cost of installing barriers in June.
"We understand that infrastructure decisions are complex," says the letter from the centre's executive director Stacy Ashton. "We understand that budgets are difficult."
"But when a known location continues to be used for suicide, and when proven prevention measures exist, inaction becomes a choice. Delay becomes a choice. Deferral becomes a choice. This week, Vancouver witnessed the consequences of that choice.
"We urge you to make a different one now."
The centre has been among those who criticized the city for failing to install the barriers, despite years of effort from local groups, including Granville Island which sits below the north end of the bridge.
The centre was involved in the installation of barriers on the nearby Burrard Street Bridge in 2017, and since then, Ashton says there have been no suicide deaths on that span.
"The evidence is clear," Ashton's letter says. "Suicide prevention barriers save lives. They create time. They interrupt a moment of acute crisis. They provide space for help to arrive, for a crisis phone to be used, for a first responder to intervene, for a person to move from immediate danger toward safety and hope."
The City of Vancouver has said it is asking for senior levels of government to provide funding support for the project before it looks to reallocate funds from within the capital budget.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
