B.C. government appoints former chief justice to review festival safety measures
Premier says the 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 says Christopher Hinkson has agreed to serve as commissioner to conduct the review "in a very short period of time."
Eby says 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 says 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.
The commission will study best practices for public safety at community events, especially around traffic control, deploying trained security personnel, and engaging first responders, according to the commission's terms of reference.
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.
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.
"Even bollards, even concrete blocks, even dump trucks cannot protect everyone if there is someone with a severe mental illness and violence," Sturko said.
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 read.
"Vancouverites cannot afford to wait. Improvements to mental health care, early intervention, and support services must be fast-tracked alongside these broader reviews."
Event planner Laura Ballance, who has organized thousands of events in B.C., says the incident was an unimaginable tragedy, but it's also important to understand that attacks such as the one alleged to have happened at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival are difficult to prevent.
She says security and safety have always been the top priority of event organizers, and safety measures also occupy a very large portion of their budgets.
With files from CBC's Katie DeRosa and Jason Proctor