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

By Canadian Press on April 30, 2025.

VANCOUVER — 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 health challenges 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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2025.

The Canadian Press