Criminal lawyer calls for B.C. Review Board overhaul, after Chinatown stabbing

A criminal lawyer in Vancouver is calling for the B.C. Review Board to review its own systems and policies, following a triple stabbing in Chinatown last Sunday.

Police say Blair Evan Donnelly, who has since been charged with three counts of aggravated assault, randomly attacked the three victims while out on a day-pass from a local psychiatric facility. The charges have yet to be proven in court.

Criminal lawyer Aasheesh Puri says he believes the public should have more of a say when it comes to allowing patients with violent histories back into the community.

But first, the public needs to understand how it can take part in the review board’s process, he says.

Puri says the review board works in a very similar way to B.C.’s Supreme Court. At each hearing, three members of the review board — a judge, a psychiatrist and a person with “similar experience” — attend and come to a unanimous decision.

He says cases in which a person is found not criminally responsible are brought to the review board and while making a decision, public safety is the board’s primary concern.

Related Articles:

• Review into circumstances around Chinatown stabbings warranted, but anger not the answer: lawyer

• Accused in Vancouver Chinatown triple-stabbing appeared in court Friday

• BC Review Board ignored ‘desperate warning’: Victims’ rights advocate

But a lack of awareness about how the BC Review Board’s processes work, Puri says, is stopping the public from staying in touch with its actions.

“The public can attend these hearings, all they have to do is call the review board,” Puri said.

Other shortcomings in the review board’s system, he adds, include a lack of information on their website.

Under its “Rules and Guidelines” heading on its website, the review board states: “The BC Review Board is currently updating its Procedural Guidelines. Please check back for an updated document.”

Puri says without accessible guidelines or clarification on which hearings the public can attend, decisions that affect the public will continue to be made, without it.

Donnelly, currently in custody at Coquitlam’s Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, is set to appear in court on September 27th.

-With files from Michael Williams, Liza Yuzda