B.C. Review Board hearing for convicted child killer will take place behind closed doors

The B.C. Review Board hearing for convicted child killer, Blair Evan Donnelly, will be behind closed doors and in written form, according to an email obtained by CityNews.

Donnelly is the same man accused of a triple stabbing in Chinatown months ago while out on a day pass from a psych ward.

Victim’s rights advocate Dave Teixeira says he believes the decision to not proceed with the in-person hearing scheduled for Dec. 4 is an example of the review board not wanting the public to see what it does or doesn’t do.

“This is just a continued pattern of the B.C. Review Board shutting out the media, shutting up the public from scrutiny,” he said.

“In a case like Donnelly, who should never have been let out, I think it’s more important than ever that the public and the media be allowed to see this process and instead they are again blocking the public and the media from seeing what’s going on.”

Now, it’s not exactly clear if the same Dec. 4 date is set for this private hearing, but Teixeira expects we won’t learn about the review board’s findings until months after it happens.

“They have for years had this ivory tower view that no one should question what they’re doing,” he said. “A case of this profile, if they had nothing to hide, would say, ‘we welcome to scrutiny, we want to show you that we did nothing wrong.’ So, I am quite certain that these actions are the actions of guilty parties.”

In his experience, Teixeira says the written report could take up to four months to be released.