An absolute failure

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Last April, an Audi SUV was deliberately driven at speed into a large crowd at the Lapu-Lapu Filipino Street Festival in South Vancouver, BC, resulting in eleven deaths and many serious injuries. A day afterwards, the police spokesman told a press conference that the driver involved was well known to police as his home had been visited frequently in response to mental health issues.

Now a school shooting takes place in the small town of Tumbler Ridge, BC, leaving five students and one teacher dead, along with the shooter, who had killed their mother and brother at home immediately before the deadly school rampage that also left many students injured. Next day, the police spokesman informed the press conference that the shooter was an 18-year-old who was born a boy but began to transition to a girl at the age of 12 and dropped out of school two years later. The shooter was well known to police who had visited the home frequently, responding to mental health issues. These two very awful tragedies have changed so many lives for ever as all politicians at federal and provincial level express great grief and sympathy for those who have lost family and friends.

It is very apparent that the two perpetrators were in dire need of mental health care. Both were inadequately treated and free to commit these terrible deadly atrocities. Thousands more people are living in tents in every community across Canada, suffering from mental health issues and drug addiction. They have no mental health services, and many create havoc in downtown areas on a daily basis while our governments offer free drug service with just enough food to sustain them.

When suggestions are made that secure institutions must be built to confine, treat, and house the mentally ill, political leaders always find a reason to object, yet funds are available for other things they deem priorities. After the most recent tragedy that has caused suffering to so many and brought condolences from near and far, provincial and federal politicians must look at themselves in the mirror and admit that the decades-long experiment of closing mental health institutions to treat patients in the community is an absolute failure.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada