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Saturday, June 06, 2009
Greyhound bus killer will spend another year in mental ward
Vincent Li, the man found not criminally responsible for beheading Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus last summer, will be locked up for at least another year, but his incarceration will be subject to a yearly review:
Carol deDelley is absolutely right.
"This whole situation, pardon my French, has been bull----. We've never received justice throughout this whole thing and I'm not sure we're ever going to. So we'll fight for it," the mother of Tim McLean told the Winnipeg Sun Wednesday night.
Her comments followed news that Vincent Li -- who was found not criminally responsible for the brutal killing of McLean last July aboard a Greyhound bus -- will remain locked up inside a mental health ward, under heavy security, for at least another year.
John Stefaniuk, head of the Criminal Code review board that heard Li's case, also said the 40-year-old who suffers from severe schizophrenia will be heavily monitored if he should leave the facility and will be accompanied by staff workers and peace officers at all times.
The ruling is no surprise because all of these suggestions were made by Li's psychiatrist at a hearing held this week. The only other choices the board likely had were to release Li outright with no conditions, or some kind of a conditional release.
To add to the "kangaroo court" feel to this whole thing, Stefaniuk said the board is expected to take several months before even deciding if the reasons for their ruling will be made public.
The fact that Li will get a yearly review to determine whether he's well enough to be released highlights the justice system's failure to protect ordinary Canadians. This policy of protecting the perpetrators of crime over the rights of victims and the public is an extension of the Trudeau government's policy of stressing rehabilitation, even if criminals have the potential to claim more innocent victims.
"Too many Canadians… disregard the fact that the correctional process aims at making the offender a useful and law-abiding citizen, and not any more an individual alienated from society and in conflict with it.… Consequently, we have decided from now on to stress the rehabilitation of individuals rather than protection of society," said Liberal Solicitor General Jean Pierre Goyer in the House of Commons in 1971.
38 years later, we are faced with a justice system that is seemingly unable to provide Tim McLean's family with any sort of justice whatsoever. First, we were unable to convict Mr. Li of murder for this horrible crime. And why? Because he successfully used the mental disorder defence, claiming he was not criminally responsible for his actions. In other words, it's not his fault because he's insane. Of course he's insane! Sane individuals don't go around decapitating people. In cases like this, insanity should be an obvious fact, not a defence.
If this wasn't bad enough, McLean's family will have to relive this every year. They will also have to face the prospect that Li will soon be released into the community, where he could easily snap and force some other innocent family to face the same hardship. Is it not time to start putting public safety and victims rights before the rights of those who would murder innocent people?
Posted by Jesse Kline on June 6, 2009 in Crime | Permalink
Comments
"We've never received justice..."
She means: "We've never received vengeance."
"The fact that Li will get a yearly review to determine whether he's well enough to be released highlights the justice system's failure to protect ordinary Canadians. This policy of protecting the perpetrators of crime over the rights of victims...."
Utter bullshit. It might make you feal better to inflict harm on someone who is mentally ill, but it is not justice and does nothing to protect anyone. Your lack of basic human decency makes you morally inferior to Li. He actually has a real excuse for his behaviour - he's insane. But as crazy as your comments are, I know in reality you are sane. Evil, but sane.
Posted by: Fact Check | 2009-06-06 5:52:11 PM
Vincent Li should never be released. Canada's obsession with not offending anyone has gotten into very dangerous ground. When Li is released, who knows what it will take for him to decapitate one or even more people again. A person who puts severed body parts in ziploc bags like Li is obviously insane, and should NEVER be put back into general society. What if he moves close to you? to your best friend? to your children? Then will you feel safe? Go to his front porch with cookies to welcome him into the neighbourhood? Or will For Sale signs start popping up faster than it took for him to kill and mutilate the last innocent person?
Vincent Li is obviously insane, and this should result in an automatic life sentence in a mental hospital, with no option ever for release or parole. He has a serious mental defect that can never be cured, even a man who kills a cheating wife or kills to rob someone for money (though still not in the least excusable, but at least comprehendible) get exponentially longer sentences than this cold blooded insane murder.
Anyone standing up for his release should also be put in a mental hospital, because thats just not sane.
Posted by: pat_111 | 2009-06-06 6:09:53 PM
Utter bullshit. It might make you feal better to inflict harm on someone who is mentally ill, but it is not justice and does nothing to protect anyone.
Posted by: Fact Check | 2009-06-06 5:52:11 PM
Li admitted his guilt, knew what he had done and asked the judge that he be killed for his actions. Does that sound like someone who is insane? I say we grant him his wish.
Posted by: The Stig | 2009-06-06 6:44:03 PM
There is no justice system in Canada. There is however a legal system that consists of so many vague and ambiguous "sort of" laws...that we can't expect it get any better, ever, as long as we have "legislators" actively adding more and more vague and ambiguous laws to an already convoluted and non functional system, don't expect much in the way of justice.
Control, yes - Justice, no.
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-06-06 7:05:58 PM
Justice system, what a mockery of justice, and justice is not vengeance, FC. The confusion between justice and vengeance is one of the reasons for what now parades as a justice system.
Posted by: Alain | 2009-06-06 8:09:11 PM
This would not be an issue in Texas. Li would not have gotten off the bus alive.
Posted by: TM | 2009-06-06 11:18:34 PM
Total incompetence on the part of the psychiatric "industry". Li is a sociopath, who tricked a bunch of "doctors" into giving him a free pass. This is Hannibal Lecter, folks. He put one over on them. There's only one solution to this, and it's up to the victim's family to make it happen.
Posted by: dp | 2009-06-07 7:38:30 AM
When he kills again, those who gave him that window must be held to account to the extent of losing all their assets to the families of the victim(s) and including at least five years in jail. After all, we all know what Li is; those who have the power to release him into society had better be sure. Society is not a Guinea pig.
Posted by: dewp | 2009-06-07 1:43:03 PM
Pure, unbridled, remorseless, homicidal rage. I've tried to find a single word to describe this. All I can come up with is; evil.
The desire to keep a potential homicidal killer away from society, forever, seems natural. The wish to punish said homicidal killer seems normal, also.
For fact check to completely turn the tables on such basic social norms, something must have shorted out in his brain.
But, to judge him is probably unfair. As he says, inflicting harm on someone who is mentally ill is not justice.
Posted by: dp | 2009-06-07 6:40:17 PM
But, to judge him is probably unfair. As he says, inflicting harm on someone who is mentally ill is not justice.
Posted by: dp | 2009-06-07 6:40:17 PM
In the words of Dennis Miller on insanity plea's: "He better be in that room laughing like Daffy Duck every time we open the door...or its straight to the chair"
A little callous, but I understand the sentiment behind it.
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-06-07 7:41:28 PM
Actually, JC, I was talking about fact check, not Li. Sorry for the confusion, I think Li should be burned at the stake, like the demon his is.
Posted by: dp | 2009-06-07 10:08:44 PM
Whether or not the offender is insane, the consequences of his act remain the same. If a person suffers a psychotic break and murders another person, and be asked to answer for it, that is a personal tragedy for him, but does not absolve him. Intent is part of the sum of guilt, but not all. A drunk driver does not intend to kill his victim, either, yet we hold him accountable when he does, although not usually of murder (another shortcoming of the law).
To sum up: Hang him.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-06-08 8:49:01 AM
I am not saying that my first reaction when I first heard this story was why didnt the police just shoot the maniac on the bus. He was alone in there. However, since he is alive I do hope that he is never allowed on our streets again. What particularly bothers me, however, that someone who committed such a horrible criminal act could, and probably will, walk out of the Mental Institution without a criminal record. How nice.
Posted by: Ross Kempster | 2009-07-14 2:09:13 PM
if he gets out in as little as a year with no criminal record like they say alot of people are gona b living in fear. if it were my choice, he'd b locked up and the last voice that S.O.B. would hear would be his own
Posted by: Mitchell Lesy | 2009-11-09 5:48:33 PM
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