When long-time Selkirk resident Jean Smith found out that the notorious Greyhound killer may soon be strolling past her front door, her reaction was terse.
“Good grief,” she said, from her modest home directly across from the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, where Vince Li has been confined to a high-security ward since being found not criminally responsible for the murder and dismemberment of a fellow bus passenger. “That man should be locked up for good. Anyone who does one horrible thing can always do it twice.”
Manitoba’s independent Criminal Code Review Board disagrees. On Thursday, it granted permission for Mr. Li to take escorted strolls of up to one hour around the health centre grounds – a decision that has met fierce resistance from the province and the family of Vince Li’s young victim, 22-year-old Tim McLean.
In a news conference shortly after the order was released, Attorney-General and Justice Minister Andrew Swan denounced it, saying it would “shock the conscience of all Manitobans and indeed all Canadians. In our view this order is contrary to the interests of public safety and seriously undermines public confidence in the Canadian system of justice.”
Mr. Swan stressed that the health centre would not follow through on the order until it beefs up security measures around its expansive lawn.
The opposition Conservatives have demanded that the lawn be fenced to ensure Mr. Li cannot escape, but Mr. Swan refused to specify how the hospital would tighten security. He did distribute for a reporters a letter written to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in which he implores Ottawa to quash the decision.
“We strongly urge that the Criminal Code of Canada should be amended to ensure that such a demonstrably unfit disposition cannot be made,” Mr. Swan wrote. “At a minimum, the Criminal Code should provide that public safety must be the paramount consideration before the Criminal Code Review Board.”
Carol DeDelley, Mr. McLean’s mother, echoed that indignation.
“When you do what he did, you should be locked up for the rest of your natural life, period,” she said. “My son's human rights were violated in the most horrific manner, and that's completely disregarded and forgotten, and they're all concerned about Mr. Li's human rights.”
Mr. Li was apparently suffering severe psychotic delusions when he stabbed, dismembered and decapitated Mr. McLean, a 22-year-old carnival worker, as they rode along the Trans-Canada Highway toward Winnipeg on July 30, 2008.
Due to his undiagnosed mental illness, he was found not criminally responsible for the second-degree murder last year.
He has been medicated ever since. Earlier this week, a psychiatrist told the review board that Mr. Li’s mental condition had improved enough for him to take short walks on the hospital grounds.
The board’s order specifies that Mr. Li’s walks will start at 15 minutes, gradually increasing to one hour, twice a day. Two staff members will accompany him, equipped with a cellphone or two-way radio.
Ms. DeDelley said the review board’s yearly assessments of Mr. Li’s circumstances only serve to dredge up horrific memories.
“I would like to be doing a job and enjoying my life again, but we haven't had one iota of closure,” she said. “Each year, Mr. Li is going to begin to receive more and more freedoms, more and more of a life back. And I don't think that he should.”
With a report from The Canadian Press
