Vince Li's upcoming move to group home sparks Winnipeg protest

About 50 people gathered at the Manitoba Legislature today to protest increased freedoms for Vince Li, who was found not criminally responsible for the 2008 beheading death of 22-year-old Timothy McLean.

​Li, who had untreated schizophrenia at the time, stabbed, killed and ate parts of McLean's body while on a Greyhound bus full of passengers.

• Greyhound bus beheader OK'd to move to group home
• Vince Li granted unsupervised passes to Winnipeg

Li has been in the locked psychiatric ward of the Health Sciences Centre since February, but he was given permission this week to move into a group home in the city with round-the-clock staff and a curfew.

Carol De Delley, McLean's mom, told those in attendance she's become disillusioned with the effort to keep her son's killer from being released.

De Delley said she isn't confident Li will always take his medication,

"We all know what happens when he doesn't take his meds, but the fact that the decision is left to him, that ought to terrify everybody. I don't know why it doesn't. I don't know why everyone isn't up in arms."

Li could reoffend, critics say

Li's release also troubles Ginny Kirk and others who believe he will reoffend. Kirk, who met McLean while they were working at the Red River Exhibition, organized the Saturday afternoon "Justice for Tim McLean" rally at the Legislative Building.

"People are telling me they're concerned he'll drop his meds again and he'll do it again," said Kirk, adding that those attending the rally would have a chance to sign petitions asking for Li's freedoms to be restricted.

Brenda Hookham said she is angry with the justice and health systems because she feels there is no way to guarantee Li won't go off his medication.

"He was on meds before, thought he was OK, went off his meds and this happened to Tim," said Hookham, who has been friends with the McLean family for years.

She attended the rally because she, too, believes Li shouldn't be allowed to live in a group home.

"I would like to see Vince get the proper help he needs at a psych ward where he is going to be monitored all the time," said Hookham.

Closely monitored

But others feel confident Li poses a low risk of recidivism as long as he stays on his medication.

Chris Summerville, executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, said Winnipeggers shouldn't be worried about Li moving to a group home.

"There's no way the review board would allow him in the community if there was any chance of him returning to the state of where he would do what he did on the bus," Summerville said. "And even if he did return to a state of psychosis, [that] doesn't mean he would do what he did on the bus."

The more pressing concern, Summerville said, relates to the number of people living with mental illnesses who are not getting the help they need.

Li will be monitored closely, but that isn't the case for many others with the same mental disorder, which can cause confused thinking, hallucinations and an inability to distinguish what is and isn't real.

"Three percentage of those people ... will commit crimes and maybe something as horrible as murder," said Summerville.

"We're not thinking about the future in terms of preventing these kinds of things from happening again in the general population, because we're not providing the resources and the services that people need."

It's not likely Li will be walking the streets of Winnipeg alone, said Summerville, who thinks Li will want to remain as anonymous as possible in public to avoid run-ins with anyone who opposes his new freedom or wishes him harm.

Summerville said there will be a number of services available to Li to ensure he continues to improve in his recovery program.