Bus beheader wants freedom to live on his own, board considering it
THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 03:04 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 03:16 PM EST
WINNIPEG -- A man who beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba has changed his name and wants to leave his group home to live independently.
Vince Li appeared before a Criminal Code Review Board on Monday under the new name of Will Baker.
Baker killed Tim McLean during a bus trip on the TransCanada Highway near Portage la Prairie in July 2008. He was found to be not criminally responsible for the murder due to mental illness -- schizophrenia.
Baker was originally kept in a secure wing at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, but the board has granted him increasing freedoms starting with supervised walks on the hospital grounds and eventually escorted trips to nearby communities.
He won the right to live in a group home last year
His medical team is now asking the review board to let Baker live on his own, albeit with several conditions that would include daily monitoring to ensure he continues to take his anti-psychotic medication.
The board heard from Baker's doctors on Monday that he has been a model patient and has always taken his medication.
Crown attorney Brian Sharpe said Baker would continue to be monitored "for the foreseeable future" and did not object to the request for independent living.
"There have been no issues. He's described in positive terms by the staff," Sharpe told the hearing.
"As far as I can tell, he's done everything that's been asked of him."
A decision by the board is expected by the end of the week.
Baker, 47, sat next to the 22-year-old McLean on the Greyhound bus after the young man smiled at him and asked how he was doing.
Li said he heard the voice of God telling him to kill the young carnival worker or "die immediately." Li repeatedly stabbed McLean who unsuccessfully fought for his life. As passengers fled the bus, Li continued stabbing and mutilating the body before he was arrested.
Bus beheader wants freedom to live on his own, board considering it | Canada | N
Mother of bus beheading victim calls killer's name change a travesty
MICHAEL PLATT
First posted: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 08:09 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 09:49 PM EST
Charles Manson moving in beside you might raise a few red flags; Charlie Smith, not so much.
And so it will be when Will Baker finds a new home, or a new job.
There will be no obvious connection between Baker and the man who hacked the head off a fellow passenger while riding a Greyhound bus back in 2008 — because back then, Baker was still named Vince Li.
Like Karla Homolka, Graham James and David Shearing before him, Li simply applied to change his name, because in Canada, getting a new identity remains your lawful right no matter what you do — and even the most heinous of detainees can swap names at will.
“I don’t think he should be out in the community at all, but when he can just change his name, hiding and disappearing from the public eye is going to be that much easier,” said Carol de Delley, speaking from her home in Winnipeg.
“There’s nothing fair about that. There’s been nothing fair about any of this.”
De Delley is the mother of Tim McLean, the victim of that horrifying bus beheading, a murder for which Li, a schizophrenic, was found not criminally responsible.
On Monday, Li appeared before a Criminal Code Review Board under his new name, with a request to leave his group home and live independently for the first time since his rampage on the Trans-Canada Hwy. near Portage la Prairie in July 2008.
Li was originally kept in the secure wing at Manitoba’s Selkirk Mental Health Centre, but the 47-year-old former delivery driver was allowed to move into a group home last year.
Now the man who took McLean’s life in a psychotic breakdown wants to live on his own, with daily monitoring to ensure he takes his anti-schizophrenia medication, which is supposed to reduce the likelihood of any follow-up rampage.
That’s independent living, plus whole new name, for the man described by doctors as a model patient.
“He’ll be looking for a job and a place to live, and he’ll be hiding under a name change, and it’ll be really easy to disappear,” said de Delley.
“It shouldn’t be allowed.”
And once again, Canada should be asking why it is.
It would seem like the easiest fix in the world, to simply stop the killers, rapists and pedophiles of this country from legally changing their names — and though Li was found not criminally responsible for the life he took, ongoing concerns about his stability mean Vince Li is the name this killer should always be stuck with.
Not fair? Tell that to Tim McLean, the innocent victim of Li’s lapse in mind and judgement, killed just because he smiled at Li and asked how he was doing.
Though it’s become harder in recent years to simply change your name as an easy way of disconnecting from a checkered past, fingerprints are only required in certain provinces, including Alberta, B.C., Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and PEI.
In those provinces, a criminal using a new name still has the old criminal record attached, because the fingerprints are sent to the RCMP and run through the database, to search for past convictions.
For other provinces, a new name means a whole new start — and in any case, unless you start a job where criminal background check is required, a new name anywhere in Canada serves as a fast and easy break from dirty deeds that came before.
Landlords are left in the dark and most employers too, and that’s before you even start to consider neighbours, hockey teams and the like.
So why does Canada allow it, when other countries, like Australia, have started cracking down and banning the practice?
With the Criminal Code Review Board expected to make a decision by the end of the week, Li — now Will Baker — could be enjoying his anonymity in short order.
“Everything about this bothers me,” said de Delley.
She’s not alone.
mplatt@postmedia.ca
Mother of bus beheading victim calls killer's name change a travesty | MICHAEL P
THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 03:04 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 03:16 PM EST
WINNIPEG -- A man who beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba has changed his name and wants to leave his group home to live independently.
Vince Li appeared before a Criminal Code Review Board on Monday under the new name of Will Baker.
Baker killed Tim McLean during a bus trip on the TransCanada Highway near Portage la Prairie in July 2008. He was found to be not criminally responsible for the murder due to mental illness -- schizophrenia.
Baker was originally kept in a secure wing at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, but the board has granted him increasing freedoms starting with supervised walks on the hospital grounds and eventually escorted trips to nearby communities.
He won the right to live in a group home last year
His medical team is now asking the review board to let Baker live on his own, albeit with several conditions that would include daily monitoring to ensure he continues to take his anti-psychotic medication.
The board heard from Baker's doctors on Monday that he has been a model patient and has always taken his medication.
Crown attorney Brian Sharpe said Baker would continue to be monitored "for the foreseeable future" and did not object to the request for independent living.
"There have been no issues. He's described in positive terms by the staff," Sharpe told the hearing.
"As far as I can tell, he's done everything that's been asked of him."
A decision by the board is expected by the end of the week.
Baker, 47, sat next to the 22-year-old McLean on the Greyhound bus after the young man smiled at him and asked how he was doing.
Li said he heard the voice of God telling him to kill the young carnival worker or "die immediately." Li repeatedly stabbed McLean who unsuccessfully fought for his life. As passengers fled the bus, Li continued stabbing and mutilating the body before he was arrested.
Bus beheader wants freedom to live on his own, board considering it | Canada | N
Mother of bus beheading victim calls killer's name change a travesty
MICHAEL PLATT
First posted: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 08:09 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 09:49 PM EST
Charles Manson moving in beside you might raise a few red flags; Charlie Smith, not so much.
And so it will be when Will Baker finds a new home, or a new job.
There will be no obvious connection between Baker and the man who hacked the head off a fellow passenger while riding a Greyhound bus back in 2008 — because back then, Baker was still named Vince Li.
Like Karla Homolka, Graham James and David Shearing before him, Li simply applied to change his name, because in Canada, getting a new identity remains your lawful right no matter what you do — and even the most heinous of detainees can swap names at will.
“I don’t think he should be out in the community at all, but when he can just change his name, hiding and disappearing from the public eye is going to be that much easier,” said Carol de Delley, speaking from her home in Winnipeg.
“There’s nothing fair about that. There’s been nothing fair about any of this.”
De Delley is the mother of Tim McLean, the victim of that horrifying bus beheading, a murder for which Li, a schizophrenic, was found not criminally responsible.
On Monday, Li appeared before a Criminal Code Review Board under his new name, with a request to leave his group home and live independently for the first time since his rampage on the Trans-Canada Hwy. near Portage la Prairie in July 2008.
Li was originally kept in the secure wing at Manitoba’s Selkirk Mental Health Centre, but the 47-year-old former delivery driver was allowed to move into a group home last year.
Now the man who took McLean’s life in a psychotic breakdown wants to live on his own, with daily monitoring to ensure he takes his anti-schizophrenia medication, which is supposed to reduce the likelihood of any follow-up rampage.
That’s independent living, plus whole new name, for the man described by doctors as a model patient.
“He’ll be looking for a job and a place to live, and he’ll be hiding under a name change, and it’ll be really easy to disappear,” said de Delley.
“It shouldn’t be allowed.”
And once again, Canada should be asking why it is.
It would seem like the easiest fix in the world, to simply stop the killers, rapists and pedophiles of this country from legally changing their names — and though Li was found not criminally responsible for the life he took, ongoing concerns about his stability mean Vince Li is the name this killer should always be stuck with.
Not fair? Tell that to Tim McLean, the innocent victim of Li’s lapse in mind and judgement, killed just because he smiled at Li and asked how he was doing.
Though it’s become harder in recent years to simply change your name as an easy way of disconnecting from a checkered past, fingerprints are only required in certain provinces, including Alberta, B.C., Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and PEI.
In those provinces, a criminal using a new name still has the old criminal record attached, because the fingerprints are sent to the RCMP and run through the database, to search for past convictions.
For other provinces, a new name means a whole new start — and in any case, unless you start a job where criminal background check is required, a new name anywhere in Canada serves as a fast and easy break from dirty deeds that came before.
Landlords are left in the dark and most employers too, and that’s before you even start to consider neighbours, hockey teams and the like.
So why does Canada allow it, when other countries, like Australia, have started cracking down and banning the practice?
With the Criminal Code Review Board expected to make a decision by the end of the week, Li — now Will Baker — could be enjoying his anonymity in short order.
“Everything about this bothers me,” said de Delley.
She’s not alone.
mplatt@postmedia.ca
Mother of bus beheading victim calls killer's name change a travesty | MICHAEL P
