Mike on Crime (25 page)

“I hope, however the funeral goes down, it's done with respect to Tim, that we are allowed to lay him to rest,” said Tim deDelley. He said the days since learning of McLean's death had been a blur. “We're trying to deal what with happened here. We haven't even had a chance to mourn yet,” he said.

Carol deDelley said she was frustrated by much of what has been written and said about her son's death—from sensational headlines and gory details to bogus claims made about the circumstances of the unprovoked killing. DeDelley also felt some people had been critical of the family's silence while so many others have been grieving publicly. “I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. And I need to honour my son in this way [by speaking out],” she said.

The couple said they were taking a “wait-and-see” approach to the case against Vince Li. And they were refusing to get caught up in the furor that had seen Internet chat rooms filled with uninformed commentary and several special-interest groups try and capitalize on the tragedy for their own personal gain. They planned to follow the court proceedings closely but didn't want to make any comments on Li at this time. They described McLean, known to his friends as Timmy, as a “free spirit” with a big heart and passion for travelling the country while working at various summer fairs and carnivals.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

After weeks of relative silence, family members of Tim McLean were making quite the statement. A sweeping lawsuit had now been filed in which they condemned the actions of the federal government, RCMP and Greyhound following the killing of their son. They were seeking a total of $170,000 in general damages plus additional costs from the named parties but insist this has nothing to do with money.

“It's about accountability, responsibility for what happened to their son. It's about getting answers, so that his death might not be a total waste, that there might be some good to come from it,” the family's lawyer, Jay Prober, told a packed news conference.

The McLean family didn't attend in person because they were too upset, he said. Prober and his colleague, Norman Boudreau, said the family “agonized” over the decision to go after the RCMP but ultimately decided it must be done. Their main source of concern was why police stood around the bus for nearly five hours while the killer beheaded, dismembered and cannibalized McLean in full view. They never stormed the bus, and the standoff only ended when suspect Vince Li tried to escape by jumping through a smashed window.

“How could this incident be allowed to continue for so long?” asked Prober. “We're told by the family they're not getting answers” from police. According to the statement of claim, “the RCMP failed to adhere to proper and established arresting procedures required by law... and knew or ought to have known that their acts and conduct amounted to a wanton disregard and/or total repudiation of the statutory duties incumbent upon members of the RCMP.” By not taking action sooner, police “caused irreparable damage and injury” to the McLean family, “thereby allowing [the killer] to defile the body of the deceased.”

The family was also taking aim at the Government of Canada, the minister of public safety and the minister of public health, saying they clearly failed in their duty to provide a safe environment for passengers on board that ill-fated bus. “You can go on a bus carrying a knife... but you can't get on an airplane with one,” said Boudreau, saying proper regulation of bus safety is clearly needed. “People who take the bus are people who can't afford to take the plane. Why are these people subjected to having their safety being put in danger? Everyone should be offered the same security and safety. When is the Government of Canada going to put an end to this?”

They cited six other Greyhound incidents of violence—three from the past 18 months—which ought to have raised alarm bells. “It is clear that [the government] omitted and continues to omit putting in place safety regulations to ensure that similar violent incidents would be prevented,” the lawsuit states. The family was making similar allegations against Calgary-based Greyhound Transportation Inc., which had repeatedly gone on record to say bus travel was safe. Prober said the fact a person can easily walk onto a bus with a hunting knife and attack a fellow passenger without any warning or provocation suggests that's not true.

The lawsuit claimed Greyhound had failed to install proper security measures such as metal detectors and bag checks and failed to provide adequate training to employees regarding passenger safety. Prober said the claim by Greyhound that such a system isn't feasible “doesn't wash” with the McLean family. “Hopefully Greyhound will be held accountable,” he said. Prober said the family had talked about using the money to start up a scholarship in McLean's name.

MONDAY OCTOBER 6, 2008

It was being described as a significant transformation that had occurred while being lodged at a Winnipeg psychiatric ward. And now a medical expert was saying Vince Li fully understood his legal situation and was fit to stand trial.

“We are quite confident in his ability to instruct counsel,” defence lawyer Gordon Bates told court. Doctors agreed Li clearly understood how the court system worked, the role of the various lawyers, the charge he faced and the potential consequences. With Li's current mental health no longer in question, the focus now turned to whether he should face criminal sanctions for the death of McLean.

“That's really the sole issue in this case,” defence lawyer Alan Libman said outside court. “If someone commits an offence while suffering a disease of the mind and they don't know their actions are wrong, they can't be held criminally responsible.”

Li did not appear in court but was said to be fully co-operating with his lawyers and officials at the PX3 ward at the Health Sciences Centre, where he had been held since early August. “Obviously now he's talking,” said Bates. Li had also agreed to medication, he said.

Dr. Stanley Yaren has submitted a detailed report on Li's mental state following two months of intensive evaluation. Libman told court there had been no definitive finding with regards to an opinion on whether Li could be held criminally responsible. “We want him to get a fair trial, don't want to affect a potential jury pool,” Libman said in explaining the need for public secrecy at this point. “This should be litigated in court and not the court of public opinion,” said Libman.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 9, 2008

Carol deDelley was planning to fight all the way to Ottawa to ensure Li never tasted freedom again. Her calls for a “Tim's Law”—tough new anti-crime legislation that would also honour her son—had sparked a flurry of public debate. DeDelley said she believed that “if you voluntarily take an innocent life like what was done here, you should forfeit your own.” She said in cases where there was absolutely “no doubt” about guilt, a murderer should either be executed or at least get life in prison, with no chance of parole.

“All I am attempting to do is bring awareness that our current laws leave huge gaps in public safety and are in need of amendment. Eventually, for my sake, I will have to forgive Mr. Li's horrific actions against my beautiful and loving son, Tim, and that forgiveness will be the next most difficult thing I will encounter in my life,” she said. “In the meanwhile, however, I cannot just remain quiet and say or do nothing for fear that one day Mr. Li is released into society and tragically repeats what he has demonstrated he is capable of doing. Mr. Li should be medically and psychologically treated so as to remain aware of what he did to another human being and that is his punishment. But at the same time, he needs to be kept away from society because he is dangerous, as he has most graphically proven.”

DeDelley said it was outrageous her son's killer would have the chance for freedom again, and she was angry there were no provisions in Canadian law to ensure the most dangerous criminals were at least guaranteed to be locked up forever.

TUESDAY MARCH 3, 2009

It was a mere formality at this point: Vince Li was going to be found not criminally responsible for his actions. Medical experts who had spent months examining Li on behalf of both the Crown and the defence had come to the same conclusion. Now the public was getting to go inside Li's brain as his high-profile trial began with the inevitable conclusion just days away.

Dr. Stanley Yaren told court he believed Li had a very strong chance to recover from the major mental illness and extreme psychosis that triggered the unprovoked killing of Tim McLean. He described Li as an otherwise “decent person” who was suffering from untreated schizophrenia and clearly out of his mind when he believed he was acting on God's commands to eliminate “the force of evil” by attacking the sleeping victim.

“He was being tormented by auditory hallucinations,” said Yaren. “He believed Mr. McLean was a force of evil and was about to execute him. He had to act fast, urgently, to save himself. This wasn't an innocent bystander or stranger he chose to kill, but rather an evil force he was commanded to kill. “

Li, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, shuffled into the room led by several sheriff's officers, and was placed in the prisoner's box. He sat motionless, wearing a dark suit jacket, slacks and a light-coloured dress shirt.

“He didn't understand, in my opinion, that he was just killing an innocent bystander. He understood this was the only action he could take,” Yaren told Court of Queen's Bench Justice John Scurfield. Once McLean was obviously dead from dozens of stab wounds to the back and chest, Li continued to hear voices demanding he attack the body, Yaren said.

“He was terrified, frightened, tormented. Mr. Li's fear, because of what he was being told through these hallucinated voices, is that what he perceived to be the evil being would come back to life, through some supernatural powers and finish him off. He was in a frenzy to prevent this from happening,” said Yaren. He said Li had been co-operative and made significant strides since being hospitalized and medicated and could function again in the community—something Yaren admitted didn't sit well with most people, including the victim's family. “I completely understand the need for a sense of justice, of retribution. It would be in some sense easier if Mr. Li was an anti-social psychopath with a history of malicious behaviour, but he isn't that. He is, as I've come to know him, a decent person. He is as much a victim of this horrendous illness... as Mr. McLean was a victim. Don't hate the person. Hate the illness.”

Yaren conceded Li's actions could not have been predicted, given that he had no prior criminal record or a violent history. Yaren described him as polite, humble and hard-working and not a “monstrous psychopath.” “The man I described, without psychosis, would have had no reason to [kill McLean],” he said. He said Li began experiencing psychotic episodes around 2003, including a 2005 incident where he was picked up by police walking down Highway 401 in Ontario, believing he was “following the sun” after shedding most of his possessions. He was briefly hospitalized in Etobicoke, Ont., but received no follow-up after refusing to accept he had an illness or take any treatment, court was told. Yaren said there remained a stigma with mental illness that was difficult to overcome, especially for men.

“Our society as a whole doesn't have a lot of tolerance for people with a severe mental illness,” he said. Yaren said Li was slowly beginning to realize what he's done but still didn't accept the fact he consumed some of McLean's body parts. “It may be he's blocked it from his consciousness... that it's just too awful for him to contemplate,” he said. Yaren believed Li could make a significant recovery in the next few years under rigorous treatment and medication but was still suffering some delusions, including a belief he would one day be executed. “He is not 100 per cent out of his psychotic phase yet,” he said. “But over time, as he recovers, he will have to come to terms with the awful things that have occurred.”

He boarded the Greyhound bus in Edmonton just after midnight, leaving a note in the apartment he shared with his wife. “I'm gone. Don't look for me. I wish you were happy,” Vince Li wrote, according to testimony heard at his second-degree murder trial.

Li—travelling under the bogus name of Wong Pent—had a one-way ticket to Thunder Bay. But he got off the bus in the early evening in Erickson, Manitoba. He would spend the next 24 hours in the small town, most of the time sleeping and sitting on a park bench. Li also sold and burned many of his possessions. Li called Anna around 6 a.m. on July 30 but made little sense. “He was talking to her about the Yellow River in China,” Crown attorney Joyce Dalmyn told court. Some of the conversation was in English, the rest in Mandarin. Li told Anna he would return home once he “set up.”

He boarded the daily Thunder Bay-bound Greyhound that passed through Erickson later that afternoon, taking a seat near the front. A woman who got on with him later told police she thought Li was acting “agitated, somewhat distraught” while waiting for it to arrive.

“He was pacing back and forth, talking to himself in Chinese,” said Dalmyn.

On the same bus as Li was Winnipeg resident Tim McLean, who was making his way home following a summer stint on the Canadian carnival circuit. At some point, police believe McLean smiled at Li and may have said a friendly “Hello.” Following a rest stop outside of Brandon, Li moved to the back of the bus and sat down in an empty seat beside McLean, who was sleeping and listening to an iPod. Just west of Portage la Prairie, Li attacked McLean without provocation.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 4, 2009

Carol deDelley was prepared to watch her son's killer walk out of court headed for a hospital, not a prison cell. But the grieving mother was vowing to do everything possible to ensure Vince Li never experienced freedom again.

“I am absolutely terrified of him and his capabilities. I think he'd do it again,” deDelley said after hearing a second straight day of disturbing court testimony. “I'm going to fight to keep everyone safe from him. “If it means going [to court] every year, I'll go every year. Instead of birthday parties, it'll be NCR hearings.” DeDelley accepted the fact Li was mentally ill, especially after hearing testimony from two forensic psychiatrists. She also recognized an inevitable conclusion to the case.