A photograph of Kira Salim is surrounded by flowers and candles during a vigil for the victims of the vehicle-ramming attack at the Filipino community's Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
A victim of the Lapu-Lapu Day festival attack has launched class-action proceedings against Vancouver Coastal Health and the City of Vancouver, claiming authorities were negligent in allowing the accused to be out on extended leave from a mental-health facility and that police failed to put in place an adequate safety plan for the event.
In a notice of civil claim filed this week with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, John Lind describes suffering serious injuries at the April 26 Filipino-Canadian block party in Vancouver when Adam Lo allegedly drove his SUV through wooden sawhorses and into the crowd, killing 11 people. More than two dozen others were injured, including a 22-month-old.
Mr. Lind states that he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, a punctured spleen and lung, multiple rib fractures and a kidney laceration. The amount of damages being sought is not stated.
The lawsuit, which was launched on Thursday and also names Mr. Lo as a defendant, has yet to be certified by a judge – a critical step in a proposed class-action lawsuit needed for the case to proceed and represent a large group of people with similar claims.
How the horror of the deadly Lapu-Lapu vehicle attack unfolded
The lawsuit seeks certification on behalf of “all persons who claim physical and/or mental injuries as a result of the unlawful entry at the festival,” as well as those who are entitled to a claim relating to the death of a loved one. It states that the defendants’ “negligence” has caused pain, suffering and loss of income.
Mr. Lo, who is being held in the province’s lone forensic psychiatric hospital, appeared in provincial court throughout the summer. The judge ruled he was fit to stand trial on 11 charges of second-degree murder and 31 counts of attempted murder. The B.C. government has promised a public inquiry into gaps within the mental-health system if the criminal trial does not answer questions about if and how Mr. Lo was failed by his care providers.
The province’s mental-health system has long been criticized as underfunded and underresourced, with extremely limited access to voluntary care. Human-rights advocates have condemned the forced detention of patients under the provincial Mental Health Act as inhumane. In recent years, Premier David Eby has begun ramping up this “involuntary care” as a solution for hundreds battling the triple crises of homelessness, complex mental illness and addiction.
Although Mr. Lo had been held in hospital for mental-health issues at least twice in the two years leading up to the attack, at the time of his alleged crimes he was being cared for by a community mental-health team, under a form of medical supervision known as “extended leave.”
Mr. Lo had no prior criminal record, but he had interacted with police dozens of times in recent years, nearly always with him initiating contact.
The Globe and Mail recently reported that several past and present members of the tribunal that oversees involuntary hospital detentions believe Mr. Lo should have been hospitalized.
All the sources said details of Mr. Lo’s condition and medical treatment, which were reported in the immediate aftermath of the attack by The Globe, raised issues of concern ‐ including that his psychiatrist suggested his dosage may have been insufficient to be considered therapeutic.
The proposed civil claim says Mr. Lo was regarded as a “frequent flyer” among law enforcement agencies and that he had a history of mental-health interactions with police officers, including the day before the festival. “[Vancouver Coastal Health] knew about these interactions and his worsening mental health, yet they permitted him to remain on ‘extended leave,’” the claim states.
Extended leave requires patients to follow a treatment plan that comes with certain conditions, which may include taking medications and having consistent visits with mental-health professionals.
Six months after Lapu Lapu festival attack, the Filipino community is still reeling
Mr. Lind asserts in his filing that the regional health authority failed to pursue the “detention and/or hospitalization” of Mr. Lo, despite the “imminent risk of harm to himself or others that he posed.” Vancouver Coastal Health declined to comment on the legal proceedings.
The claim asserts that the City of Vancouver miscategorized the festival as “low complexity” and failed to dedicate a police deployment to patrol the crowd of thousands of people. In addition, the city “used only wooden sawhorse-style barricades to prevent cars from accessing closed streets,” the claim says.
The Vancouver Police Department is also accused of negligence in the claim, though it is not itself listed as a defendant because the city is described as “vicariously liable” for the actions of the officers it employs. In an e-mail to The Globe, the city declined to comment on the legal proceedings, noting that the matter is before the courts. Mr. Lind’s legal team also declined to comment.
The city and the regional health authority have three weeks to file their response to the Oct. 23 notice of civil claim.