Man Charged with 8 Counts of Murder for Festival Tragedy

Rai addressing the media with Sim (left) this afternoon

Overnight news of the horrific tragedy of the vehicle that plowed into people attending a Filipino street party in Vancouver spread around the world. 

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he was "shattered to hear about the terrible incident."

Even King Charles sent condolences via a social media post.

The damaged SUV at the scene of attack

"Our hearts and prayers go out to all those whose lives have been shattered by such a desperate tragedy and we send our deepest possible sympathy at a most agonising time for so many in Canada," he wrote.

Some people in Vancouver woke up to the news this morning, and the shock, sadness and disbelief happened all over again.

Finally there were some numbers -- in the morning it was reported nine people had died, over a dozen injured.

Then at 2pm there was another press conference, this time with Mayor Ken Sim -- dressed in a black suit -- giving a heartfelt speech conveying his sadness and anger over what happened last night and has asked for a full investigation.

It was good to see him step up and finally act like a mayor. Following the by-election a few weeks ago when his ABC party was hammered, Sim realises he needs to actually do his job. If he takes this opportunity to show that he is performing his mayoral duties properly, residents may actually cut him some slack; but he's going to have to work really hard for forgiveness.

At that same press conference Interim Police Chief Steve Rai disclosed only a sliver more of information, that the now 11 deceased ranged in age from five to 65, and that 17 people are still in hospital.

Rai also confirmed the driver of the vehicle was very well known to police and mental health workers.

Lo charged this afternoon, appeared in court

Later in the afternoon news broke that 30-year-old Kai-Ji Adam Lo was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder in relation to the crash at the Lapu Lapu Festival. There are still a lot of questions around security of the festival, though Rai said a risk assessment was made with festival organisers that it didn't require more security like other events.

However, following this tragedy, the police will have to re-examine how they conduct these risk assessments and if police need to attend every single event held in the city. There are also questions why someone with mental health issues and well-known to police, did not get the help he needed, and why he was still able to drive a car. In this case an SUV.

Witnesses came out in the media to give first-hand accounts of what they saw and heard last night. It sounds absolutely horrific, some hearing boom, boom, boom, and later realising it was the sound of the car hitting people, others who had set up stalls at the festival, were cleaning up and leaving when they saw bodies on the ground. They are completely traumatised.

One admitted that whenever he sees groups of people he is terrified and hears the sounds and remember the images he saw.

But Lo, the driver who is charged with eight counts of second-degree murder, has a troubled past. Last year his older brother was murdered and turned to the public for money to pay for the funeral. And then his mother tried to commit suicide and she spent a month in hospital.

Today Lo appeared briefly in court, did not request bail and will remain in custody until his next court appearance on May 26 in Vancouver provincial court. 

Random Attacks Leave Vancouverites Feeling Unsafe

Queen Elizabeth Theatre was cordoned off by police yesterday

People in Vancouver were shaken by the horrific attacks in the downtown area yesterday morning that left one man dead and another with a severed hand.

Today 34-year-old Brendan Colin McBride of White Rock made an appearance in court charged with aggravated assault and second-degree murder. In court he reportedly sat on the ground and gave a wordless wail.

Yesterday morning around 7.40am, Vancouver police received reports of a man in his 50s who was attacked at Cathedral Square at Richards and Dunsmuir who was bleeding from his head and one hand severed.

Blood stains at Cathedral Square from the attack

Less than 10 minutes later at the plaza of Queen Elizabeth Theatre at West Georgia and Hamilton -- just across from the CBC -- another man who was 70 years old was attacked and later died. 

About an hour later, McBride was arrested at Habitat Island, near Olympic Village. On Google maps it would take around 23 minutes to walk there, if he took the route of walking across the Cambie Street Bridge.

VPD Sergeant Steve Addison confirmed the man's severed hand was reattached. 

Perhaps just as shocking was that McBride has had 60 recorded run-ins with the police, and VPD Chief Constable Adam Palmer says the suspect "appears to be a very troubled man".

Why wasn't anything done earlier? If someone has had 60 documented contacts with the police, surely something is wrong with that person?

All day today the CBC Radio Vancouver talked about the attacks, interviewing Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, who said there needed to be more of a concerted effort from provincial and federal governments, and admitted he was unable to fulfill his election promise of hiring 100 mental health nurses to work with police officers; apparently only 20 have been recruited.

Police Chief Palmer says suspect known to police

Listeners these two days were terrified and many said the former mental health institution Riverview should have never been shut down, that people with mental illness should be in a place where they cannot harm the rest of the population.

However, Dr Bill McEwan who has worked in the Downtown Eastside for a long time says Riverview, where he had worked at, was a terrible place for the mentally ill because of the facilities and care there. He says they need more treatment made available.

Another call-in show had callers who talked about not being able to get treatment for their loved ones who were psychotic, and a man was forced to go on pension because he was diagnosed as mentally ill but could not get the treatment he needed and is contemplating leaving the country to get help. Another talked about how their mentally ill daughter was living in a building with drug addicts.

It seems like many systems and governments have dropped the ball and there is no focused strategy to figure out how these people will be treated on a case-by-case basis, as each person's needs are different, how they will be housed, treated, and somehow get back on their feet, and how this will all be paid for.

The other frustrating thing is that these people need to recognise they need help before they can get treatment -- if they can get access to it. 

Hopefully these incidents will be the tipping point -- to get governments into action and be accountable for what is happening on the streets of Vancouver, and the rest of British Columbia. While the crime rate is statistically down, we are still seeing horrific crimes like the ones committed yesterday. It's the randomness that makes it so terrifying...

Statistic of the Day: HK Students Contemplating Suicide

Some 2.8 percent of student surveyed had suicidal thoughts

It's tragic to discover thousands of primary and secondary students tried to commit suicide in the last school year.

The Department of Health released a survey of 233,000 primary and 97,000 secondary pupils, asking them about their growth, vision, hearing, psychosocial health, and behaviour.

In the results the department found 2.8 percent of the children reported thinking about committing suicide in the last academic year, while 1.3 percent -- or almost 4,300 -- said they actually attempted to take their own lives.

Chinese University psychiatry professor Sandra Chan says the resumption of face-to-face classes after the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in increased emotional stress among students.

"You can easily see that in the real-world situation when students' academic demands are rising, especially in the post-Covid [era] and when schools actually are catching up on schedule and the curriculum that they have missed in the past few years... You can imagine the kind of adjustment coupled with academic stress," she said.

Chan said more needed to be done to make mental health services more accessible.

"There must be some multi-level collaboration to prioritise mental well-being as part of the core education initiative, so that will help our family and students address their needs and use the resources available. The priority really is to have policies at school level, at health care level to make these resources accessible and trusted."

While catching up on academics and having difficulty in performing well on tests may be one issue, the other is how the school system has evolved to include more national education, seeing friends and relatives leaving Hong Kong and wondering what hope they have left for their future in the city.

Children are very sensitive, and their emotions need to be recognised and addressed... unless the government doesn't think they are the future of Hong Kong...

Almost Half of Secondary School Students are Depressed

Many students participated in the protests, some now in jail

After over two and a half years of the pandemic with schools closed and at-home learning from computer monitors has taken a toll on Hong Kong students' mental health. 

We are not surprised.

NGO Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service conducted a survey among 1,192 secondary school pupils and found 48 percent of them had symptoms of depression, including feeling hopeless about the future, or a loss of fun. Some 36 percent displayed moderate to very severe signs of depression.

Pandemic has taken a toll on students mentally

In addition, 51 percent of those interviewed were found to have symptoms of anxiety, such as being afraid of embarrassing themselves, dry mouth and trembling. These cases needed professional help.

Ivan Fang, a committee member of the NGO said mental stress often stemmed from a dissatisfaction with daily life. The students who did the survey said they were most upset about the Covid-19 pandemic, their education and the state of society.

Sadly this will be a vindication for parents who took the difficult decision of moving their families from Hong Kong to start their lives elsewhere. While they are mostly in primary school, these children who have migrated to places like the UK, Australia, and Canada seem to be happy and not dragged down by the severe pandemic restrictions like in Hong Kong.

In some cases parents may want their children to complete secondary school and then go abroad for university, or others don't have the means to leave the city. But with the pandemic taking such a toll on these young people, they probably can't hang on much longer.

Depressed students feel hopeless about the future 

Perhaps it's no wonder that 70 percent of the respondents also had poor relationships with their parents, making the students' mental health even worse. 

It's also not helpful that the government does not value its next generation and instead throws it in jail.

Hopefully these students will address their symptoms and understand they are not alone. Everyone in Hong Kong is going through not only the trauma of the pandemic, but also that of the 2019 protests and the political repression happening now.

It's a lot to process for a teenager, let alone an adult.

China's Never-ending Covid Strategy

WHO's Tedros says China's zero-Covid is unsustainable

The World Health Organisation has told China that its zero-Covid strategy is not sustainable and that it needs to find a way to transition out of it. 

But China seems to be doubling down with Shanghai still under lockdown after 51 days and in Beijing, workers in full PPE gear are putting up razor wire on the walls of compounds to prevent residents from leaving.

"When we talk about the zero-Covid strategy, we don't think that it's sustainable considering the behaviour of the virus now and what we anticipate in the future," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday.

Shanghai's lockdown has left residents depressed

"We have discussed about the issue with Chinese experts and we indicated that the approach will not be sustainable. Transiting into another strategy will be very important."

Interesting Tedros is saying this now, over two years later -- as he was previously a champion of China's methods of stamping out the virus. Does this mean the WHO will also quietly stop endorsing Chinese-made vaccines using dead viruses and using TCM to treat symptoms?

Nevertheless, it's a significant shift for the WHO, but will China listen?

Chinese state media is parroting how the zero-Covid strategy is working well, but doesn't taken into account the economic price the country is paying, let alone its citizens' financial and mental health.

People are frustrated, angry, depressed and desperate being prevented from leaving their homes, unable to get enough food to eat, unable to earn a living, and wondering when this will all end.

In Shanghai they shouted from their apartments, banged on pots and pans, sent out as many messages as they could to the outside world, including a video compiled on April 6 of their desperation, and there are videos of them physically fighting with people in white PPE suits.

Beijingers are wondering if they are going to get the same treatment soon.

People's Daily on testing, quarantine, control

The easiest solution would be to vaccinate as many people as possible with mRNA vaccines instead of those using the dead virus; China has acquired them but refuses to use them in the hopes of developing its own version. 

But there is no time to waste -- China should be injecting these vaccines in the arms of the elderly in particular and anyone else who is immunocompromised as soon as possible.

It's a pity politics is taking precedence over science. And it has made people terrified of the virus.

On May 6 the People's Daily published a statement from the Politburo Standing Committee chaired by Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Covid strategy. The 1,900-word statement only had 10 words on the vaccination effort (circled in the red frame), while the rest talked about focusing on testing, quarantine and movement control. 

Not only does the zero-Covid approach hurt China, but also Hong Kong and Macau too, both waiting desperately for over two years for the border to the mainland to be lifted.

However, this is not Xi's priority -- he is determined to prove to the world that the zero-Covid strategy works and at any cost. But the rest of the world has ignored him and moved on, with some countries with clear protocols in place if someone vaccinated tests positive. 

They are not locked down indefinitely or worse -- shipped off to a quarantine camp where there are reports they are completely unsanitary, there are not enough supplies and no definitive word on when they can leave.

Tedros last visited China during Winter Games

People in China are not praising the country's efforts in fighting Covid-19 anymore -- they are concerned about their rights being infringed upon and are demanding answers. 

And since Tedros' comments about China today, they have been censored from China's internet.

Perhaps he is not the friend China thought it had anymore...