Horror on the highway: 10 years later

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This article was published 28/07/2018 (2806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former Brandon Sun reporter Ian Hitchen still remembers the evening he got the call.

He was getting into his pyjamas and settling in for the evening on July 30, 2008. “Two and a Half Men” was on television in the background when the phone rang.

“I got on the phone and it was (colleague) Perry (Bergson). He said, ‘Ian, there’s a guy who has cut a person’s head off on a bus,’” Hitchen said. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing … I was just dumbfounded.”

Hitchen met up with former Brandon Sun photographer Colin Corneau and the two sped off toward MacGregor.

“I remember the rain, the wet roads — there was a thunderstorm rolling in — and we were just zooming out to the scene,” Hitchen said.

They were stopped by a lone firefighter blocking the eastbound lane of the Trans-Canada Highway, Hitchen said, but got a tip the service roads were still open.

They ventured along a service road until they were parallel to the bus across the highway.

“All we could see was one light, it may have even been the headlights. It was very shadowy … the windows were dark. The officers on scene were quite calm,” Hitchen said.

Eventually, Hitchen made his way along the road to where other media had gathered, waiting to be given more information.

“It was a bit eerie, you knew he was still on the bus … There was no discussion, just intense waiting and watching to see what was going to happen next.”

It has been 10 years since 22-year-old Tim McLean was brutally killed and beheaded in an unprovoked attack by Vince Li on a Greyhound bus west of Portage la Prairie.

Suffering from untreated schizophrenia and psychotic delusions at the time, Li reported hearing commands from God ordering him to kill the sleeping McLean, whom he apparently viewed as a demon.

It was an incident that shook the country to its core, making national and international headlines that continued into the year that followed.

Li was found not criminally responsible in 2009 for the killing, sparing him from a criminal record and a prison term. He was put under the control of a provincial review board, which met annually to decide what type of care and supervision he should receive.

Each year, Li was granted a little more freedom, from escorted passes out of the Selkirk Mental Health Centre to unescorted absences and eventually the transition to independent, community-based living in a Winnipeg supervised group home. Every step of the way, critics and supporters would clash.

In 2017, Li, now known as Will Baker, was granted an absolute discharge, freeing him of any court-ordered responsibilities, including any conditions or monitoring to ensure he takes his medication.

“I don’t believe for one second that Will Baker poses no threat,” McLean’s mother, Carol de Delley, read outside the Winnipeg courthouse when the decision was made last February.

“He will be a risk to public safety for the rest of his life. What if he chooses to stop his medication again? In a nutshell, I don’t believe that should be his choice to make anymore.”

In the last 10 years, the case has had positive and negative effects on how the community views mental illness, said Chris Summerville, executive director of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society.

“The positives have been when people have been willing to learn and understand, and I think we have a lot more people now who understand what ‘not criminally responsible’ means,” Summerville said. “Unfortunately, though for some people it has solidified the myth that if you have schizophrenia or psychosis, you’re violent and you can’t be treated.”

After a public outcry on the verdicts of Li’s case as well as that of Allan Schoenborn, a B.C. father found not criminally responsible for killing his three children during a psychotic state, the Conservative federal government made amendments to the Criminal Code with respect to individuals found not criminally responsible, a spokesperson for Manitoba Justice said.

Bill C-54 came into effect in July 2014, introducing a “high risk” designation for those deemed not criminally responsible for committing a particularly violent offence.

Those given a high-risk designation are now barred from obtaining a conditional or absolute discharge allowing them to live freely in the community, unless that designation is revoked by the courts on the recommendation of a provincial mental health review board.

In terms of science and what is known about low recidivism rates, Summerville said this was a step backward, although there haven’t been many “high risk” cases since the bill was introduced.

“The review boards do their job and put public safety first; that’s their priority,” Summerville said. “The new legislation resulted in making it harder for the person to experience different levels of freedom. It’s intended to keep people in detention longer.”

Like most people who are given an absolute discharge, Will Baker has tried to fade into the background, Summerville said, always cautious and concerned that he might be identified or become the brunt of some form of altercation.

Summerville said that he keeps in contact with Baker, who volunteers with several mental health organizations.

Baker has had no setbacks, incidents, or negative mishaps, Summerville said.

“He’s doing exceptionally well, as well as anybody I know with schizophrenia … but it doesn’t matter how well he’d doing, people won’t believe it,” he added. “For a lot of people, he still deserves to spend eternity in hell.”

To this day, whenever Hitchen drives to Winnipeg he remembers the exact spot the bus was that night, where the media was standing and where Corneau captured the photo of Li’s silhouette inside the bus.

“It’s one of those things you encounter a lot as a reporter,” Hitchen said. “It’s one of those stories that is always on the back shelf of your mind. When you think about your career, it’s one of those disturbing events that you never lose.

“I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to fully comprehend what actually happened, because it’s so horrific. There’s still disbelief after all these years.”

» edebooy@brandonsun.com

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