The man accused in a string of assaults culminating in a stabbing in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday was on probation for making threats against Canada’s deputy prime minister.
Kent Meades, 46, who is facing multiple charges including assault with a weapon in the stabbing, had been discharged from the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre just six days prior, Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer said Thursday.
Court records show that Meades had been sentenced to 148 days in jail and three years of probation in December, after being convicted of threatening to cause death or bodily harm to Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland in August.
Prosecutors did not secure a conviction on another charge of making threats against RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme.
Meades was convicted of breaching his probation the same day he made threats against Freeland and failed to attend psychiatric treatment.
He had also failed to report to his probation officer the day of the attack, and appeared to have mental health challenges, according to Vancouver police.
“There are people on the streets that should be in treatment they should be in recovery, and in some cases, they should be in jail,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said at a Thursday press conference.
On Friday, Global News asked Premier David Eby if it was time to revisit the province’s system for involuntarily detaining people who need serious mental health care.
Eby said holding someone involuntarily requires the signature of two doctors, a process he acknowledged was challenged by the number of available beds.
“(Doctors are) kind of forced to make decisions they might not want to because of a limited number of beds,” he said. “So what people are seeing us do across the province is improve and expand mental health beds.”
Vancouver police say Meades returned to Canada in 2022, where he spent time in custody for multiple offences, including breaking into and damaging a bank.
Along with the assault charge for allegedly stabbing a 61-year-old stranger on Wednesday, Meades is accused in five other assaults including assaulting and uttering threats towards another man at the same scene.
He remains in custody pending a March 28 court appearance.