Organizers of this weekend’s Light Up Chinatown! festival are determined to forge ahead following last year’s tragedy at the family-friendly event.
“You can’t let these things stop you,” Vancouver Chinatown Foundation chair Carol Lee told Global News in an interview on Wednesday. “I think that is a hallmark of Chinatown really, it’s about resilience and perseverance.”
The annual event, now in its fourth year, is intended to bring people back to the community after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lee said she’s heartened by the support she’s received from people in the city and across the province since three innocent people were stabbed in a random attack as the festival wrapped up on Sept. 10, 2023.
“We were heartbroken,” recalled Lee. “If that had happened anywhere you’re heartbroken but you know, particularly here in Chinatown, because I think that people are worried about the safety issues.”
The suspect, Blair Evan Donnelly, had been released on an unescorted day pass from the B.C. Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, popularly known as Colony Farm, despite the B.C. Review Board determining he was still considered a “significant threat to the public.”
Donnelly stabbed his 16-year-old daughter to death in 2006, but was found not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder. At trial he told the court God told him to commit the stabbing.
B.C.’s premier hired former Abbotsford police chief Bob Rich to conduct an independent review into the decision-making around the now 65-year-old’s release.
“I am white-hot angry this person was released unaccompanied into the community,” David Eby told reporters on Sept. 12, 2023.
B.C.’s Ministry of Health said the government has yet to receive the final report Eby ordered although it was expected to be complete this summer.
At a media briefing at Vancouver police headquarters on Sept. 11, 2023, the city’s mayor described the triple stabbing as a “gut shot to the community.”
Ken Sim was not made available for an interview ahead of this year’s Light Up Chinatown! but his staff told Global News the mayor would be sharing an update on public safety this fall.
Vancouver Police Deputy Chief Const. Howard Chow said he felt horrible for Lee, the Chinese community and Chinatown when he learned three strangers were stabbed at the festival’s 11th hour last year.
“So much work went into Chinatown to rebuild it, reinvigorate it and to have something as horrible and as high profile as that happen was disheartening,” said Chow in a Wednesday interview.
Following Donnelly’s arrest in the Chinatown attacks, a December 2023 review board ruling found he constituted a “significant threat” to public safety, and should continue to be held in the hospital without community access for at least 12 months.
“I know there were mistakes that were made there,” said Chow. “There have been efforts to try to close those gaps up but you know, these are things that we have to stay on top of.”
While being held at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam following his arrest on Sept. 10, 2023, the December report states Donnelly refused all medications and relapsed into bipolar disorder with evidence of psychotic symptoms.
It states he allegedly attacked a cellmate at the facility, and upon his return to the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, was placed in seclusion following conflict with other patients.
Last November, Donnelly was charged with assault and assault by choking for alleged incidents on Sept. 12, 2023 in Port Coquitlam.
Coquitlam RCMP refused to release any information on the allegations behind the charges, saying the matter is now before the courts with a two-day trial scheduled for next February.
Donnelly is scheduled for a May 2025 trial on three counts of aggravated assault in the alleged stabbings of a couple in their 60s and a woman in her 20s at the Light Up Chinatown! festival.
Chow said police will maintain a high-visibility presence in Chinatown this weekend, with officers on foot, bikes, and in plain clothes.
“We’ve come a long way but the moment we take our foot off the gas, it’s going to be a problem,” the VPD’s deputy chief told Global News.
“We realize it was an isolated incident but still, we want to make sure people feel safe when they come here,” added Lee.
Lee said there are huge improvements in Chinatown today versus a year ago – including new business awnings, lighting and lanterns, adding the community’s renewal won’t be stalled.
“You can’t let those setbacks define you.”