The petition for Tim’s Law

This petition has been started in hopes that the laws will be changed regarding persons being found not criminally responsible for their actions due to mental illness. They should still be held criminally responsible, and unable to re-enter society.

“Tim’s Law is if you voluntary take an innocent life you will lose your freedom for the rest of your life. I think that’s fair and reasonable and I think that’s justice,”

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/timslaw/index.html

Review boards balance public safety, rights of those not criminally responsible

A lawyer who chairs the board that will decide Vince Li’s fate if he’s found not criminally responsible for beheading a bus passenger says such findings don’t mean a person gets off scot-free.

“It’s not a get-out-of-jail-free situation,” said John Stefaniuk of the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board.

A judge will rule Thursday on whether to accept the argument by both Crown and defence lawyers that Li was not criminally responsible for the horrific death of Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus last summer.

If such a ruling is made Li would receive treatment for his mental illness. It would be up to the review board to decide when, if ever, Li is released. His status would be reviewed yearly.

Stefaniuk said there are a number of patients in treatment who would have been back on the streets sooner if they had simply plead guilty to an offence.

Stefaniuk, who spoke generally about the process and not about Li specifically, said the board’s main concern is to balance public safety against a patient’s right to the least restrictive conditions possible. (more…)

One person’s madman is another’s son

Yesterday, Li who is charged with second-degree murder pleaded not guilty in a Winnipeg court during his trial, which is expected to end tomorrow. His lawyers will present the defence of not criminally responsible because of mental illness.

According to the testimony of forensic psychiatrist Dr. Stanley Yaren, Li has been diagnosed as schizophrenic and suffered a major psychotic episode at the time of the killing. People at the Edmonton church Li attended tried several times to get him to seek psychiatric help. He did not, and Tim McLean died.

Under the present NCR law, Li may be sent to a psychiatric institution, but his case will be reviewed every year to see if he is mentally fit to be allowed back into society. And if so, he will not have a criminal record. In other words, if he moves to another province, police may or may not be informed. It is understandable that deDelley finds such a prospect unacceptable.

“A life for a life,” she says, as she promotes “Tim’s Law.” She wants Li and all others who may be ruled not criminally responsible put away for life, in jail or in a psychiatric institution. No parole.

And of the thousands who have commented online about this case, many want Canada to bring back the death penalty so Li can be executed. End of problem.

Then there’s my friend Sandra. For years, she has not allowed her son inside her house – ever since he came at her with a large, sharp knife. He is suffering from schizophrenia and goes off and on his medication. Mostly, off. Sure, that was the only time that she knows of in which he threatened violence, but she can’t take any chances. (more…)

She was back in the community in six months

It was a crime so horrific it shocked and sickened people across the country. Newspaper headlines all over Canada reported the brutal Manitoba slaying. Months later, many people were upset when it became clear the accused was going to be declared not criminally responsible instead of being handed a long prison sentence as punishment.

But it’s not last summer’s stabbing and beheading of Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus by Vince Weiguang Li that we are talking about – it’s the slaying of four-year-old Skylar Trevor Wiebe by his own mother, Donna Lynn Trueman, with a broom handle more than 17 years ago.

During a three-day hearing this week, Li is expected to be the latest person who committed a criminal offence in Canada to be found not criminally responsible for his actions.

In 1992, Trueman was the first to be sentenced under the then-new federal law. It had just replaced the former verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The main change had to do with who looks after the patients.

Under the old law, provincial politicians determined what happened to those found not criminally responsible for their crimes. Under the new law, a system of forensic review boards was set up in every province.

Trueman, a Winnipeg mother, choked her son with a broomstick handle before thrusting it through his head in October 1991.

She said she did it because she believed her son was possessed by the spirit of Adolf Hitler. (more…)

Tim’s Law

We are nobody…

We did not know Tim McLean. We have only seen what most others have seen. A family looking for answers. Looking for justice. Knowing that in Canada justice must seem to have been done… Knowing that to often it isn’t.

Tim’s mother is lobbying for a law. a law that may prevent others from being in her same place. Many support her, but many more don’t.

We are asking others to stand with her. To support her effort. To lobby on her family behalf. She fears her son’s killer will walk free in a very short time. With a promise to behave, he will walk amongst us. With no record of any kind. Free to harm others.

Trial Start’s Today

Tim Mclean was the young man that was murdered on a greyhound bus near port la prairie. He was minding his own business when he was savagely killed for no other reason than being in the right place at the wrong time
The family of Tim McLean is stepping up its lobbying efforts to enact legislation for victim’s protection. They refer to it as “Tim’s Law.”

Most of us never knew Tim McLean. Most of us never will. But we all know someone like Tim… While we can not prevent every tragedy. We can lessen the chance of a repeat offender. Help us lobby for Tim McLean.

The trial for his killer’s starts today