Rally opposes Vince Li’s move to group home

Carol de Delley spoke against Vince Li’s granted right to move to a group home. Li beheaded and decapitated her son Tim McLean in 2008. 

By Austin Grabish, The Selkirk Record

With an eagle feather in hand, Carol de Delley vehemently denounced the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board’s decision to allow the man who beheaded and cannibalized her son to move to a Winnipeg group home.

And the voices of dozens of outraged protesters echoed that call during the Justice for Tim McLean Rally Saturday at the Manitoba Legislature.

De Delley received a letter last Friday telling her Vince Li had been granted the right to move from a hospital to a group home.

“Just in time for Mother’s Day,” de Delley told the Record.

Li was found to be not criminally responsible for murdering de Delley’s son, because he was mentally ill at the time of the unprecedented 2008 killing.

Li had stabbed McLean repeatedly before dismembering and eating his body parts in front of passengers on a Greyhound bus.

De Delley said she has feared Li’s release from hospital for years.  

“It was not a secret that this was going to be the result,” de Delley said.

“It hasn’t come as a surprise, but it doesn’t make me feel any better than it did six years ago knowing that it was looming.”

De Delley questioned what would happen if Li decided to not take medication that controls his schizophrenia once released.

“It’s indicative of the illness to feel better and decide that you don’t need the medication anymore,” de Delley said.

Li has spent the last seven years in a locked ward at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, but has gradually gained freedoms over the years including the right to unsupervised trips in the community and most recently to transition to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.

It wasn’t known at press time if Li had made the move or if he was still in Selkirk.

One protester yelled the Justice system should have to re-evaluate Li.

“He admitted he was guilty, he’s done wrong, send him to court,” the man said. 

Protesters held signs decrying the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board’s decision to allow Vince Li the right to move to a Winnipeg group home.

Manitoba Schizophrenia Society executive director Chris Summerville said Saturday’s rally was based on ungrounded fears.

“In the seven years that he’s been at Selkirk Mental Health Centre there have been no altercations with other patients, he’s been very compliant with medication,” Summerville said in a phone interview Saturday. 

“He has undergone rigorous testing psychologically and psychiatrically to determine his readiness to live in the community.”

Summerville added Li is sorry for his actions.

“He remembers it and never wants it to happen again, and consequently is self-motivated to take the medication,” Summerville said.

But de Delley questions if Li can handle the responsibility of taking his medication.

“I don’t think that should be his choice anymore. I think he should have lost the right to make that decision,” de Delley said.

Summerville said Li’s release to a group home has several conditions attached to it, which includes mandatory medication and visits with a psychiatrist.  

“There is a page full of conditions which he must meet if he wants to stay in community and not move back to Selkirk Mental Health Centre,” Summerville said.

And the move to the group home won’t happen over night. The letter de Delley received from the Review Board suggested overnight passes to the home for the purpose of a gradual transition would happen first.

 

De Delley said she fears future freedoms Li could receive after making the move to a group home.

“It’s got to stop. It’s got to stop someplace,” she said.  

 -- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition May 14 2015 p.3