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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Big response to Vince Li interview

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 05/27/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Vince Li is shown in a Portage La Prairie court Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008. (CP)

Chris Summerville, CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, provided the Free Press with the text of an interview he conducted with bus beheader Vince Li. Readers subsequently provided us with their opinions.

If Vince Li could have been treated by a mental-health system, then none of this would have happened. If Vince Li had a heart attack he would have been treated — but Canada's broken mental-health system did not — and this is the reason we are even having this conversation!

-- Take a stand!

Balderdash. Our mental-health system is not broken. What is broken is the proliferation of 'illnesses,' which is due to the effort of the psychology and pharmaceutical industries to boost their bottom lines.

The result is that our system is overloaded with cases that should not be cases and this results in fewer resources for truly mentally ill people.

I suggest that you go and work one-on-one with people like Li and, perhaps bring him to your home for weekend visits. Be part of the solution instead of making a blanket generalization that you do not know to be factual.

-- East of Eden

Li states "I don't think I will do it again," which means he COULD do it again. Murder is murder no matter what state of mind you were in at the time. At the very least he should serve a life sentence in a mental institution.

-- dennym

The easy path is to condemn. That's one of the reasons we don't have victims or victims' families determining punishment. We are, hopefully, a society that sees beyond a knee-jerk response.

-- libertarian2

The voices in his head are still there and are only hidden by the medication. He should remain locked away forever. Li's life work will be to help us understand this horrible disease. He should resign himself to this fact.

-- roomie

I wonder how much good "Bible study" is doing Vince Li? Helping him with reality by instructing him in fantasy makes no sense to me.

'OK Vince, those voices in your head were part of your mental illness. The voices in our heads are religion.'

-- Bob Russell

Vince Li is ill and coping with the aftermath of his own heinous act. While Tim McLean's death was horrific and the grief of his family completely natural, a mental illness is as much an illness as cancer or heart disease and I cannot find it in myself to lay blame. My heart goes out to Mr. Li and to Mr. McLean's family and friends; here there is only sorrow.

-- Serabitrio

That this interview was conducted and edited by a person responsible for his treatment pretty well renders it meaningless. The only thing that can be taken from this is that he was well-coached for his answers. Any answers the public wouldn't like would have been edited out.

-- gpw_nam

I am sure Charles Manson would be a sweetheart if you pumped him up with enough meds. In fact, any perpetrator of any crime would be harmless if sufficiently medicated. Does this mean they should be freed?

-- Stephen Dankewich

I have a real problem with Li being able to change his name if he gets out, when innocent people who are required to get criminal record checks for employment are FORCED to pay extra money and go through a fingerprinting process to make sure that THEY are not the criminal! This took 10 months for me to become a certified teacher. Reason: a female criminal, who shares my birthdate was given the PRIVILEGE to change her name... If he gets out, let him continue his life as Vince LI!

-- itsjustme43

Unlike Vince Li, I hear lots of voices. Except, the voices I hear are not in my head. They are the voices of other Manitobans and Canadians.

Most of them say the same thing, and that is: "keep Vince Li in custody."

To quote an alien (Mr Spock): "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

-- Gack

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 27, 2012 A10

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