IMO, people who commit random violent attacks on people they don't know have to be messed up in the head, but news articles reporting on these acts of violence rarely ever mention mental health issues as (potential or confirmed) reasons for the attack.
We know a lot of the homeless people in various areas of the city, but esp in DTES, suffer from mental health issues. We know we (Vancouver) are in a drug overdose crisis. We know a lot of these new street drugs are as potent as ever, and are fully capable for causing permanent brain damage. We know our court system is a combination of being way too lenient towards repeat offenders and being overwhelmed.
Connecting the dots here, things are definitely in a pretty sad state. IMO, a lot of causes need to be addressed at the federal and provincial level, but there is obviously no appetite for it at the federal level, and I can't tell whether the province is just too busy with other issues, or only willing to pay lip service for it.
In the mean time, Kennedy Stewart's "solution" is to keep spending municipal money to sweep these federal / provincial problems under the rug.
