Stabbing of Melissa Kuypers at the Forks shows need for government to take mental illness seriously

We are all horrified at the random stabbing of Melissa Kuypers on Sunday at the Forks Market. Our hopes and prayers go out to Melissa for a speedy recovery from the attack.

Today we have learned that the man accused of the stabbing is "a schizophrenic who has been failed by the health-care system" (Winnipeg Free Press). The evidence presented so far suggests that the violent attack on Melissa Kuypers might have originated with a serious medical error made in the mental health treatment of Chris Ratneiya, the man accused of the stabbing. If so, the violent attack on Melissa Kuypers was potentially preventable and Melissa and her family deserve to have answers as to how this could happen.

A number of questions need to be asked here, particularly around the procedures for sharing information between jurisdictions - in this case between Manitoba and Ontario. Was Manitoba informed of Mr. Rateniya's condition? If so, what did it do with the information? Does the Province of Manitoba have standards for the treatment of schizophrenia? If so, what are they?

There needs to be a proper investigation into the medical care given to Mr. Ratneiya to determine whether it failed him, and what can be done to prevent such failures in the future.

Yet in Manitoba, we will probably not get the investigation of health care that is needed. In spite of passing Bill 17 more than 14 months ago, we still do not have a formal province-wide system for investigating medical errors. The reason? Because Gary Doer's NDP keep stalling on implementing Bill17. You see, even though the Legislature might pass a bill into law, there are many bills (like Bill 17) that do not come into force until they are "proclaimed" by the government. Usually, this happens within three to four months. With Bill 17, we're at 14 months and counting with no real explanation given for the delay in implementation. This is simply unacceptable.