Photo: Contributed

Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran has reacted to a news conference held today by RCMP responding to the treatment of a UBCO student during a wellness check earlier this year.

His full statement can be read below:

"I stated my concerns about the incident when it came to light and that’s still how I feel – it was a very disturbing incident, as Chief Supt. Brad Haugli acknowledged during the news conference. It was good to hear Supt. Haugli say an external police force will review the investigation and that Crown Counsel will also review the findings."

"It’s also a good thing that Ms. Wang will be provided with the findings of the internal process and if she has concerns with the findings she can have it reviewed by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP. We’ll see what the investigative process determines and have more to say when that is concluded."

"The city manager and I are meeting with Interior Health next week to discuss the escalating numbers of calls for assistance on mental health incidents and how best to proceed in the future. However, a new approach is going to take all levels of government and social agencies working together to address mental illness and addictions."

"The City of Kelowna is an active participant in this effort and we will continue to do whatever we can within our powers to find solutions."

"More and more officers and police time are spent responding to situations involving people experiencing serious mental health and addictions issues in our communities. We need more senior government funding to address social issues and to provide appropriate non-police responses for these situations." 

"The real issue here is the need to re-think our systems, how they are funded and coordinated to provide the most effective response to the increasing and increasingly complex mental health needs in communities."

"In 2019, the Kelowna RCMP Detachment’s 200 members responded to 3,561 Mental Health related files that resulted in 588 apprehensions under the Mental Health Act. As Supt. Haugli noted, those types of calls are up 21 per cent throughout the RCMP’s Southeast District in the past four years and is trending for a further increase this year."

"We need a coordinated approach to these situations, and that requires the involvement of all levels of government to address the upstream conditions that lead to these crisis points. That is something I will continue to advocate for to the appropriate federal and provincial ministers to address, because the number of incidents is growing and what we all want to see are more effective solutions to reduce crisis responses that require police."

"Police perform a difficult and critical job in our community every day. While recent events are disturbing, we need to take this and other recent incidents as a moment to reconsider how we are funding and approaching these situations and take actions to find a better way to address them."