By Canadian Press

In the news today: Vancouver festival attack and the mental health stigma

May 1, 2025 | 1:17 AM

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Fear of mental health stigma after festival attack

A British Columbia advocate says people with mental illness and those who work with them are afraid of the consequences that could come in reaction to the festival tragedy that killed 11 people in Vancouver on Saturday.

Health officials have said the suspect, Adam Kai-Ji Lo, was under the care of a mental health team and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said Lo was on “extended leave,” a term used to refer to people under involuntary care, at the time of the attack.

Jonny Morris, the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s B.C. division, said there is “real fear” there could be reactionary moves that may not make the kind of difference people are seeking in response to the attack on the Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu festival.

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But these could add to stigma around mental health, he said.

How a retired businessman took down Poilievre

Bruce Fanjoy says he achieved something unexpected in Monday’s election — the defeat of a high-profile Conservative leader in his own riding — simply by showing up on doorsteps and paying attention to what voters in Carleton were telling him.

Sitting outside at a café in Manotick, Ont., on Wednesday, Fanjoy said he wasn’t surprised by his win over Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre because he knew how hard his team had worked and how many hours they had put into the race.

“We’ve been at this for a long time,” said Fanjoy, who has famously knocked on more than 15,000 doors in his riding since he began campaigning two years ago. “I felt good about our chances.”

Fanjoy said he knew he’d be a contender in the riding and the early results on election night were “very encouraging.”

Hockey players’ sex assault trial set to continue

The sex assault trial of five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team is expected to hear more testimony today from Taylor Raddysh, an NHL player who was also on the 2018 world junior team.

Raddysh, who plays for the Washington Capitals, took the stand remotely from Arlington, Va., on Wednesday afternoon.

Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in connection with an encounter in a London, Ont., hotel room in June 2018.

McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.

Victim impact statements in daycare bus crash case

Families affected by a deadly bus crash at a Montreal-area daycare in 2023 are scheduled to read victim impact statements today in court.

Earlier in the week a Quebec Superior Court judge accepted a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence that Pierre Ny St-Amand is not criminally responsible for killing two children and injuring six others.

During his trial, doctors said the 53-year-old former city bus driver was experiencing psychosis and didn’t know right from wrong when he drove a bus into the daycare on Feb. 8, 2023.

He killed four-year-old Jacob Gauthier and a five-year-old girl named Maëva, whose family name is covered by a publication ban at the request of her parents.

Peaceful elver fishing ‘something to build on’

Some Mi’kmaq harvesters say working within Ottawa’s quotas for the contentious baby eel fishery is helping calm the tense atmosphere in their river workplaces.

In the shallows of the Gold River last Friday night, as the tiny, translucent eels known as elvers emerged from the mud, Jay Pennell — a member of the nearby Wasoqopa’q First Nation — swept his nets back and forth through the water and recalled past confrontations.

“There’s been lots of incidents on rivers we’ve been on in prior years,” Pennell said. “But right here on Gold River, there’s been nothing this year …. It’s very peaceful.”

By day he’s a carpenter in the community 75 kilometres southwest of Halifax; at night he dons hip waders and dips a mesh net in the chilly tidal river, catching a 2025 quota allocated by the Kwilmu’kkw Maw-klusuaqn, or KMK — the administrative arm of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs.

Canadian musicians weigh U.S. tours under Trump

Canadian country singer Robert Adam recorded their new album in Nashville, but under the political tumult of U.S. President Donald Trump, the musician doesn’t plan to travel stateside to promote it.

The Calgary-based non-binary artist says they contemplated their decision for several months, weighing past negative experiences as a queer person visiting the United States against the importance of the U.S. market for emerging musicians.

But after hearing about the obstacles faced by some transgender musicians in obtaining U.S. working visas, Adam said they are confident they’ve made the right decision to skip the country on their upcoming tour.

“(I’m) pretty non-binary presenting, pretty femme … it’s hard not to see that I kind of stick out,” they said in a phone interview.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025

The Canadian Press