A man accused of aggravated assault in a stabbing attack on three people at a Vancouver Chinatown festival has been found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Eric Gottardi says the court doesn’t convict people of crimes for being sick.

The trial heard that Blair Donnelly had asked the Holy Spirit for a sign not to carry out the stabbings in September 2023, but he didn’t get one and carried on with the attack because he “wanted to obey God.”

Gottardi says that Donnelly lacked the ability to rationally choose to commit the crime.

At trial, the lawyer for Donnelly said his client was overwhelmed and convinced in the belief that God wanted him to stab people, but Crown counsel argued the accused was capable at the time of knowing what he was doin

See Full Page