Dan Fumano: Involuntary treatment would not be appropriate for most people addicted to drugs or struggling with mental illness. But growing number of B.C. mayors say overhaul is needed to deal with small number who pose risk to themselves or others.

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B.C. civic leaders say they are feeling pushed to the brink as people suffering with severe mental illness are unable to get the help they need and, in rare but jarring cases, are causing violence in their communities.

Following last week’s horrific fatal stranger attack in downtown Vancouver, Mayor Ken Sim is adding his voice to the growing number of mayors across the province in calling for more involuntary mental health treatment, envisioning “a modernized version of the former Riverview (Hospital, in Coquitlam).”

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“As a city, we’ve done almost everything we can do, given the tools and jurisdiction that we have,” Sim said in an interview this week. He wants the B.C. government to dramatically expand its capacity for and use of what he called “mandatory care” — involuntary treatment where people with severe mental illness can be held against their will, sometimes for extended periods.

Sim pointed to his professional background in the senior care sector. Elderly patients with advanced dementia cannot be left to make decisions about their own health care in many cases, Sim said. “And right now, we’re letting people with significant mental health challenges literally direct their own care. How is that compassionate?”

This has been a contentious debate ever since Riverview Hospital’s closure in 2012. At its peak, Riverview had thousands of beds. But it was also the site of horrific treatments, such as forced sterilizations, and other dark stories.

Today, some facilities on the Riverview lands are in operation, including the 105-bed Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addiction, which opened in 2021. Red Fish has been lauded........

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