Funeral set for slain security guard; Horgan admits more mental health resources needed

As the family of a young woman killed this weekend readies for her funeral, provincial officials admit a need for greater mental health supports in British Columbia.

Harmandeep Kaur was working the night shift as a security guard at UBCO on Saturday when she was assaulted by someone working on campus.

Kaur was sent to hospital with life-threatening injuries and Kelowna RCMP announced Monday she had succumbed to those injuries. Her attacker was apprehended under the Mental Health Act. Charges have yet to be laid.

The 24-year-old’s family has arrived in Canada from India and a funeral is set for Saturday in Squamish.

According to an online fundraiser, Kaur came to Canada in 2015 with the dream of furthering her education by attending university and eventually becoming a paramedic.

She first studied at Columbia College in Vancouver and simultaneously worked to pay for school. Eventually, she found her way to Kelowna in 2018. Kaur had recently acquired permanent residency and was a student at Okanagan College.

Her death prompted calls from local politicians for greater mental health care infrastructure in Kelowna.

That was echoed at the provincial level Thursday by Premier John Horgan. During a routine press briefing, Horgan extended his “deepest condolences” to the family and acknowledged the need for more “comprehensive, complex care” for those who “quite frankly shouldn’t be in the community.”

He said several facilities offering these services are set to come online soon, admitting it is “high time we started building complex care so we can house individuals that have serious mental health challenges.”

Besides resources to usher people through the system from start to finish, law enforcement in Kelowna has not been shy in vocalizing a need for more mental health workers to respond alongside officers.

During a presentation to city lawmakers Monday, Kelowna RCMP Supt. Kara Triance said three of the last four murders in the Central Okanagan had mental health components.

An all-party review of the nearly 50-year-old Police Act is underway, and Horgan hopes recommendations gathered on its overhaul will help all levels of government address the need of transforming law enforcement to meet modern-day challenges.

“So that we can ensure law enforcement personnel have with them trained staff to assist with mental health issues, rather than leaving it to those who don’t necessarily have the training to address the issues,” he said. “This notion of defunding does a disservice to everyone. We need to refund public safety to make sure the right people are trained to do the job they need to do in a very complex situation.”

He said destigmatizing mental health is the first step. But making sure the right people are in the right place at the right time to intervene and get people the care they need is crucial, too.