![]() Basically, being a non-therapeutic person for him. VICE: Describe your relationship to Vince Li.Ĭhris Summerville: It’s been a relationship of rapport and developing a friendship, providing self-help services to him, peer support services, and helping him understand his mental illness. We spoke about his relationship with Li, whether the general public should be worried that he might stop taking his meds once he’s free, and trying to explain mental illness to people who believe that if you kill someone, you should be locked up for life, regardless of mental-health issues. Chris considers himself a friend of Li’s and conducted the only interview Li has ever given to media. ![]() I called up Chris Summerville, CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada and executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Manitoba. He’s been a model patient,'” de Delley said. “The system will go, ‘Oops, this was not statistically supposed to happen. Carol de Delley, Tim’s mom, told the Winnipeg Sun that she’s concerned about what might happen if Li chooses to stop taking his meds once he is out for good and becomes violent. I would only speak to him two more times despite an odd nagging feeling to reach out to him throughout July that year.Perhaps unsurprisingly, the idea that Li’s eventual reintegration will inevitably result in his leaving his meds in the dust and going on a killing spree has been dominating comment sections on many Canadian media outlets. The last time I laid eyes on Tim, he was waving from the window of his two-and-a-half cylinder Geo like a mad man and smiling like a lovable jackass - a fleeting glimpse really, since we were passing each other in a parkade after the party. For the love and memory of Tim, try to have an adventure-maybe not today but any time, let the wind blow you around like he did and make new connections with great people. We drunkenly danced like mad fools on an entirely empty floor, putting on a comedy show of sorts for onlookers who were already winding down for the night. Only he could pull that out of me. It was the only time I've ever danced to something other than a slow song before - or since. That night he drank and smoked and caught up with old friends, and he even convinced me to get drunk in public with him for the first and only time. He smoked and got sauced - he had earned it, after all it was Tim threatening to kick my ass if I didn't graduate, and me knowing he would that pushed me to the finish line. He was very proud. He let loose, and he ate three-and-a-half 18-inch plates with heaping piles of food quite literally spilling over all the edges. The last day I was graced with his presence was at my prom a month before his demise. This was obviously why Tim loved the carnival so much. It too was nomadic, wild and loud with a constant cycle of new faces passing by - he was very much the living embodiment of it. We drunkenly danced like mad fools on an entirely empty floor, putting on a comedy show of sorts for onlookers who were already winding down for the night.Only he could pull that out of me. ![]() He was never concerned though, because he really did have more friends than he could shake a stick at (another of his favourite phrases). He preferred to let the wind blow him around to new people and places instead, never knowing what his next meal was or when or where it would be. Tim wasn't much for owning things unless they were his favourite movies or music, things he could and would give away before long (with the exception of Little Timmy, his pet iguana, and his mini chopper which was short lived) since he was a true modern day nomad and didn't have a place of his own to keep his things. He didn't like to hold a job for too long and usually got bored of it once he made all the friends he could. Tim was smarter than the average bear (one of his favourite things to say) and worked out so much he looked almost chipped from stone. He was extremely charismatic and often demanded the attention of a room with his presence and strong, magnetic personality. He was young and taken from us far too soon, and the world is a lesser place without him. One of his virtues was that he was unapologetically himself. I don't want to paint him as a saint or a perfect person because nobody is, and honestly it would be a disservice to his character to do so. ![]() Tim McLean was a short man - something he'd put on his "tall clothes" and knock me around for saying that - but he was larger than life. ![]()
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