WARNING: This story contains graphic details and is not suitable for all readers
The man accused of stabbing three people at a festival in Vancouver’s Chinatown two years ago told a B.C. court he believed God had directed him to do so.
Blair Donnelly has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated assault in the Sept. 10, 2023 attack at the Light Up Chinatown festival that saw two women stabbed in the back and one man slashed in the arm.
Donnelly was on an unescorted day pass from the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, better known as Colony Farm, at the time.
Taking the stand in his own defence on Tuesday, Donnelly brought his own bible to court.
Donnelly has admitted to the stabbings, and his lawyer, Glen Orris, told the judge-only trial that the relevant factor in the incident was his client’s mental state at the time.
Orris said Donnelly’s personal belief in and connection with God were of key significance, and that evidence shows his complete commitment to that belief, what doctors have called “his obsession.”
The court heard that Donnelly “met Christ” at age 22, what he described as a born-again experience that turned him away from a life of drugs and partying and towards marriage and fatherhood.
That same belief, however, later drove him to violence, the court heard.
‘I was prompted by God to hurt somebody’
Donnelly testified he’d left the facility on an e-bike intending to go to a Coquitlam coffee shop on the day of the attack, but changed his mind because of “a belief I was being prompted by God to go to Chinatown.”
He proceeded to Home Depot, where the Crown has said Donnelly bought a chisel used in the stabbing attack.
“I went there to get some type of instrument I needed something to hurt somebody with,” Donnelly testified.
“I believe I was prompted by God to hurt somebody that day.”
He told the court he believes God helped him pick out the chisel, which was “compact, wasn’t too abrasive to really cut somebody.”
He then proceeded to the Braid SkyTrain station, where he took transit to Chinatown.
Donnelly testified he walked his bike to a green space near the festival, then sat down to decide what to do when he saw some signs, including one for a the Chinese Canadian friendship centre.
He said that reminded him of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians who spent three years in detention in China.
“At that point in time, I felt I was where God wanted me to be,” he testified. “I believe the Holy Spirit was leading me to hurt somebody.”
The court heard Donnelly wandered among the crowd, and believed that if he hurt someone that “the Chinese authorities” would come and arrest him.
“I approached the three individuals that I hurt, stabbed two of them, attempted to stab the third person. The third person maneuvered himself away from me and fell,” he said.
He added that he had no animosity towards Chinese people, and that he stabbed each person only once because he wanted to hurt them, but not kill them.
He told the court he fled the scene because he knew what he had one was wrong, and that he had broken the law.
History of delusions
The Chinatown attack would not be the first time Donnelly had acted violently based on delusions.
In 2006, Donnelly stabbed his 16-year-old daughter to death while acting on religious delusions. He had originally intended to kill his wife, but changed his mind in response to a delusional belief that it was his daughter that God wanted him to kill, according to the BC Review Board.
Donnelly was ultimately found to be not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder (NCRMD), a ruling that led to him being held in custody at the Colony Farm facility.
On Tuesday, Donnelly addressed the killing in court.
“I got really sick. I took my daughter’s life,” he told the court.
Donnelly told the court he couldn’t remember what he was thinking at the time, but that he recalled going to the kitchen, getting a knife, and stabbing the girl while she was lying on the couch.
“I loved her — I’ve no idea why I would have done that. I loved her,” he told the court.
“You regret that now obviously?” Orris asked.
“Yes,” Donnelly replied.
On Monday, Crown prosecutor Mark Myhre told the court there was no dispute about whether Donnelly had stabbed the victims, and that the case would hinge on whether he was was criminally liable, or whether he was NCRMD.
Myhre said the “live issues” to be determined at trial are not whether Donnelly has a mental illness, which he does, but whether he “was suffering from the illness on that day.”
A report commissioned after the attack found that Donnelly had been allowed out of Colony Farm on day passes 99 times without incident, but that an incident like the Chinatown attack was “more likely to occur at some point than not.”
It also highlighted Donnelly’s history of violence, including how he stabbed another man while on an unescorted day pass in 2009, and how he attempted to assault another patient at Colony Farm in 2017. He was convicted of assault in the first incident, and found NCRMD in the second.