He murdered Tim McLean on the bus as it rolled east toward Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, destination Winnipeg, laden with passengers. It was a gruesome event that dozens witnessed, and today the security system on a bus ride through Western Canada is intense. Everybody who rides a bus is watched and eye contact is purposely made by every security person working in the area with passengers all around the terminals before boarding. Every carry-on bag is searched at every depot and everybody is observed in boarding procedures usually by a minimum two security guards.
Security conducts a `wand sweep`for metal objects (the massacre of Tim McLean was done with a large bladed knife). Unchecked carry-on bags are searched to satisfy a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol and drugs. Automatic 24-hour bans on travel are imposed by Greyhound Canada for any contraventions and police are called immediately to intervene if there is the slightest objection, but everybody is amply warned in advance. The entire property under Greyhound Canada supervision is patrolled by security squads at every major depot.
While Vincent Li conducted his mayhem after boarding at a rural location, Erickson, Manitoba, he started his summer sojourn of the macabre from Edmonton. He disembarked and spent two nights sulking on the beach (so he was perhaps familiar with the area after living in Winnipeg), then re-boarded and sat forward on the bus. Shortly thereafter he moved to the rear. He was sitting beside a sleeping McLean until his psychotic self began the methodical attack. At any rate, today. two years hence, most drivers refuse to speak to passengers. There is very little talk amongst passengers either.
There is an immense amount of tension around the process of bus travel, much
like air travel (or those who face the gasoline bills in cross-country automobile travel for that matter). Bus travel in the Canadian west has become eerie and has a haunting quality due to the nightmarish spectre of the event that began with a reign of stabbings and turned surreal with evisceration, trophy taking (ears and nose found in perpetrators pockets), and cannibalism. The eeriness is related to what Vincent Li said when they were coaxing him out of the bus. He said,”I am staying on the bus forever.”
Vincent Li said so as they were leading his blood-splattered and soaked self off the bus. He is incarcerated under mental health provisions in a forensic ward of a mental institution in Manitoba. In mid 2010 the institute applied to the courts to allow him a 15-minute walk each day around a secure outdoor compound duly under escort. The McLean family attended the hearing and strenuously protested the inmate`s access to daylight.
Vincent Li is staying on the bus, perhaps not forever, but certainly well past the date on his ticket if only because it seems to be Vincent Li haunting every bus from Vancouver to Sudbury, Ontario. Vincent Li rides them all over Western Canada with passengers on Greyhound Canada but mainly his routes are found from Calgary and Edmonton to Winnipeg. He appears he stops haunting the buses by North Bay but that is a long way and a lot of haunting on a lot of buses. And that it is Vincent Li doing the haunting is the odd thing because he`s alive and Tim McLean is the guy who died.
In many ways bus travel is much safer and more predictable than it used to be. In other ways the ride has become even more stultifying than it ever was and customers are dealing with endless numbers of marginally courteous authorities who are panicking about every face they see. It is safer, and the driver at the scene of MacLean's murder has finally returned to duty. It has been over two years but the system remains severely traumatized about the event, and the travel situation is permanently altered to a higher degree of personal security for everybody engaged in the pursuit.
