21yr father stabbed again in Campbell River

In the early hours of Friday, July 14th Colin Dube-Wheat (21 years old) was walking home in downtown Campbell River. He heard someone yelling for help, walked over and an individual beside an unconscious person stabbed Colin in the chest twice, puncturing his lung and heart. Colin recalls laying for a period of time alone until first responders attended to him and had him airlifted to Victoria. The VGH Trauma Team performed open heart surgery and repaired the injuries to his heart and lungs and he is now in the early days of what will be a long recovery period. We, the family of Colin, are thankful to the first responders and medical teams in both Campbell River and Victoria for saving his life.

Colin lives in Campbell River with his Fiancé (Sarah) and their 2-year-old daughter (Ava). They both are incredibly resilient and manage to work full-time, trading off, to care for their little one. They have faced unbelievable tragedy in the last year, having endured the death of his younger brother, Jordie Dube, and recently losing many personal items and their dog Mocha in his Father’s house fire in Gold River.

Colin and Sarah will both have to take considerable time off of work with Colin unable to work or provide childcare for 2-3 months due to sternal precautions and lung/heart rehabilitation. Medical EI will only cover so much and we are reaching out to our community to help this young family while they manage these next few months. He will need ongoing therapy and support as he works through what has happened.

Thank you to our community, family, friends, and extended community for all of your support; kind words, reaching out, sharing, talking about this, and financial support. It all means a tremendous amount to Colin and our family, and we are humbled by it all.

We also want to share this story to raise awareness and ask that if anyone knows more information to please contact the RCMP in Campbell River.

We have learned that there have been other stabbings that weekend that weren't reported. Our downtown in Campbell River (and other communities for that matter) is not a safe place. The people who are homeless are experiencing violence and no one talks about it. Since this has happened I have also learned someone was killed behind the Tidemark 3 months ago, they were stabbed to death. I had never heard about it until now.

Things you can do to stand up for your community

If you can, please write to your MLA about how we want more treatment centers and more mandatory inpatient assessments (ie: 3 months) where a panel of health care professionals can provide adequate support and determine if a person is a danger to themselves or others.

Write to your MP about setting new precedents in the law. Our laws need updating, this problem is less than 10 years old and I believe it is growing. Ask for law updates so that repeated violent offenders do not get double for time served while waiting for a decision. Vulnerable people are part of the homeless population, and the predators among them thrive on that vulnerability. Let's look at this population as one that should still have the law apply, and deal with it.

Write to Justin Trudeau and any of those that hold a seat in the House of Commons. They need to know this is an issue that we expect to be addressed, no matter which political party we tend to lean towards. Compassionate care is the right way to go. With compassion comes seeing that the people who are stuck in homelessness, addiction, and have no support are not being treated as if they are Canadian, or worth anything at all. Reviving them from their near-death high and returning to the streets is not compassionate or appropriate. We are already funding various ineffective strategies to address homelessness, other places have managed to solve this, so let's get it done.