Stranger attacks have become commonplace in Vancouver, with up to two people assaulted by a stranger daily, according to police.
True North has reported on several of these incidents in recent months.
For example, one incident resulted in the death of a 92-year-old man in Chinatown who was the victim of what appeared to be a random attack.
In another case, a 40-year-old Chinatown woman was allegedly assaulted by three strangers—teenage girls—outside her home while she was sitting with her cat.
Meanwhile, just a few blocks away at the B.C. Supreme Court, True North is covering yet another case involving an alleged stranger attack that left a man dead from knife wounds just outside Shanghai Alley.
In another case presently before the courts, a man who was allegedly caught on video sucker punching a stranger in Vancouver has now been charged with three separate assaults that allegedly occurred just days apart from another.
The Vancouver Police Department confirmed recently that there are one to two assaults per day throughout the city, which are being classified as stranger assaults.
It’s not clear why stranger attacks have become so ubiquitous in Vancouver, but many have attributed the crime wave to Canada’s‘ soft on crime’ and ‘catch and release’ legislation.
For example, critics have argued that Bill C-75, passed in 2019, overemphasized the presumption of release and imposed additional procedural burdens on the Crown, making it more difficult to detain individuals with serious criminal records.
It also aimed to reduce the overrepresentation of Indigenous and marginalized individuals in pretrial custody — a goal civil liberties groups supported, but which some provincial leaders have blamed for an increase in high-profile violent incidents involving repeat offenders out on bail.
Bill C-5, enacted in 2022, further inflamed tensions by eliminating a range of mandatory minimum penalties for drug and firearm offences.
While framed as an equity measure to address the systemic criminalization of marginalized communities, law enforcement agencies and victims’ advocates warned that it signalled a softening stance on serious crime, potentially eroding deterrence and accountability.