Premier David Eby’s scramble to react to the Lapu Lapu horror in Vancouver is leading the government into complicated territory.

One day after announcing a potential public inquiry into the mass killing if the criminal process doesn’t provide enough answers, he announced another major re-evaluation.

There will be a snap review of the Mental Health Act, conducted internally by the health ministry, aimed at “modernizing” it.

That comes just weeks after a special advisor to Eby — Dr. Daniel Vigo — conducted a more narrow review of the act and issued a 12-page guidance document to all B.C. doctors on using that law when treating people with substance use disorder.

The focus will be on sections dealing with secure care, also known as compelled care, or involuntary treatment. Public demands for more use of that power have increased markedly in recent years after random stranger attacks by obviously mentally-ill individuals left innocent people dead or injured.

The NDP government initially resisted those calls, then made an effort to legislate more use of the provisions, but dropped it for political reasons. The pressure for action........

© Times Colonist