Bus slaying's grim anniversary marked

Friends and family of Timothy McLean say they plan to put their campaign for justice briefly aside on Thursday as they mark the first anniversary of the young Winnipeg man's brutal slaying aboard a Greyhound bus.

In the year since McLean was repeatedly stabbedand beheaded on July 30, 2008, on his way home to Winnipeg from Edmonton,his family suffered a second agony watching as his attacker, Vince Li,wasfound not criminally responsible in March because of mental illness.

Li is now receivingtreatment for schizophrenia in a Manitoba psychiatric hospital and will remain there until doctors say he's no longer a threat to society. If he ever recovers, he could one day be released without a criminal record.

McLean'smother, Carol deDelley, has been leading a very public crusade to change Canada's laws andtold CBC News the last year has been "hell."

At Li's brief trial, psychiatrists testified Li was schizophrenic and suffering a major psychotic episode at the time of the killing.

Li heard voices from God telling him that McLean, sitting next to him on the bus, was an evil threat that needed to be eliminated, the psychiatrists said. Even after the killing, Li believed McLean might come back to life and threaten him.

DeDelley launched a petition calling on the federal government to enact "Tim's Law" an amendment to the Criminal Code that wouldensure those who are found not criminally responsible for crimeson account of a mental disorder arejailed for a minimum period of time.

'The way he was taken breaks my heart every day.' Carol DeDelley, mother of Timothy McLean

"The man that did this to him is not being held responsible," she said. "To me, that's just not acceptable. It shouldn't be acceptable to anybody."

Some of McLean's friends have planned a candlelight vigil at the Manitoba legislature on Thursday night, but deDelley said she doesn't know if she'll be able to attend. She saidshemight make a private visit to his grave instead.

"I love him and miss him," said deDelley, who visits her son's grave two or three times a week."The way he was taken breaks my heart every day."

DeDelleyis divorced fromher son'sfather, Tim McLean Sr., whosays he won't beat the vigiland declined to say how he willmark the anniversary of his son's death.

'An amazingly beautiful person'

McLean's friends and family recalledthe free-spiritedcarnival worker'sinfectious smile and zest for life.

But Jennifer Ashley Ptashnik, one of McLean's cousins, said her family hasn't begun to recover.

She remembers McLean as a generous soul who used to hoard sweets collected during one of his grandmother's "candy scrambles." He would then distribute them to the smaller grandchildren who were at a disadvantage in the game.

"Timothy was an amazing beautiful person who loved us all more than anything," Ptashnik said. "Our whole family is very close and still extremely affected by this tragedy every day. We all miss him more than any of us could begin to describe. There are 15 of us grandkids and we are all within 15 years of each other. You can imagine the devastation."

Lawsuit filed

The McLeanside of the family has launched a civil suit against Greyhound, Li and the government of Canada.

The family's lawyer, Jay Prober, said he would like to see the casesettled out of court.

"The main challenge will be to try to persuade the defendants to do the right thing, so they don't have to go relive the details of this horrible tragedy," Prober, who has also preparing to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of passengers,told CBC News.

Stuart Kendrick, senior vice-president for Greyhound Canada, told CBC News he can't say much because of the lawsuit, but stressed the slaying was a tragic, yet isolated incident.

"It'ssomething the McLean family have to live with for a very long time, and again, our hearts and thoughts are with them," he said.

While Greyhound has said Li was solely responsible, the bus line said it has introduced greater security measures in the wake of the slaying. Passengers boarding in major cities must now pass through metal detectors and are required to check their luggage rather than carrying it on board.