Skeena MLA Claire Rattée took the province to task Thursday over the circumstances that led to the death of a 22-year-old man who escaped Vernon’s hospital in psychiatric distress earlier this month, saying “this is not a system that is functional right now.”
Ezra Cool was fatally struck by a semi-truck in the early hours of Feb. 12, about a kilometre away from Vernon Jubilee Hospital, where he’d escaped 24/7 supervision and left the hospital in socks and hospital pyjamas, according to his family, who have said Cool was suffering from psychosis.
The family previously said that Cool knew he needed help and voluntarily checked himself into the hospital. After an assessment, he was certified under the Mental Health Act, meaning he was admitted involuntarily and was therefore meant to be under around-the-clock supervision.
Speaking in a media scrum outside the B.C. Legislature Feb. 26, Rattée called it a “pretty upsetting situation.”
It’s not her first time speaking about Cool’s case.
Last week, Rattée called on the Minister of Health to provide a full public explanation and to conduct an independent review into the circumstances of his death.
On Thursday the MLA pointed to the resignations of four psychiatrists at the Vernon hospital last year, speculating that those resignations “likely played a significant role into how the system broke down.”
Interior Health has so far declined to say much about the circumstances of Cool’s death because an RCMP investigation and the health authority’s own investigation are still underway. But when the psychiatrist resignations came to light last fall, Interior Health executive medical director Dr. Peter Bosma told Black Press Media at the time that psychiatry patients in Vernon wouldn’t need to worry about their overall access to care. Bosma was, however, referring more to outpatient care than care within the hospital.
“Most mental health encounters are going to be as an outpatient, and all these doctors are continuing with their full caseloads, but just focusing in on the community,” Bosma said in October 2025.
Rattée was up-front Thursday about what details of Cool’s case she is unaware of, saying she doen’t know how he escaped hospital or whether he was being properly monitored in the hospital.
“But the reality is that a young man is dead,” she said.
“The system was not there for him. And now I think every single British Columbian out there that has a loved one that’s struggling with mental health, that has a loved one that’s struggling with psychiatric issues, is going to be left wondering, ‘is this a system that’s actually going to support me?’”
Rattée highlighted the “really serious” mental health crisis in B.C. and beyond that serves as a backdrop to Cool’s tragic death.
“And I think the budget that was tabled makes it pretty clear that this is a government that’s not taking that seriously,” she said, highlighting the long-term care projects that are being delayed for budgetary reasons, saying that will only lead to more backlogs in acute care and other corners of hospitals that are already over-capacity.
Cool’s family has said the young man spent six days in the Vernon hospital’s emergency department, without ever being transferred to the a psychiatry ward, prior to his escape and subsequent death. Rattée said this detail in Cool’s story indicates an overburdened healthcare system.
“I think that it’s incredibly telling,” she said.
Rattée added that the emergency department is no place for a psychiatric patient to have to stay long-term.
“Can anybody really be surprised that while he’s undergoing severe psychiatric distress, that he wants to leave? Of course not. I would want to leave, too.”
Rattée said her biggest question is: When will the province commit to building a psychiatric hospital in B.C.?
“It’s clearly desperately needed. We’ve had a ton of incredibly tragic events happen in the last year, all of which had a mental health focus. The fact that there were many of these people that needed to get psychiatric help that weren’t able to access it — it doesn’t matter if it’s Tumbler Ridge or Lapu Lapu, mental health is the key issue here.”
Harwinder Sandhu, NDP MLA for Vernon-Lumby, was not available to comment as of 2 p.m. Thursday.
The driver of the semi that struck Cool has not been located by police as of Feb. 24.