A man who attacked three strangers on a West Vancouver bus before breaking into a home and assaulting a family member will serve two years in jail and undergo treatment for mental health and substance use disorders.
Quinn Dalton Barry was sentenced in North Vancouver provincial court Monday on four counts of assault, one count of breaking and entering to commit mischief, as well as an unrelated charge for theft.
On Sept. 19, 2023, Barry was travelling on a West Vancouver Blue Bus when he pulled the stop signal in the Eagle Harbour area then began to yell at the bus driver, the court heard. Then he stood up near the rear door of the bus where he struck two women, aged 71 and 82, in the face and mouth.
After getting off the bus, Barry tried to re-enter via the front door, where he assaulted the driver. But the bus driver was able to get Barry off the bus and close the door.
Travelling on foot, he went to the house where some of his family members live. Barry grabbed one of them and forcefully pushed them out of the house. The other family member fled the residence. Barry proceeded to smash windows on the main and upper floors of the house, causing around $70,000 worth of damage.
On Feb. 22, Barry entered guilty pleas on all the charges.
On Monday, Judge Patricia Janzen sentenced Barry to two years in prison for the break and enter, to be served concurrently with a six-month sentence for the assault of the family member. That term will be followed by a lengthy three-year probation period, where Barry will be barred from being near the affected family as well as from West Vancouver Blue Bus.
For the stranger assaults, he was sentenced to time served of 169 days (credited as 254 days), as well as a consecutive jail term of 15 days for the separate theft charge.
In court, Barry also consented to undergoing treatment directed at his psychosis and substance use disorders, under the authority of his probation officer upon release from jail.
Judge stressed importance of treatment for mental illness, substance use
Over the course of his sentencing hearing, the court heard of Barry’s several previous convictions for theft and assault in recent years. His psychiatric history began in 2018, which included several assessments indicating delusional thoughts, and an eventual diagnosis of suffering from psychotic disorder and a number of substance use disorders. While at times he was compelled to undergo treatment in custody, Barry would stop taking medication upon release, the court heard.
While Janzen noted that he didn’t experience physical or sexual abuse as a child, she acknowledged that both of his parents suffered from addiction, and that his father died in 2020 from an opioid overdose. Barry began using substances including cannabis, alcohol and ecstasy at age 13.
While both the Crown and defence were generally aligned on the terms of the accused’s sentence, Crown counsel Lisa Falloon asked for a slightly longer prison term of three years. But defence lawyer Herbert Chambers argued that his client should face a global sentence of two years and eight months, and that the judge should take Barry’s mental illness and substance disorders into account in assessing his moral culpability.
Reading her decision, Janzen said an aggravating factor was that the accused was on probation while the offences were committed. Also aggravating was that some of the victims were family members. Barry’s actions were “traumatizing” and had a “devastating effect” on them, the judge said.
The accused’s guilty plea was a mitigating factor, taking full responsibility and sparing his victims from appearing in court, Janzen said. Barry also chose to stay in custody after his arrest.
The judge addressed Chambers’s argument that Barry’s mental health should be seen as a mitigating factor.
“When I compare your mental health history and your criminal record, there is a clear correlation between incidents of mental health breakdown, hospitalization and criminal offending,” Janzen said. But she disagreed that the defence proved his actions were caused by his condition, on a balance of probabilities.
“As a result, I’m not able to treat your mental health disorders as a mitigating factor in imposing a sentence,” she said.
Acknowledging Barry’s high risk to reoffend, Janzen stressed the importance of rehabilitation. She praised the accused for cutting out harmful substances in custody, and taking prescribed Suboxone instead.
“I am very concerned that unless and until you follow a treatment plan for schizophrenia and substance use disorders, you will not get off the path you’re on, becoming a chronic offender who ends up spending most of your life in prison,” she said. “That is not a future that I want for you.”
