Marcus Oliver Beg thinks he鈥檚 God and that no one understands the magnitude of his powers. Others, including the police, think he鈥檚 violent, erratic and unpredictable.
Marguerite MacDougall, the Saanich woman who has been giving him a place to live, thinks he鈥檚 a troubled but kind man who desperately needs medical help. And as hard as she鈥檚 tried, she can鈥檛 seem to find it.
Beg鈥檚 story lays bare the lack of community supports for people with mental-health issues, and highlights the revolving door of聽the criminal-justice system, in聽which people cycle through addiction, homelessness, arrest, hospital, jail and back again. His聽encounters with police have聽raised concerns about the way police respond to people in聽mental-health crisis and whether the presence of armed tactical officers escalates the situation for someone already in聽distress.
MacDougall, 74, lives in a tidy two-storey home with a well-kept garden in Saanich. She has a photo of her grandchild, Beg鈥檚 daughter, sitting next to her reclining chair in the living room.
Beg, 49, was previously in a long-term relationship with MacDougall鈥檚 daughter, Susan Szikora. Beg and Szikora were still gripped by heroin addiction when their daughter was born nine years ago, so MacDougall cared for the girl until she was five. The child has since been adopted. Beg and Szikora have gotten clean and remain friends.
Beg sleeps on an old couch in a small white shed on the porch off MacDougall鈥檚 living room.
The shed is filled with backpacks and duffel bags stuffed with notebooks, each page covered in Beg鈥檚 frenetic drawings. He explains one image, a depiction of planets and constellations in black and grey marker on the back of a white shelf.
鈥淚 drew that from one line. Just opening my mind to the cosmos and I keep on going.鈥�
As much as MacDougall cares about Beg, housing him is becoming an untenable situation.
His loud outbursts and violent threats have sparked calls to police. On March 31, for example, the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team closed off the quiet cul-de-sac after Beg refused to come out of the shed. The standoff lasted eight hours.
MacDougall had to wait at the end of the street while the drama unfolded. She feared Beg was going to be shot by the police.
鈥淚 seriously believed he would be dead today,鈥� MacDougall told the sa国际传媒 the day after the incident.
But Beg was not shot, and not arrested. It was determined he was not a threat and the police left the scene.
The incident started when someone called 911 to report that Beg was uttering death threats. MacDougall had left the home to buy cigarettes for Beg, and returned to find police cars surrounding her house.
She and her daughter were told to wait at the end of the street, despite pleading with police that they be allowed to go in the house and calm Beg.
鈥淭hey surrounded the house,鈥� MacDougall said. Beg could be heard yelling. MacDougall told police that was part of his mental illness.
鈥淚 said: 鈥楲ast time I looked, mental illness is not a criminal offence.鈥� 鈥�
Officers asked MacDougall and Szikora to find another place to stay for the night. Both refused to leave the street.
鈥淚 said: 鈥業鈥檓 not going anywhere,鈥欌�� MacDougall recalled. 鈥淭he last thing I want to see is him going out in a hearse.鈥�
Saanich police spokesman Const. Damien Kowalewich said police responded to a 鈥減otentially serious incident with what we believed were appropriate police resources to remedy the situation.鈥�
Kowalewich would not say what information was in the 911 call that caused serious concern.
Kowalewich said after uniformed patrol officers arrived on the scene, the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team was called. Officers and mental-health nurses from the Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team, which deals with mental-health emergencies, were also called.
鈥淭he incident was resolved without further police intervention, there were no injuries, no one was arrested,鈥� Kowalewich said.
MacDougall said she has filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner because of the way Beg was treated.
Police in Victoria and Saanich requested the Emergency Response Team 48 times between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, and in six of those cases, mental health was a factor, according to police data obtained through a freedom-of-information request by the sa国际传媒. This is down from 2006 numbers, where mental health was a factor in 14 out of 55 ERT calls in Saanich and Victoria.
The sa国际传媒 asked to speak with a Saanich police crisis negotiator for an explanation of the process used when officers respond to someone in mental distress, but no one was made available.
Last summer, Beg was living in a tent in the park opposite the Saanich police station and municipal hall but he was constantly asked by police and bylaw officers to move. Szikora tried to get Beg on a list for subsidized housing, but was unsuccessful. He has been turned down by landlords because of his odd behaviour. MacDougall took Beg in because she didn鈥檛 think he鈥檇 be safe living on the streets.
鈥淲ell, there鈥檚 no place for him and no one else will do it 鈥� My friends tell me I鈥檓 insane for doing it and you鈥檙e putting yourself in danger,鈥� she said. But MacDougall is not worried about her safety.
Her primary concern is getting help for Beg.
Beg sat down with a sa国际传媒 reporter and photographer the day after the standoff.
He鈥檚 tall and has a solid build. He was wearing two button up shirts, one done up and the other one open. Two objects were stuffed into his shirt, giving him the appearance of wearing a bulletproof vest. Chunky silver rings adorned four of the five fingers on his right hand, and his left arm is covered in skull tattoos. A black tuque was pulled down low on his forehead, half covering his brown eyes.
The previous night鈥檚 incident seemed to be a distant memory, but when pressed, Beg explained, in a deep, gravelly voice, that he had been meditating and 鈥渢rying to cancel everything out鈥� when police surrounded his shed.
鈥淭he door was unlocked and at any time they could have opened the door and come in,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not trying to hurt anybody.鈥�
Beg said there are some officers he trusts and others 鈥渨ho are fearful of me and some who think I鈥檓 full of s鈥�.鈥�
MacDougall initially contacted the sa国际传媒 in February after Beg was arrested after an hour-long standoff outside her home. On Feb. 15, she had called police because Beg became emotionally unstable and started yelling angrily.
In that case, the Emergency Response Team was not called but MacDougall said several Saanich police officers responded, some with police dogs. Some officers had weapons trained on Beg as he stood in the driveway, next to a shovel he was using to clear snow.
MacDougall said she had called police about Beg many times before and thought the response was 鈥渙verkill.鈥�
鈥淭hey did have one of the officers who was wonderful, he talked to him about his art. He did do the whole psychological approach. It didn鈥檛 work with Marcus because all he could see was fury, just hatred for the police. Because his idea is 鈥榯hey鈥檝e taken everything from me.鈥� 鈥�
Hazel Meredith, executive director of the sa国际传媒 Schizophrenia Society鈥檚 Victoria branch, said since the Braidwood inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport, police training in mental health has dramatically improved, and many officers are using crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques.
鈥淏uilding a rapport would be things like making sure you鈥檙e using an open stance with an individual, being aware of closeness of space, speaking in a more gentle tone, seeking to befriend a person and bring down their anxiety versus coming in a very hostile manner,鈥� Meredith said. 鈥淚 honestly believe with the crisis-intervention training and knowing about mental health, that they are able to employ ways of engaging with a person to minimize stress and to take away unnecessary aggression.鈥�
A handful of seconded police officers work alongside mental-health workers and nurses through Island Health鈥檚 Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and the Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team. The officers on the ACT team dress in plainclothes, which Kathy Stinson, CEO of the Victoria Cool Aid Society, said can have a major impact on how people in crisis react.
鈥淸The ACT officers] usually work in plainclothes to ensure they don鈥檛 trigger folks,鈥� Stinson said. 鈥淪o that can make a difference for sure.鈥�
After the February arrest, MacDougall hoped Beg would be kept in hospital for a psychiatric assessment, but he was only kept overnight before being sent to the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre on a charge of breach of probation.
MacDougall said when Beg is in jail, he鈥檚 often kept in solitary confinement because he disturbs other inmates when he talks to himself.
鈥淏ecause he鈥檚 mentally unstable, he can鈥檛 survive in the prison system,鈥� MacDougall said. 鈥淲here do they put him? In solitary because there鈥檚 nowhere else.鈥�
It鈥檚 estimated that about 30 per cent of sa国际传媒鈥檚 prison population have mental-health issues, and about 60 per cent have a combination of addiction and mental-health issues, according to Dean Purdy, vice-president and chairman of Corrections and Sheriff Service for the sa国际传媒 Government and Service Employees鈥� Union.
Beg has never been diagnosed with a mental illness. But MacDougall said in the past few years, his delusions have worsened and he shows signs of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Beg talks in long soliloquies about faith, the universe and his place within it.
鈥淚 know that what I say is going to sound weird, but what I say is completely true because I can鈥檛 lie, it鈥檚 a physical impossibility for me. You鈥檙e sitting with God. Honestly you are truly sitting with his holy grace,鈥� Beg said.
Beg has been in and out of jail since he was 12 years old.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a constant combination of mental health [crises] and jail,鈥� MacDougall said.
Beg is well-known to Victoria and Saanich police and has served time in jail for uttering threats, resisting arrest, breach of probation, assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
When he is not in jail, he gets by on a disability pension.
MacDougall said she鈥檚 desperate to find Beg a place to live where he will have mental health and community supports.
鈥淲e鈥檝e called every agency in town and no one will help him,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 just want some mental health treatment for him and people like him.
鈥淚鈥檓 desperate to get help for this man.鈥�
Kelly Reid, Island Health鈥檚 director of operations for mental health and substance use, said most people with significant mental-health and substance-use problems find help within the medical system.
鈥淏ut there are absolutely some individuals who maybe because of the types of needs they have, multiple services for instance at the same time or they don鈥檛 perfectly fit into our service continuum, we may not be as helpful as we would like,鈥� he said.
Reid said individuals believed to be a danger to themselves or others are often brought to the hospital after being apprehended by police under the Mental Health Act. If the initial assessment determines the person鈥檚 volatile behaviour or psychosis was due to substance use rather than a mental disorder that requires psychiatric treatment, the person can no longer be held at the hospital under the act, Reid said.
Island Health has 870 beds at 24 facilities that support people with mental-health issues and substance use in the south Island region.
Meredith said she often hears from family members who are taking care of a loved one who is struggling with mental illness because they can鈥檛 find supportive housing.
鈥淚f people don鈥檛 have housing, then they鈥檙e stuck living in the family homes, maybe not accessing care,鈥� Meredith said.
MacDougall said Beg has not had any outbursts since the standoff call in March. But as long as he is living in her shed, he鈥檚 not getting the help he needs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a solution. He鈥檚 a recluse in a shed. There鈥檚 no life there,鈥� she said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 no better than being incarcerated.鈥�
