That place was still open when i was a kid. Fun fact, theres a through road that travels right past a few of the buildings and you could see patients staring out of the windows as you drove past.
Wow! 5000s patients? That number seems unbelievable, especially with a lower population back then. And I believe even the biggest hospitals today in the lower mainland would only have upwards of 1000 patient?
Just out of curiosity, you are aware that Riverview is haunted, right?! You started the presentation with, "It is an Erie place...." Did you feel it too, when you were at the front of the main building... As if someone was watching you, but you can't see them?! I am not a medium, nore have E.S.P, ext.... But I felt it when I was over there for a bit, visiting the site. And I was under the influence of beer, but I STILL FELT EYES WATCHING ME FROM EVERY BUILDING WE PAST!!! Did you know that there is a cemetery on those grounds, of patients that died and got cremated there?! I ran into a security guard over there, and he told me this... My friend was also in there, before they closed it. And he told me stories of the place, there are tunnels between every building! It's not only creepy, it's also got some seriously heavy paranormal activities going on in every part of those buildings! Go there with some Ghost Hunters, you will see some aboriginal activities happening at midnight or one o'clock. All through till 3 or 4am, possibly even later than 4 if they are either extremely mad / pissed off spirits. Or lost, and they don't realize that they're dead! Stay there for a week and you'll see for yourself, I felt something there and my friend had stated that he felt some weird things happened late at night there! And if you are going to stay there over night, you'll probably feel an extremely cold breeze... That probably is a lost spirit, going back to and forth....
I've driven by this massive building. I've always wondered what it looks like inside. It's too bad it closed down years back. This would help with the lack of housing.
It was the Christy Clark that closed Riverview to have mental health patients become part of society. Terrible things did happen at Riverview but that’s not the reason it closed. In the 1980’s My good friend worked there and she said it had changed for the better. I just found out doing family history that my great great uncle died in Riverview in 1945 which at the time was called Essondale. At one time workers removed all the headstones from the cemetery and used to make a patio for the staff. All headstones are now at a cemetery in New Westminster, some very damaged. At one time Essondale was also a TB hospital.
It was a trend towards de-institutionalization. We know more about these illnesses today. I’m not condoning past practices - but medications and therapies have improved greatly. While some individuals can thrive with proper resources - others still need more support.
If you really mean anything by your land acknowledgement at the beginning then you need to sell all that you have and give the proceeds to the Indians since whatever you attained was done so on Indian land. Otherwise your land acknowledgement is just empty virtue signalling...hypocracy.