The Legacy of a Story: Commemoration and the Double-Narrative of Jeffrey Arenburg and Brian Smith

Abstract

This article examines a recent amendment to Ontario's mental health legislation that was named "in memory" of Brian Smith, a local television personality killed by Jeffrey Arenburg, a person diagnosed with a mental illness. Rather than evaluating the socio-legal validity of "Brian's Law", it critically attends to the emergent "narrative of commemoration" that helped consolidate collective memory of the event. The genesis of the legislation is traced through public documents that support the "storying" of the murder, inquest, and legislative debate, including the "mythologizing" of Smith and the derisive story of Arenburg. Both representations are essential to the social and political efficacy of this "double-narrative" and the formal process of commemoration. The "legacy" of Brian Smith as exemplar of moral and social responsibility depends upon the alternative public conception of Arenburg, as mentally ill and morally ambiguous. Essentially, this narrative reaches beyond individual experience, and even social memory, and becomes enshrined in law as institutional memory.

Advocacy Coalitions and Mental Health Policy: The Adoption of Community Treatment Orders inOntario

“…This public act of violence was one of several involving mentally ill individuals to take place in a relatively short time span. The media, following the popular trend, depicted the incident as a “senseless crime committed by an insane person” and produced headlines like “Media Drove Maniac: Slain Sportscaster Random Victim” (Walker ). The coroner's inquest into the death of Brian Smith, released in 1997, recommended that the Mental Health Act be “reviewed to balance the right of individuals with the rights of the community when it comes to the mentally ill” (Walker ).…”

“…The media, following the popular trend, depicted the incident as a “senseless crime committed by an insane person” and produced headlines like “Media Drove Maniac: Slain Sportscaster Random Victim” (Walker ). The coroner's inquest into the death of Brian Smith, released in 1997, recommended that the Mental Health Act be “reviewed to balance the right of individuals with the rights of the community when it comes to the mentally ill” (Walker ). Thus both the media and the coroner helped frame the issue as one of public safety, a framing that was much more beneficial to the pro‐CTO coalition than the anti‐CTO coalition in the subsequent policy development process.…”