The man who attacked the Village of Keremeos' municipal offices in 2022 had his ban on being in the entire Thompson-Okanagan region lifted after a successful appeal.

Cameron Urquhart, now 44, is still currently residing at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in the Lower Mainland, where he has been since 2022. 

With a diagnosed schizoaffective disorder, the BC Review Board deemed Urquhart to pose a "significant risk" without oversight or supervision in an Aug. 15, 2024 decision, which removed allowances for 28-day leave and added a sweeping ban on travelling to the entire Thompson-Okanagan. 

In a Feb. 7, decision by the BC Court of Appeal that was published on March 20, Urquhart appealed with a request for a narrower ban just on travelling to Keremeos, and for the return of the 28-day leave condition. 

The leave would be needed in order to eventually transfer to supervised transitional housing. 

Urquhart was found not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder on Aug. 19, 2022, for the charges of assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, robbery, assault, assaulting a peace officer, forcible entry, mischief, possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace, resisting a peace officer and uttering threats.

The Crown and the Director of the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital supported the appeal. 

The BC Court of Appeal's three Justices deemed the additional and sweeping restrictions imposed by the Review Board to be unreasonable, noting that they were stricter than the conditions Urquhart was under in 2023 and in light of the progress he had in the year since the previous order. 

Under the new order crafted by the BC Court of Appeal, the no-contact bans for the victims of Urquhart's attack and the ban on possessing any knives from the Review Board remained, and the ban on being in the Thomspon Okanagan was replaced with a no-go order for the Village of Keremeos.