Richard Wright was brightening the days of dozens of strangers in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in Canada, by handing out C$50 and C$100 bills. As reported by Metro News , last week Wright was giving cash to different people he encountered in HRM and asking that the recipients, “thank God” for the gift and if they didn’t need the money, to pass it on to someone else. The Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called to conduct a wellness check on Wright. So, when he was seen driving, officers stopped the generous man. After speaking with him, they felt that Mr. Wright needed “further assessment by a medical health person.”
Mr. Wright’s daughter, Chelsea, called attention to her father’s circumstances when she recently posted a photo of him and said that he had received “unfair” treatment by the hospital and the police. Her father has not been allowed to leave the hospital despite insistence that he is had no mental-health issues. Chelsea explained that her father worked hard to save money and when the family was on vacation in Halifax, he simply decided to share “some extra money” with those in need.
Health P.E.I. would not comment on Wright’s specific case, but released a statement saying, “A patient is always admitted at the clinical recommendation of a physician who has met with and assessed the patient.”
In an earlier report, Metro News noted that some who met Wright said that he told people he lived in the woods and spoke about, “…a movement coming to take the wealth from the ‘one percent’ and distribute it to the people.” Questions were then raised about the mental-health of the man and if it was right to accept his money. But Bev Cadham of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s local branch, said that that Wright had spoken to two people affiliated with the program. Cadham doesn’t believe he’s mentally ill, instead she said, “He’s a generous individual and is wrapped up in the acts of kindness, and is wanting to help people.”
Mr. Wright has many supporters who have started the Facebook group, #OpFreeRichardWright, calling for his release. In the group’s description, Wright’s advocates say that the giving man handed out the money anonymously because he did not want attention for his random acts of kindness.
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