A man who pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm following an unprovoked attack on a tourist near Vancouver’s cruise ship terminal in 2024 will spend 17 more months in prison. B.C. provincial court judge Deanne Gaffar opened her recently published sentencing decision by acknowledging fear in the community surrounding stranger assaults and stating many will not be satisfied by the outcome. “For some, the period of incarceration will never be enough. For others, it will be too much,” Gaffar wrote. “I wish to be clear. My role is to uphold the laws of Canada and impose a fair, impartial, and balanced sentence. The law, not emotion nor outrage, drives this process.” The court heard that Jessica Chan was walking by the Pan Pacific Hotel, when “without any words, any warning, or interaction between them,” Massimo Rosario Falvo punched her in the face. “The blow knocked Ms. Chan to the ground. He then continued to attack her by kicking and stomping on her while she lay on the ground. She curled into a ball in order to protect herself while screaming,” the decision reads. Gaffar added that several male bystanders made no effort to intervene. The assault left Chan with a “significant laceration” on her forehead, which needed seven stitches and left a permanent scar, the court heard. In her victim impact statement, Chan described how she was visiting family in Canada and exploring different areas weekly at the time of the attack, but following it she was afraid to leave her sister’s home and became afraid of strangers. “In the days and weeks after the incident, she cried every time she remembered the incident. She had problems sleeping because she dreamed about it. She would awake crying,” the court heard. Falvo’s criminal record was considered a “serious aggravating factor.” He was sentenced for three counts of assault and one count of assault causing bodily harm in May of 2024, receiving a sentence of one day in jail for each charge after spending 22 days in pretrial custody, according to the decision. Specifically, the court heard Falvo punched a 95-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl in the face in June of 2022, then was outside Canada until he punched another person in October of 2023. A few weeks after being released on bail for that incident, Falvo “hit a man in the face with a hard overhand hook while yelling that he would kill the man’s family,” giving him a concussion. The victims in these incidents, which happened during the day in Coquitlam and Vancouver, were also strangers. According to a risk assessment report from a psychiatrist, Falvo had been using crystal meth for a few years at the time of the attack, which “severely complicated” his mental health problems, including diagnosed schizophrenia. When he assaulted Chan, Falvo believed he was working for the CIA and thought the victim hurt his family, the court heard. The assessment stated that when unwell, Falvo “displays significant affective instability, with irritability, impulsivity, and aggression.” The judge acknowledged that he has had periods of stability and progress when receiving treatment and abstaining from drugs. “When Mr. Falvo is sober and mentally stable, I have no doubt that he deeply regrets and feels remorse for his violent conduct,” Gaffar wrote. The judge accepted the psychiatrist’s conclusion that Falvo would “pose a high risk of reoffending” if he were to become non-compliant to medication or relapse in substance abuse, causing his psychotic symptoms to return. She also said she remained “extremely concerned about his continuing lack of prolonged and real insight into his risk factors,” referring to Falvo’s cannabis use, which he hid from his mental health team, bail supervisor and addiction recovery facility, eventually moving to a different treatment centre that allowed cannabis without permission. “This greatly impacts his ability to be managed safely in the community,” Gaffar said. Falvo was arrested on Aug. 21, 2025, because he was living in a different recovery facility without authorization from his bail supervisor, and has remained in custody since. “The community, generally, wishes to be understanding and compassionate about Mr. Falvo’s health issues. At the same time, the community’s incomprehension rises when an offender has received consistent mental health and drug treatment care, yet still attacks an innocent person on the street,” Gaffar said while outlining the principles of sentencing. “However, I must not allow community outrage to overtake reason in deciding the appropriate sentence.” She noted that Falvo was stabilized and not using drugs in custody, and decided his rehabilitation prospects are “better than slim,” contrary to the Crown’s argument, but he “needs to do much more work.” After weighing all the factors, Gaffar imposed a sentence of 30 months in custody, with credit for time served, leaving 17 and a half months of imprisonment remaining, followed by two years of probation. Falvo was also handed a lifetime firearms ban.
