Street Level

The province’s attorney general, Wally Oppal, wants all of us to start holding our judicial system accountable.

He wants us to let him know — as the top judge in B.C. — when we think all those legal beagles who work for him are doing things with which we don’t agree.

So, here’s my contribution to the list Oppal is no doubt creating about instances of justice delayed being justice denied.

Back on Aug. 22, 2008, KTW photographer Dave Eagles captured an altercation between retired RCMP officer Pete Backus and John Gibbons, a — at the time — wheelchair-occupying marginalized man living in a rooming house in downtown Kamloops.

Gibbons complained to police, who began an investigation.

That took months to complete, but a file eventually made its way over to Crown counsel’s office, a document one would assume would lay out all the evidence and would have the police recommendation about pursuing charges against either man.

And there it sits, still waiting for someone to take action — 160 days later.

People in this city have been arrested, tried, convicted and jailed in that time.

Everyone involved on the justice side, from the police to the lawyers, have all insisted the time lag isn’t to give one of their own — albeit a retired one — an easy ride.

They’re not moving slowly because of the “blue code.”

Nope, they have to look at the totality of the situation, not just the dozens and dozens of photographs Eagles took or the statements by the two KTW reporters who were also at the scene.

And that’s a good thing, because — as we’ve learned from the inquiry into the Robert Dziekanski death at Vancouver International Airport — we want our police to not act recklessly, not prejudge a situation, not not ask questions.

But, at the same time, the judicial side of our criminal-justice system knows there are problems.

They know people are losing faith in their ability to protect us.

They know we sigh, roll our eyes or perhaps even utter some expletives when someone with a lengthy record gets a slap-on-the-wrist sentence.

They know — because Oppal has told them — the court system in B.C. moves too slowly as lawyers play their delaying games, judges allow them to do it, accused people join in on the games sometimes and nothing happens.

In fact, some people accused of crimes have figured out it’s smart to stay in custody, drag the case out and then get that double credit for time already spent incarcerated if — when — they’re convicted.

For that matter, why is a day spent in jail waiting for a trial worth two days spent in prison after conviction?

I’ve never been able to understand that logic.

Lawyers out there, please feel free to explain it to me.

It’s not easy being a judge or lawyer.

It’s mind-boggling the amount of data they have to have in their grey cells, the swiftness with which their minds must operate, the way they work the system they’re dedicated to uphold as they make their cases.

But, as they do all this — as they make judgment calls on what to do or say and when to do or say it — the rest of us simply see a system that’s not moving.

We see situations like the one people in Langley have been dealing with as the same criminal — arrested and released over and over again — continued to break into their businesses and restaurants.

In fact, that specific statistic for the central Fraser Valley city saw an increase of 20 per cent, with 690 break-and-enters in businesses in 2008.

That’s almost two a day.

There’s something wrong here.

Even Oppal knows it.

I wonder how long he’ll take to fix it.

dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 5:03 p.m. Comments

Etiquette dictates I not post on my newspaper website, but you ask an interesting question that deserves an answer.

So here's why I don't run for office, even though as recently as last month, there was a strong effort to get me to do so.

I'm not a politician. I'm a reporter. I write about issues and hope to influence in some way the people who can make decisions on them.

To run for office would also mean quitting my job. A reporter loses objectivity if she is a member of council, even if she takes a leave of absence. It's that simple. I know others in Kamloops disagree, but it's an age-old journalistic truth.

There are other ways to make changes that we, as reporters at KTW, can do -- and are doing.

All of my colleagues gathered together gifts, money and ideas for fundraising to help the youth safehouse run by the Interior Community Services. It provides shelter to a segment of the homeless many people forget about -- those between the ages of 13 and 19. We supplied about four dozen gift bags, enough food for them to be sick of leftovers for several days, bedding -- they hadn't been able to buy new bedding for more than a decade.

Some of us organized a fundraiser for the Kamloops Food Bank and will be doing two more in 2009.

So, Ross, I'll be staying behind my Mac at work. It's where I should be.

Posted by Dale at 9:44 a.m. Comments

I’ve given this a lot of thought.

It happens as you pass the half-century mark — did that a while ago — and your hubby starts to talk seriously about things like pensions and RRIFs.

So here it is: my living will.

I know it won’t have much legal validity, but if some of you out there remember this — and circumstances have arisen that may require it be implemented — feel free to remind my children of my wishes.

Basically, it’s quite simple.

No matter how incapacitated I may be, I want to be kept going for the equivalent of five full-term pregnancies.

Yup, one for each of the kids.

In fact, add three more weeks, since my daughter was two weeks late and the oldest son was a week past his due date.

But I don’t want hospital staff to be saddled with this chore.

Nope, it’s payback time for the kids, so I’m expecting them to look after me, from feeding through to — well, you know, the equivalent of changing their diapers.

I’d like them to sing to me, as well. Doesn’t have to be fancy — but please, no Nirvana, the only music that would lull the second-youngest to sleep in his infancy.

Every.

Single.

Night.

Should have known then the kid would grow up to be a rocker.

Smells like Teen Spirit?

Don’t think so, at least not when he was a baby.

They’ll know what I mean.

And none of that Brahm’s Lullaby stuff, either. Lord knows, after at least one year per child of having to listen to that song in mobiles, musical toys and the like, I never want to hear it again.

One song that would be acceptable would be the Sharon, Lois and Bram recording of I Am Slowly Going Crazy.

For some reason, I remember way too many nights when I felt it would be the most appropriate music to play while rocking — and rocking — the infants to sleep.

There are days, even today — with the brood now either teenagers still at home or young adults coping with all the challenges the 20-something generation faces — when I find myself doing the slow count to 10 and then mentally breaking into a rousing chorus of “Crazy going slowly am I, six, five, four, three, two, one, switch.”

You moms out there know what I mean, right?

I’ve always sort of identified the children by how diligent a mother I was.

The daughter, firstborn and now a mother herself, was the cloth-diapers-homemade-baby-food-only-glass-bottles-eventually kid.

Her brother was the cloth-diapers-Gerber’s-not-bad-glass-bottles-are-fine-but-those-baggie-bottles-are-easier kid.

Next younger brother was the cloth-diapers-at-night-only-Gerber-and-Heinz-are-lifesavers one.

Can’t remember what kind of bottles we used.

Second-youngest? Well, let’s just say I’d discovered disposable diapers by then, had no idea where the much-used food mill of the first child’s babyhood had been stored and considered buying stock in Heinz.

When the fifth one arrived — well, heck, he had those older siblings who needed to learn how to care for a baby, right?

Good life skills to have.

Now, with the youngest officially a teenager and that aura of omniscient invincibility moms are supposed to have being challenged regularly by all five of them, I’ve sort of been feeling a bit put upon.

A bit unappreciated.

A bit like it would be oh-so-much-fun to hug the teenager in front of his buddies.

My husband and I have often joked we have five kids to guarantee a place to live when we do retire.

Two months per kid and two months to camp at the lake — near a golf course — for just us, to recover from the 10 months of living with the kids.

They don’t like that idea too much.

Think I’ll send them each a copy of this column and see how they feel about it after they read it.

dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 1:07 p.m. Comments

Note: For some reason, this one wasn't on the website and since my friend Shirley said she laughed all the way through it, I thought I should post it.


Ah yes, the election rollercoaster continues on track.
Having just come down from the federal high, we’re heading back up as the municipal election gets going.
You know it’s happening.
No sooner were the McLeod, Crawford, Sommerfeld and Cavers signs down than a whole new community of names started to pop up.
Some of the names are familiar; others no so much.
It’s up to you to learn who these people are, a somewhat daunting task given there are 26 seeking eight council seats, eight vying for five school board spots and three who want to be mayor.
So, first things first — the election is not like a multiple-choice quiz.
You don’t have a 50-50 chance of getting it right if you just guess.
If you’re not sure who to vote for when you get to the polling station in 22 days, don’t guess.
Don’t put your X next to a name because you recognize it.
Don’t just check off someone because she’s female — or because he’s male.
If you’re not sure, just vote for the number you are confident can guide Kamloops.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that; in fact, some of us have been doing it for years, believing that if we vote for just a few people, and others vote for the whole slate, our votes will have more weight.
The smart voter — and isn’t that what we all want to be? — will forget about the federal election and move swiftly on, learning about all these candidates, what they want to do, what they have already done (and watch for those who just pop up at election time, not to be seen in public again) and how much the voter believes them.
For example, social issues are being touted as a major concern for some of the candidates.
It’s fair to ask them what they’ve done so far to address poverty, homelessness, mental illness, addictions and myriad other crises that confront our city every single day.
Others are running on a more pro-business model.
Find out what they mean by this.
Does their vision come at the expense of recreational land — just ask the folks up in Aberdeen, if you want one opinion — or do they have a plan?
Do they have any experience or are these just words they’re mouthing?
Some incumbents are running on a stay-the-course platform.
That requires voters to think about how the city has been managed the past three years and decide if they’re happy with this “course.”
There are plenty of chances to learn about this group.
First, there are the candidate profiles that will soon grace the pages of KTW.
There is also campaign literature and advertising. It won’t be in-depth, but will at least point voters in the direction the candidate is looking.
Then there are forums.
So far, there are four scheduled:
* The North Shore Business Improvement Association hosts one Monday at 7 p.m. at the North Shore Community Centre, at 750 Cottonwood Ave.
* The Kamloops Chamber of Commerce is holding its business-issue forum on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at Forster’s Convention Centre.
* A forum on seniors and downtown issues is being held Nov. 7 at Desert Gardens Community Centre, at the corner of Seymour Street and Fifth Avenue.
* KTW, Kamloops Daily News, CFJC-TV and Thompson Rivers University are hosting an all-candidates forum on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Grand Hall at TRU.
Those are plenty of opportunities to find out more about the candidates.
And then there’s always the telephone. Give them a call and see what they have to say.
If they take the time to talk to you, or call you back, that might be a good indication of the kind of councillor they’ll be.
If they don’t, well, there’s a lesson there too.
dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 10:56 a.m. Comments

Well, we finally published the story about Donald Trump and the homeless man.
The one question everyone has asked -- even though you all know the answer -- is what was it like talking to Trump?
Is he the way he is on his TV show?
Having never watched The Apprentice, or any of its incarnations, I can't answer that question, but he was polite, well-spoken, made sure he joked about the incredible author of the book Paul Lyons was reading -- Trump's autobiography -- and seemed truly sincere in his desire to help a guy out.
It seemed weird listening to the mega-billionaire talking about how tough it is for people today, but he certainly sounded sincere.
As for the story itself, let's just say it was kinda cool to listen to this obscenely rich man say he'd looked at our paper and thought it was very good.
He didn't have to say that. He didn't have to ask what I do there, or what Dave Eagles does there, but he did.
And that's all the answers I have on this one.

Posted by Dale at 11:07 a.m. Comments