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Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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Police budget talks spark calls for better treatment of homeless Committee looking at ways to improve connection between officer and street population Roszan Holmen News staff
After publishing a report about the experiences of the city’s homeless at the hands of police, the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group is mounting a campaign to highlight the issues. “When we talk to people in the street community, they have horrific stories about police harassment and abuse,” said VIPIRG member Gordon O’Connor. He is among a diverse group calling for a shift in the way the Victoria police deals with the city’s homeless. It includes poverty activists, council members and even representatives of the police department itself. Addictions and mental illness are directly related to 30 to 40 per cent of VicPD’s calls for service. It’s not a good use of police resources and is something the department is working to fix, said Deputy Chief Del Manak. “We are exactly looking at some of these concerns,” said Manak, who sits on a committee with reps from the Vancouver Island Health Authority, the City of Victoria and the Downtown Service Providers. The goal is to create a new integrated service delivery model. Resources will be co-ordinated between all of
these organizations to “provide a better, effective service to the clients,” he said. The new model is expected to roll out in the next month or two. Last Thursday about 25 people told Victoria council stories of their own negative experiences with police or those of someone close to them. Coun. Marianne Alto called the personal accounts compelling. “There’s nothing you can do with that but believe them and take it at face value,” she said. “The implication I heard was that this was something the police did on a regular basis … They say they have evidence to support that, but unfortunately they didn’t present that evidence.” While Alto had not seen VIPIRG’s report – called Out of Sight: Policing Poverty – she said the issue warrants investigation by the police board, the appointed oversight body for the Victoria Police Department. While the City of Victoria has no authority to oversee day-to-day operations of the Victoria Police Department, it does write the bylaws which police enforce. Two of those came under attack last week from O’Connor, who said they “criminalize” the daily activities of the street community. First, the city enacted a bylaw preventing anyone from loitering or resting on city boulevards from dusk until dawn. The bylaw was brought in to deal with camping on Pandora Green, and it disproportionately targets the homeless who have few places to relax, O’Connor said.
Sharon Tiffin/News staff
School children on spring break practise their daredevil skills on the outside edge of the Ogden Point breakwater Monday. Winds gusting up to 100 kilometres per hour created big waves on the waterfront and caused damage elsewhere around the city and region.
Weather causes havoc in city Brittany Lee News staff
On the Gorge waterway, a white sailboat came loose from its moorings and was drifting in the water. No one was onboard and it was not considered a hazard on the waterway, Russell said. The owner of the boat could not immediately be reached. Around 9 a.m., a witness reported construction items flying in the wind at Discovery and Store streets. One of the items, which looked like Fibreglas, struck a live power line
PLEASE SEE: City bylaws, Page A7
Strong winds caused a number of events in Victoria throughout Monday, but no injuries have been reported. At around 8 a.m. Victoria police and fire departments were called to the 800-block of Fisgard Street, where a tree had fallen on overhead power lines. It was determined not dangerous to the public, said Victoria police Const. Mike Russell.
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and caused a small explosion. None of the nearby power lines were affected. Thousands of B.C. Hydro customers lost power for various stretches of the day due to the windstorm, including hundreds in James Bay and a section of downtown Victoria. Black Press’ building on Broughton Street was in the dead zone for much of the day, which hampered production of this edition of the News. editor@vicnews.com
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