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Bright futures for graduates By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
PROUD Graduate
Jackie Lieuwen/Houston Today
Graduate Kailey Johnson stands with her two proud Grandmothers Kathy Miller and Janice Johnson. Thirty-three students received their hard-earned diplomas from Houston Secondary School last Friday. For more details about graduates see next weeks Houston Today.
With the Houston Secondary School gym packed with proud family and friends, 33 graduates eagerly took the stage, standing before the proud words “A future so bright.” Vice Principal Andrew Bond was chosen by the grads as the guest speaker, and spoke proudly of the students before him. “In the last two years I’ve learned a lot from these students,” said Bond, going on to joke of how grads taught him the bell schedule and quick mathematics by arriving late and testing his memory. Bond thanked parents of the grads, saying that their support and love went a long way in helping grads achieve this goal.
Bond’s advice to grads was to seek happiness and see failure as an opportunity to learn and change and persevere. Grads filed to the front before flashing cameras, to receive diplomas and scholarships. Frequenting the front were Kelsey McEwen who took 10 awards, as well as Beth Saretsky who took nine and Cassie Ofner who took seven. Three grads handed a lit candle to Kindergarten students from feeder elementary schools, as a symbol of inspiring them with the light of knowledge and the illumination it can bring. Amidst proud cheers and shouts, the graduates made their way down the chandelier lit runway, out of the school and off into the bright future awaiting them.
Independent investigation forms for province of B.C. By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
A new independent organization in B.C. has formed to investigate police oversight and police use of force. Ralph Krenz, S t a k e h o l d e r Relations and Senior Investigator, gave a public presentation at the Houston Friendship Centre last week Tuesday, to explain
about Independent Investigations Office (IIO) of B.C. He said the organization started September 2012 under the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, as a result of the Frank Paul Inquiry and the Braidwood Inquiry. The IIO runs mostly independent of the ministry, and is among the last police oversight organizations in Canada.
The first was in 1990 in Ontario and others are in Alberta, Nova Scotia and B.C., and Quebec is currently forming one. “Pretty much right across Canada we have one form or another of oversight of police, so that police are not investigating themselves when there’s serious harm,” said Krenz. Krenz says the two goals of the IIO are to be thorough and fair
in their investigations and to improve timeliness. “Even if you do a fair, thorough i n d e p e n d e n t investigation, if it takes you two and half years to come out with the findings of the investigation, nobody wins,” said Krenz. He says the IIO typically takes 30 to 90 days to finish an investigation and they hope to get faster as time
goes on. The IIO has 54 staff and it started with a group two thirds retired police investigators and one third civilians, with a mandate to phase out police investigators and “fully civilianize,” said Krenz. “We had to start somewhere as a new organization, so we did have to bring in police to train civilians and bring them on board.
But at the end of the day we are to become a civilian organization,” said Krenz. The Braidwood Inquiry gave the IIO a five year time limit to phase out ex-police officers, but Krenz says he thinks it will take a little longer than that. Asked about the demographics of the IIO staff, Krenz said they have 15 women, nine of whom are investigators, a few
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staff of Asian and East Indian decent, but no First Nations. “I think that’s still a big hole in the organization,” said Krenz, adding that part of his job is to connect with First Nations about the IIO as he travels across northern B.C., presenting in communities and spreading awareness of the IIO. See REPORT on Page 6
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