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Saanich News launches a weekly business column Page A9
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NEWS: School board shake-up a new challenge /A5 DRIVEWAY: Good time to move on 2014 models /A12 HOMEFINDER: Travino takes form in Royal Oak /A25
SAANICHNEWS Friday, November 21, 2014
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Leaving behind a life of crime Saanich teen shares experience with restorative justice after history of theft Travis Paterson News staff
For the better part of the last decade, Laura was a prolific thief, regularly dodging security and retail staff in various Greater Victoria malls. But it wasn’t until Saanich police officers caught her red-handed earlier this year that the 19-yearold decided to begin changing her life. “I had been stealing since I was 11,” says Laura, using a pseudonym to protect her identity. “It started as a means to live. I did it out of survival and then it became habit. That’s not an excuse, that’s how it felt. If I needed something, I had to get it and keep my substance-abusing mother from being abusive.” Laura told her story to the Saanich News surrounded by supporters at SaanichPD this week as part of the nationwide Restorative Justice week, which wraps up Sunday. Since her arrest, Laura has nearly completed the restorative justice program, a co-initiative run by the John Howard Society of Victoria and Saanich Police Department. “I knew I’d get caught one day,” she says. “You’re not a good thief if you don’t think you’ll get caught.” As she entered her teenage years, Laura became a skilled thief, she says, referring to her criminal life in the past tense. PLEASE SEE: Program builds understanding, Page A3
Daniel Palmer/News staff
Fossil fascination Three-year-old Huseyin Akkoc holds the cast skull of a baby Maiasaura peeblesorum dinosaur at Uptown shopping centre on Wednesday during promotion for The Amazing Traveling Dinosaur Show, which runs Dec. 3 to 7 at Uptown. The show includes an opportunity to get up close and personal with dinosaur fossils and unique paleontological items. The event will support the Help Fill a Dream Foundation,which helps about 100 Island kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families each year. For more info, see amazingtravelingdinosaurshow.com.
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