InteriorNEWS THE
108th Year - Week 43
Scary how early it’s getting dark!
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Wednesday, October 28, 2015
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Gavin White gets spooky at the Library’s Zombie Day event last Friday. Celebrating Halloween, the event saw adolescents make buttons, find items in a scavenger hunt and paint their faces.
Xuyun Zeng photo
Keep all emails, Missing women inquiry should Clark tells cabinet start with us: victims’ families By Tom Fletcher and Alicia Bridges Black Press
Premier Christy Clark has ordered all cabinet ministers and their political staff to keep every email they send until new procedures are in place to decide what is necessary for the public record and freedom of information requests. Clark issued the instruction Friday after B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner condemned the widespread practice of “triple deleting” emails so they can’t be stored in daily computer backups. Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said her investigation
showed records were intentionally destroyed to avoid public release. One of those requests was for records related to meetings with leaders of remote communities on risks of travelling along Highway 16 in northern B.C. Clark said Friday she accepts Denham’s recommendations, but there are different legal opinions on what is a “transitory document” that is required to be destroyed and a record that is required to be kept. “We thought, I thought that everything was being done properly, and that’s because there has been really almost no change in the way things have been done for a decade,” Clark said. See RCMP on A2
By Alicia Bridges Smithers/Interior News
Relatives of Highway of Tears victims are urging Prime Minister designate Justin Trudeau to start his government’s national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women by consulting the families of victims. A promise to “immediately” launch an inquiry was part of the Liberal Party platform in the lead up to their Oct. 19 election win. Families of missing and murdered indigenous women have long been calling for a national inquiry into the issue,
and murdered indigenous women and raises public awareness about the issue. Radek believes the inquiry will only be successful if it involved affected families, who she said had been left out of consultation in the past. “I understand there’s going to be a lot of work that needs to be done but the thing that [Trudeau] needs to realize too, during this inquiry, is that it has to be families first,” she said. In Radek’s opinion, the inquiry should start with families of victims then seek input from grassroots activists and frontline workers like shelter employees. See CALL on A5
CULLEN FLOATS ABOVE RED WAVE Last week’s historic election as it happened and Bulkley Valley poll results.
DISHING UP FUNDS FOR REFUGEES Fundraising dinner makes $14,000 to bring Syrian refugees to Smithers.
FLYING THE RAINBOW FLAG Smithers Secondary School students call for LGBTQ acceptance.
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which was also recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in its final report released in July. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper had rejected the idea, saying enough research had already been done, but the new government says it will “seek recommendations on concrete actions” to solve crimes and prevent future ones. Gladys Radek has been campaigning for a national inquiry for ten years since her niece Tamara Chipman, aged 22, disappeared along Highway 16 near Prince Rupert in 2005. She runs an organization called Tears4Justice, which works with families of missing
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