CHILLIWACK TIMES FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2010 A09
Letters
Pickton inquiry worth time & effort Editor: Re: A public inquiry (Pickton). Dear Premier Gordon Campbell: My sister Dawn Crey vanished from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in November of 2000. Following and exhaustive investigation of a property owned by the Robert Pickton family on Dominion Avenue in Port Coquitlam, the police were able to tell me in 2004 that Dawn's DNA was recovered at that site. Dawn was 43 at the time she inexplicably disappeared from the DTES. She was a longterm resident of the DTES and she was regarded as a regular by social service agencies in the area. Dawn grew up in provincially sponsored homes in Chilliwack. She was treated very badly by her first set of foster parents. However, she told me that she was treated well in her second foster home. And as a teen she gave birth to her only child, Jonathon. Unable to care for her infant son, she asked her foster parents to raise him. Jonathon is now a young man and lives in Mission City. Dawn was mentally ill and she relied on methadone to help combat an addiction to street drugs. She lived on welfare and sold second hand clothing for extra income. For much of her adult life, she called low-rent hotel rooms home and turned to soup kitchens for meals. Dawn has a criminal record and served time at a provincial psychiatric hospital in Port Coquitlam. She told me that she often broke the law in order to get both the medications and psychiatric help she needed. Dawn needed a safe place to live and expert medical care that seemed so sorely lacking a decade ago. I believe my sister might still be alive today if the police had taken a keener interest in the disappearances of woman from the DTES beginning in the 1980s. As both you and your colleagues know, the VPD has apologized to the families of the missing
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and murdered woman for the mistakes they made along the way. And both the VPD and the RCMP say they support a public inquiry into the Pickton matter. And support for a public inquiry is growing and coming from many sources, including women's advocacy groups, aboriginal organizations, First Nations and the City of Vancouver. I think a public inquiry will offer important lessons to help us avoid a repeat of a deadly rampage on the scale perpetrated by Robert Pickton. Apart from taking a hard look at the shortcomings of the police investigation into Vancouver's murdered and missing woman case, an inquiry would also tell us a lot about the kinds of health and social policies we need to adopt to help reduce the risks vulnerable women continue to face in the DTES. Let's not be faint of heart. Let's face up to our responsibilities. Let's have a public inquiry. Ernie Crey Chilliwack
Party house needs silencing Editor: To the Skowkale Native Band: Around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 14 all hell broke loose, loud voices, swearing, vehicle noises with bright beams on, drinking, music and it did not stop until after 3:30 a.m. For a self-governing native band where are your bylaw officers? This is directed to the party house on Chilliwack River Road. Our townhome complex
backs on to this property and affects our sleep. The neighbours beside them are quiet and respectful. Do they keep quiet and put up with this loud noise being natives themselves? We are on leased land that the natives have leased to our complex. As we are not natives, we have no rights regarding this problem, per the police. The police have advised us they tell the party house to quiet down but this is not followed. That should not be, we should all have to abide by the bylaw. We have been told they do not have to follow the noise bylaw. This is the second letter to the band and nothing has been done about the problem. They have not responded to us by phone or mail. Tom & Sylvia Wickett Chilliwack
Wrong place for plaque tribute Editor: I agree that only those who have lost a loved one, especially one with a love of the outdoors and especially climbing our gorgeous mountain tops, will understand (Mountain Pollution, Times, Aug. 17). Our family lost our sister, who deserved a plaque for fighting cancer and who climbed the peaks she knew all her early adult life and were part of her passion for life. Her memorial deserves to be on summits of Mt. Cheam and Lady Peak. I would not want to have her memorial plaque placed where she did not fight a good fight to the last peak of her journey. She did not lose her life
due to climbing the mountain like others unfortunately have and deserves the honour to be remembered with a plaque at the peak of the journey they made but somehow didn’t make it home from. On that account I have the opinion that plaques that do not commemorate such a person, should be placed in a more appropriate location. R. Hiebert Abbotsford
Don’t let morals get in the way Editor: I am completely astounded by what happened to me last night. I went to the walk-in clinic to get a prescription renewal for my birth control, as my husband and I already have two beautiful children, but are not financially ready for another at this time. I waited for about an hour, and after having my number called, I went to give my information to the receptionist. She then asked why I was here. I explained to her that I needed a prescription for birth control, and I also had an eczema-like rash on my arms. She told me they could take me right in and to have a seat in No. 3. After waiting roughly another 10 minutes for the doctor to come in, she came in and asked me what I needed. I explained to her the same thing I explained to the receptionist. She stopped me before I could tell her about my arms. “Oh, no! I don’t know why she sent you in here, I can’t give out prescriptions for birth control.” I replied with, “Really? Why not?” She then explained to me there were a couple of different reasons, after telling me that only about 50 per cent of the doctors in Chilliwack prescribe birth control. “One of the reasons is because it’s bad for the environment, and the fish.” The fish apparently eat the synthetic estrogen and it is killing them off, and messing with their repro-
ductive systems. The second reason is because of “religious reasons.” Now, everyone is entitled to their own religion and their own beliefs, but to bring that into your work life, and deny a person medical care just because you don’t believe in it is absolutely ludicrous. How many teenagers are going to be going for a prescription for birth control just to be told “it’s bad for the environment and I don’t believe in it?” How many unwanted pregnancies do you want in order for you to start believing in it? How many innocent babies have to suffer before you start believing in it? Regardless of your religion or beliefs, it is completely unethical to deny someone medical care for no reason other than your own selfishness. Medicine is not about the practitioner, it is about the patient. I find it extremely immoral for a doctor to not abide by the patient’s wishes in all cases (assuming they are not requesting something illegal) no matter how you personally feel on the subject. The fact that this doctor thinks it’s all about them, that their wishes are what matters, tells me they are not suited to be in the medical field in any capacity. If you have a moral problem with doing something to the point where you would refuse to do that particular thing, do not then pick a profession in which you know you will be called upon to do that particular thing, in this case, not prescribing a married woman with two children already, birth control. I do not smoke or drink, therefore, there is no medical reason to not be on birth control, and since I have just recently moved to Chilliwack, I now have to find someone to prescribe me what I am entitled to. Melissa Anderson Chilliwack
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