North Shore News - May 16th 2010

Page 1

live

Peak performance Page 15

Sunday, May 16, 2010

travel

Lazy days on the Rideau Page 29

48 pages

sport

Windsor grad drafted by Argos Page 35

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NV chief reacts to down-beat RCMP survey

Results unsurprising, says superintendent Benjamin Alldritt balldritt@nsnews.com

NORTH Vancouver’s police chief says the results of an employee survey that suggest substantial and growing discontent in Canada’s national police force are not unexpected.

The questionnaire, circulated in 2009 and recently released following an Access to Information request, was completed by more than 2,500 officers in B.C. When asked if RCMP employees are treated fairly, 36 per cent said no, up from 27 per cent in the 2007 survey. When asked if RCMP employees are respected and trusted, 32 per cent said no, up from 21 per cent in 2007. A quarter said the RCMP does not take adequate steps to ensure members’ safety, and half said the RCMP fails to properly develop and prepare officers for leadership or managerial roles. On the positive side, 85 per cent said they were proud to work for the RCMP, although that number is a drop from the 91 per cent recorded in 2007. Supt. Tonia Enger, officer in charge of the North Vancouver RCMP detachment, said that while she didn’t think those numbers were reflected in the morale of her detachment, she wasn’t particularly surprised when she saw the survey results last year. “With the very public hearings and inquiries that have occurred, you are going to see a shift in the results of the surveys,” she said in an interview. “Of course the YVR incident has See Enger page 12

Offender caught by dye pack gets six years for bank robberies Jessica Barrett

jbarrett@nsnews.com

A repeat bank robber who was apprehended after a dye pack exploded while he was fleeing the scene of a crime has been sentenced to six years in jail. On Wednesday, David Ostermann, 31, appeared in North Vancouver provincial court for sentencing after pleading guilty to two counts of robbery relating to two separate heists. On Jan. 7, Ostermann walked into a TD Canada Trust on West Esplanade and Chesterfield Avenue and threatened to produce a weapon if he did not receive a sum of money. Ostermann left the scene in a cab after being handed the cash, but didn’t get far. Minutes later, an explosive dye pack bank staff had inserted into a stack of bills detonated in the car. The driver of the cab quickly called North Vancouver RCMP to report the explosion, as did a passerby, who reported a presumably ink-covered Ostermann jumping out of the car See Robber page 12

Pot shot

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

PROTESTORS rallied outside North Vancouver MP Andrew Saxton’s office Friday after the federal government extradited marijuana activist Marc Emery to the United States. Emery faces five years in an American prison for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet, and his supporters have vowed to protest at Conservative MPs’ offices across Canada.

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