Charge approvals fa VANCOUVER Mayor Philip Owen has creat- eda bit of a media maelstrom of late with his comments about ris- ing crime figures and how the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has contributed to the numbers. His comments and subse quent foray to Ortaws to lobby the federal justice min- ister were followed by the ubiquitous howls of protest from the likes of Kay Stockholder, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. In an Aug. 2 Ed piece in the Vancouver Sun, Stockholder wrote about the need for a balance berween police protecting us from crime and the civil liber- tarians protecting us from “overly zealous police action.” Without engaging in the sort of philosophical debate Stockholder secks, let’s, instead, look at a couple of local incidents and see how the public is not being pro- tected by the system. A couple of months ago, North Vancouver RCMP were called to a “just occurred” hit and run in the 17th and Lonsdale area. Police were quick to respond and located the suspect vehi- cle, a recently stolen car from Vancouver. Attempts to stop the vehi- cle resulted in a high-speed chase through North Van streets to the Second Narrows Bridge and towards Vancouver. The vehicle was stopped in a cooperative RCMP and Vancouver Police * tactical vehicle takedown. Arrested at gunpoint, the driver, 2 Vancouver street rat with a criminal pedigree, said to the officers he was ata party in North Vancouver and someone, Whose name he didn’t know, had given him the keys to the car telling him to put $10 worth of gas in it. Yeah right. Let’s see. The vehicle was stolen in Vancouver hours earlier. You’re from Vancouver. You have a history of crime. You ran from the police trv- ing to investigate a hit and run. And vou ran back towards Vancouver with a car Op crime and punishment which stepposedly belonged at a party in North Van. This story ranks right up there with Goldilocks and the three bears. Or so one might think. When the police submincd their reports to Crown Counsel, they were told charges would not be laid because the story provided was “reasonable.” What Our province is the only jurisdiction in Canada where the Crown has a “charge approval” systen: in which the Crown will nor fay charges in any case where there is nota “reasonable expectation of conviction.” OF course this is totally subjective to the opinion of the Crown attorney reviewing the file. The above case seems to indicate there is no weight attached to the fact there 1s a substantial amount of evi- denee and, at best, a crock- and-bull story by way of miti- gation. An isolated case? Hardly. Consider the case of a man who had an expensive and unique camera stolen by a former girlfriend. He spent some time checking the pawn shops looking for his proper- ty. When he went into a Lower Lonsdale pawn shop, he found his camera. In con- versation with the owner of the shop, hie identified the camera as his and requested his property back. The shop owner reftsed. The camera owner not only identified the camera, bur showed the shop owner how co open the camera. He removed a film from within and subsequent development of the film had pictures of the camera owner. He even told the pawn shop owner the name of the person who stole the camera and subsequently sold the camera to the shop —- 3 fact confirmed by the shop owner's records. ~~ This guy is enjoying savings of: off eau FAL wY AL (HOMIZED SALE Sul the shop owner refused to return the stolen property. The RCMP were called in and the shop owner refined to co-operate with the police. forcing them fe get a search Warrant to retrieve the cam: era. The police attempted to get charges of possession of stolen property laid against the pawn shop owner as well as charges of ebstruction of a police officer. This would cer- tainly seem reasonable consid- ening the girl who pawned: the camera didn't even know how to open the unigue piece. Again the charge approval system failed. Crown refused to Jay charges even though all elements ot the offence were proved because, in their words, “the owner gat his property back.” Excuse me! Something is dreadfully wrong when charges. cannot at be laid simply because proper- ty had heen returned to the nghdul owner. This would seem to give carte blanche to the pawn shops to buy as much stoien property as they can afford. fs there any wonder prop- erty crime figures are going through the root? The charge approval svs- tem employed by the attorney general's ministry simply does not work, The reasons it exists are political and financial and have precious little to do with justice. More to come. —— The North Shove von believes strongly in freedom a speech and the right of all sides in a debate to be heard. The columnists published in the News present differing points of view, but these views are not necessarily those of the newspa- per itself, Friday, August 22, 1997 — North Shore News — t3 Pollution charge brings court fine Wharves has been fined $500 and ordered to pay $7,000 to promote fisheries conservation. The fines stem from a 1996 incident in which the North Vancouver waterfront tirm allegedly dumped fish- killing ammonium sulphate fertilizer into Burrard Inlet. pleaded the VANCOUVER The company guilty to violating Fisheries Act. Judge Paradis of the B.C. Provincial Court handed down the fine and order and gave the company until Aug. 15 to pay. The $7,000 is carmarked for “promoting the proper management fisheries or fish habitat or the conservation and and produc- tion of fish or fish habitat in and control of the Burrard Inlet basin of British = Columbia,” said Crown counsel John Clitie. As a result of the guilty plea entered by Vancouver Wharves Aug. 1, Cliffe asked for a stav of proceedings with respect to charges against Robert Dickering, a Vancouver Wharves foreman who allegedly washed the fer- tiizer into Burrard Inlet. Both Vancouver Wharves and) Pickering had been charged with depositing a deleterious substance into a fish habitar. Previously, the company had been convicted twice under the Waste Management Act for introducing industrial and business waste into the environment. -~ lan Noble WE CAN HELP OU REPLACE (DON’T WORRY, SANTA WILL STILL COME.) heatingtequip Y entay a a ‘oo pe { ; “fe, awe dre quality= prot Bc Gas Inc. =e oe TESTS. \ FINANCING F¥ A Subsidiary of BC Gas homewaorks PLAN Pact 8CGas Inc..