== MAIL BOx

No gov't
child care

Dear Editor:

Interesting little article
(City lobbies for daycare)
under the Sunshine Girl, in
Wednesday's (Jan. 26) North
Shore News.

I hope the coalition is not
sceking a financial obligation
from locai government? Child
care is clearly a wider social
issue for the bigger players.

It’s very common for spe-
cific interest groups to “bing
together research” showing
the validity of their position
with no regard to the com-
mon good. If the research is to
be put to good use point it in
the right direction, at Big
Business and Big
Government.

My suggestion to the
“Cealition of BC Child-Care
Organizations” is to focus
their energy on lobbying the
federal and provincial govern-
ments for a schedule of tax
deductions. Help a parent to
stay home with their children,
or help parents pay for child
care. Any public funded “insti-
tutionized” system has always
failed to accomplish its intend-
ed purpose. Hammer home
the idea that we want our
money back to look after our
child; we do not want govern-
ment to provide child care for

us.
B. Humphreys
vwest@direct.ca

In our B1-A Valentine's Day
flyer, Christian Dior model lift
on page 4 will be late -

-| rainchecks will be available at

_| the store. Frankie & Johnnie
handbags offer on page 14.
should have read “$25 to $40”.
Sorry for any inconventence
ihig may have caused.

Native claims
woir't kill
local churches

Dear Editor:

Iv sentencing Arthur Henry Pint, the supervisor at the
Alberni Indian Residential School who had been found guilty of
the seaual abuse of more than 30 of the children in his charge,
Mr. Justice John Hogarth of the B.C. Supreme Court stated
that “insofar as the victims of the accused ... are concerned, the
indian residential school system was nothing but a form of insti-
tadonalized pedophilia, and the accused, so far as they are con-
cerned, being children at the time, was a sexual terrorist.”
Those children, now adults, are the ones who are suing the
United Church of Canada and the federal government for dam-

ges.

Noel Wright is simply wrong in his suggestion that the
claimns of such plaintifts are specious. Having sat in more heal-
ing circles that I can count and listened to the stories of hun-
dreds of former students and their families 1 now understand
how wrong-headed the policies of government and church
toward aboriginal peoples were and how much narm we did.

While he is correct in stating that the national reserves of the
United Church are not sufficient to cover the settlements that
will likely be ordered in these cases he is alarmist to the point of
irresponsibility in raising the spectre that Highlands, for exam-
ple, will have to be razed and replaced by a shopping mail in
order to pay the bills.

As congregation and individuals we have untold resources —
real property, endowments, imagination, commitment to what
one person has called “the dream of God,” of a world made
whole, where cultural difference is celebrated, where children
are cherished, where the quest for healing and for justice are pri-
mary goals. If we are unable to tap into those resources then we
ought not to be surprised dy the arrival of the bulldozers.
Robert EF. Smith
Former Moderator
The United Church of Canada

_ THE CORPORATION OF THE DISTRICT OF WEST VANCOUVER
a 2000 ANNUAL UTILITY STATEMENT
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~ LOSS OF DISCOUNT: A 10% loss of discount will be applied to
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that utilities are paid by yourself or by the previous owners.

‘PAYMENT OPTIONS: Telebanking or payments may be made
through most Financial Institutions. You may pay at Municipal Hall by

' Cash, Cheque, Post-dated Cheque, or Direct Debit. Postmarks are not
accepted as date of payment.

‘ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT THE TAX
DEPARTMENT 925-7032. (You may view staff reports and bylaws
. implementing the new rates on our website at www.westvancouver.com)

Parliament is back in session this
week, and with the Government tossing
around hints that it may take yet anoth-
er look at the Young Offenders Act, !
was thinking back to before | became
an MP in 1993. Well before that time,
and continuing through today, opinion
poll after opinion poll has found that
well over 80% of Canadians want a
major overhaul of the Young Offenders
Act. The majority of people surveyed, it
seems, simply ds not believe the clainis
of the Libera! Government in Ottawa
that youth crime has been decreasing.

So what are the real facta with
respect to youth crime statistics? Have
the media, or politica! parties like
Reform, been exaggerating the amount,
and seriousness, of youth crime over
the past two decades? Look at what the
Canadian Police Association has to say
about the matter.

POLICE STATISTICS

On Decamber 1, 1999 the Canadian
police Association issued a media release
in which the President of the Association,
Grant Obst, made the statement “Some
within the justice system seem to be
pacifying themselves with proclama-
tions that youth crime has decreased,
but that is simpiy a misnomer." He then
went on to axplain this statement with the
words "The statistics reporting youth
crime focus on the number of youths
charged with a criminal offence, and
NOT the number of crimes committed.
Over the past ten years police have
been using alternative measures to
deal with minor property crimes,
which reduces the number of people
charged. This dnes not, however,
mezan that less crime has been com-
mitted, just that fewer charges have
been laid."

Mr Obst released some statistics to
back up the position taken by the
Association. The numbers clearly show
that crimes of violence committed by youth
increased by 85% over tho ten years from
1987 to 1997. For example:

* Drug offence rates increased by
25%

*The rate of robberies increased by
166%

* Major assault rates increased by
80%

* The rate of fecnate youths charged
with crimes of violence Increased by

179%

Perhaps most shocking of all is the
increase in the amount of violent crime
perpetrated by female youth between
1987 and 1997. Why is this happening?

Over the past ten years we have invest-
ed an enormous amount of effort and
money as a nation into “conflict resolution”
in schools, into groups with the goai of
working “against violence", and into "alter-

native approaches" to youth crime, but

instead of getting better, the problem HAS
become worse. Could this mean that
these groups and their approaches may
actually have CAUSED the increase in
crime, by contributing to a reduction in dis-
cipline and respect for authority, or does it
mean, as many of those groups and their
supporters would claim, that we have
failed to adequately fund their programs?

THE CAUSE OF CRIME

Back in 1996, the then newly elected
Commissioner of Police for New York City,
William Bratton, said "We know what
causes crime - its the criminals".
Simplistic, supporters of the Liberal
approach to crime might say, but Mr.

Bratton proceeded to put in place a policy

of zero tolerance for crime, with impres-
sive resuits. His approach quickly resulted
in a 31% drop in murders, a 25% drop in

eal

advertorial. February 9, 7000

YOUTH CRIME

car theft, a 22% drop ir. robberies, and an
end to the sound of gunshots in an area
where gunshcts had previously been a
daily occurrence. For the first time in
decades, crime truly did decrease in New
York City, and everyone, statistician or not,
could easily see and measure the results.
This contrasts sharpiy with the resulls, or
fack thereof, flowing from the present
approacn to crime in Canada, which is
supposedly directed at improving a per-
son's self-worth, thereby curing them of
any criminal tendericies.

The results achieved in New York are
not really surprising when the violent crime
Statistics from the various U.S. states are
compared. Those states with the highest
incarceration rates, and the toughest
approach to crime, have the lowest crime
rates. Singapore too, at perhaps the tar-
thest end of the “get tough" scale, stands
as proof that the tougher the approach to
crime, the fower the amount of crime.
(Singapore's approach to social issues
and freedoms would rot fit well within our
North American society, but its experience
with crime control is still worthy of mention
for comparative purposes.) ,

in conirast to the examples given .
above, there does not appear to be any-
where though, where the crime rate has
Increased after authorities and polliti-
clans implemented a _ tougher |
approach. All of the evidence suggests —
that taw abiding citizens are safer on
the streets of places where the fegicla-
tors have abandoned, or nevor adopt-.
ed, the so-called “prevention of crime" !
approach we have been using in
Canade for the past 30 years.

LET'S DO SOMETHING

Twice in ihe past 6 years the Liberal
Government-has promised tougher laws
on youth crime and has introduced, to
great fanfare, weak and ineffective legista- |

tion which has failed to deliver on the |.

promises. In early December of 1999
though, the Justice Ministers from the
provinces met fo discuss youth crime and,
with the exception of Quebec, demanded .

that the Federal Government put some |.

teeth back into the youth crime legisiation. .
it is interesting to note that the resi-

dents of Quehec, based on polls laken in |

that Province, are just as unhappy with the
Young Offenders Act as are the residents
of other provinces. The. politicians of |
Quebec though, are stilt refusing to admit
that there is a problem, which is why, |
believe, the Liberais have never done any-
thing to toughen up the YOA. It appears to
me that, as usual, the Government is.
afraid of offending Quebec politicians, .in
case it fans the flames of separatism, even

though a good percentage of the Liberal |:

Caucus itself wants to get tough on youth
crime. coe

In the past few weeks, the Minister of
Justice is once- again making noises:
about getting tough on youth crime,

and | know, from the communications | ‘z

receive from my North Vancouver con- |
stituents, that most people consider. |.
such action to be well overdue. Rest: |
assured, if the Minister has finally
decided to TRULY DO SOMETHING -
MEANINGFUL TO DISCOURAGE AND | - |
PUNISH YOUTH CRIME, ESPECIALLY .
VIOLENT CRIME, | will be voting in. |
favour of her Bill, en your behalf, at all. 7 -
XA. oN

oN