Dear Sir:
Terrace RCMP are the worst.
Terrace also holds the title of 13th highest crime rate in Canada.
But take a moment to reflect that there are always two sides or more to every story. There is always a bad egg in the basket but that's true for doctors, lawyers, teachers, parents and workers. Do we throw them all out with the bath water. No, find the problem, isolate it and deal with it.
In the North, we seem to have a difficult time attracting the best doctors, teachers, etc. The south is just not interested in what goes on here nor do they care and we end up soliciting South Africans by offering bonuses to come and keep us healthy.(the future is today and we are not educating our own).
We end up with a lot of young RCMP officers without a lot of experience, because perhaps those who have seniority don't opt for the North.
So what are we – a training ground to cut teeth on, where things are tough and it doesn't matter because for the south it is out of sight out of mind?
A professional family thinking about moving to a new community like Terrace would first check out the schools. Check out the Fraser Institute's ratings for School District 82 and Rupert and again, northern communities scrape the bottom of the barrel.
We have amongst the highest learning disabilities per ca-pita in the province and an education budget that does not reflect the fact.
Hindi and Mandarin as second languages are gaining more attention than District 82 and I'd like to see equal education for all as stated in the BC Schools Act enacted here. Terrace is a beautiful place with potentially, an awesome community.
We have a demographic that is consists of 45 per cent native which largely affects the whole of society here but as Canadians we are too afraid to stand on racist toes and call a spade a spade out loud and therefore never deal with what is.
I've heard young people say in reply to the Canadian phrase “you're First Nations, eh?” “No, I'm a ------ Indian.” That is the line in the sand – poor self esteem and a knowledge of inherent racism.
Yes, but it's a two-sided blade, the great divide. Whites are racist against Indians but Indians are also racist against whites so let's throw out the race card and stop the vicious circle of blame and take responsibility for ourselves.
It's a windswept sea that needs to be calmed. We are individuals and we need a social system that supports us all, to be the best we can be.
Mayor Dave Pernarowski, you nicely cleaned up the downtown core (the red zone) for businesses (almost) and you spoke on national radio about the successes but you fail to understand the brewing nature of hiding from the law, especially for youth.
I don't mention homeless or chronically addicted because those two key words solicit a negative: “Whatever.”
You won't find youth engaged in healthy behaviour at the local community centre because we don't have one and one is not on the table.
You had the chance and you opted for a second sheet of ice, a new bandshell and the millennium trail extension.
Where are the kids and what are they doing after dark? Getting into trouble and filling up the drunk tank – rehearsing for a future when many will spend time in the new prisons BC is building (selling point: job creation).
Mr. Mayor, I dare you to take a ride on a Friday night after child tax day in a police cruiser. It's a shade of life I know you are not too familiar with.
Personally I've come across a couple of cops with bad attitudes and I've dealt with a lot of them but I've come across a lot more bureaucratic people with power and politicians who use and abuse their position, so let's look at the bigger picture.
Don't sit back on your laurels and think that if you don't get into trouble you wouldn't be dealing with cops, it's not as simple minded as that.
Mental health, environments, helplessness and hopelessness play major roles in the breaking of the law and if you are perfect, then for some reason you are lucky and luck is not always a personal choice that you consciously made.
For the most part cops have been on my side and they are there to prevent mayhem in a society we invented. The whole society is teetering out of anyone's control, and there is no one over seeing the cause and effect of regulations that come from the top down to reality.
There are some bad cops everywhere but can you imagine dealing with the same people, the same problems, night after night, month after month, year after year? Stop the world, I want to get off.
In this modern age we are losing our humanity and respect for life itself. We have bred a new youth that have no 'respect' because we have devalued childhood with shiny techno age horizons and the mighty dollar surpasses all value.
Values and respect might be obsolete words come the next paper edition of the Oxford Dictionary.
We need to examine the'Youth Justice Act and revise it with intelligence, examine the Freedom and Privacy of Information Actand look at i's benefits but also the insane logic as it is used and abused selectively by lawyers.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development and the mental health agencies should be the first to be accused of bureaucratic mishandling of people because the only way to access assessment and treatment for any kind of abnormal mental behaviour is through the justice system and that is a waste of time, effort, money and looses people as they fall through the cracks.
It's a runaway train and unless you have had personal experience you assume things are ticking away the way they are supposed to, but $80 million in cuts affects effectiveness.
The right hand doesn't have a clue what the left hand is doing, which hand?
My father, an ex-military man, suggested to me years ago that part of the RCMP's problem is that they are military trained.
It's a thought I know nothing about but it's perhaps a thought worthy of discussion by those who know after we discuss the government social structures that abandon so many. Mary Ellen Turpell Lafonde is the government watchdog for the Ministry for Children and Youth, the only problem is that her many observant reports are neutered by the same government.
Let's not abdicate our personal responsibility. We can take advantage of the public sdtage these RCMP accusations will provide and let the 604/southern power holders know the truth about the North.
It's easy to point the finger but lets understand the whole picture first. Terrace is the scene of a big crime but lets put all the guilty on trial: social workers, teachers, doctors, citizens and band counsils who participate in the malfunctions but have not sounded the alarm before the crisis hit.
A 100 sled dogs were slaughtered and protesters stood up in the streets immediately and immediately a government task force was formed to ask why.
Don't get me wrong. I like dogs but Terrace needs a task force to assess the many cumulative problems here. If we don't stand up and loudly ask for one, we will forever be above the radar.
This is an opportunity to let 604 know that 250 North deserves more and stop divisive divide and conquer politics. Rich/poor, Indian/white, strong/weak, it doesn't matter we are all red blood.
Our kids deserve it, they are the de facto victims. Maybe if they were huskies we'd find the solutions to erase the problems. The RCMP are the last to be involved with the evolution of a criminal.
Hercules is not going to show up and solve the problem. We, the little people, have to each lift a rock, one at a time to move the mountain.
Nobody listens to me because I'm single, white, heterosexual and female or is it because I'm just another nobody in the scheme of things.
It's funny the civil suits the lawyers choose to take on, isn't it? They are selective, aren't they?
A perfect example of potential bad apples and selective values and there is no watch dog unless your pockets are very, very deep.
The concept of fairness erodes. This is the Canadian brand of selective democracy we like to preach to the rest of the world.
Judy Babington, Terrace, BC