The North Shore Business Improvement Association says crime will continue to be problem in Kamloops until changes are made to Canada’s judicial system.
Commercial crime has skyrocketed during the pandemic and NSBIA Executive Director, Jeremy Heighton, doesn’t think things will change anytime soon.
“There’s a bunch of things that come to play. Number one is that federally and provincially the prosecutorial service and the judicial service in Canada is completely disconnected from the communities they serve,” he said.
“What I mean by this is, RCMP can apprehend somebody who has a knife and is threatening someone for example and they’ll end up turning them loose. The serial arsonist we had going around town a couple of weeks ago lighting fires was released by the court the next morning after being arrested so there’s a serious disconnection and serious inability of the judiciary to be responsible to the communities they serve.”
“That’s a massive piece because a lot of these low level criminals and drug dealers operate with impunity in our city and it’s no longer tolerable for our community because at some point something is going to happen and it’s going to go sideways and we don’t want to see that happen,” Heighton added. “So, we feel feel very strongly and have been talking to politicians about the fact that we need a new framework for community accountability for the judiciary.”
Speaking on the NL Morning News, he says he supports some of the local initiatives that he has seen.
“Council has really stepped up to the plate the last few weeks and have been working on social issues and how to solve them,” Heighton said. “There’s some really great initiatives on the local level but we need help on the federal and provincial level.”
He revealed some ‘astounding’ numbers to back up his argument.
“In 2019 we spent, we estimate, about $500,000 responding to social issues along the Tranquille corridor. That’s overdoses, RCMP, fire, whatever. “Say was spent the same amount downtown and the same amount in Valleyview or Sahali. That’s $1.5 million. I bet there’s 100 communities across the country with the same issue,” Heighton said.
“You extrapolate that by five times or ten times for all the major cities, we’re into the billions of dollars to prop up a system that is no longer serving our communities and that is a problem because at the local level business owners are frustrated, RCMP are frustrated, bylaw are doing what they can, social agencies are doing what they can but they don’t have the tools and the tool box necessary to fight the crime situation.”
