Latest news with #Heed
Vancouver Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Why police forces serving multiple towns are breaking up in B.C.
Police forces are splitting apart in B.C. despite more than two decades of recommendations and discussion on amalgamating municipal police agencies into larger regional forces. In Metro Vancouver, Pitt Meadows is establishing its own RCMP detachment, separate from Maple Ridge. A new $21.7-million building for the RCMP is under construction. Langley Township also plans to establish its own RCMP detachment, separate from the City of Langley, making the breakup official last month . In each case, the communities had shared RCMP detachments, but now want more control over their own detachments. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The B.C. government did not respond to Postmedia's questions put to it last week on why it's giving the OK to fragment policing, creating more, smaller police forces. The moves by Pitt Meadows and Langley township require provincial approval. Kash Heed, a former B.C. solicitor general and longtime advocate of amalgamating smaller forces into regional forces, called the moves a step backward. He also pointed to Kelowna, which is considering creating its own municipal force , and said it is a concern because what is needed is a regional force in the Okanagan, not separate independent RCMP detachments in several communities. The City of Surrey is in the midst of a controversial transition to its own municipal force from the RCMP. 'There are endless examples on the balkanization of our police services in British Columbia,' said Heed, now a city councillor in Richmond. Heed supports the 2022 recommendations of an all-party legislative committee on policing reform that said B.C. should replace the RCMP with a provincial police force and examine several areas for regionalization, including southern Vancouver Island and parts of the Lower Mainland and Okanagan. 'We need to come together and have a unified police service that's going to deliver the accountability, that's going to deliver the efficiencies and certainly deliver the effectiveness,' says Heed. The all-party legislative committee noted that having police services structured according to municipal boundaries has led to gaps in communication and administration, as well as fragmented services. Amalgamating police forces by region can increase efficiency and effectiveness of services that are highly technical, capital-intensive and specialized without sacrificing policing that is informed and responsive to the community, the committee said in its report. However, Craig Hodge, a Coquitlam city councillor and co-chairman of the local government roundtable on modernizing the B.C. Police Act, says communities should have the ability to choose the policing model best suited for them. That's particularly important given that policing can represent as much as 40 per cent of some local governments' budgets, he said. 'I think we're seeing communities with integrated detachments de-integrating because they want to be able to deliver a different level of service than their neighbour. It really goes against this whole idea that one size is going to fit all,' said Hodge. He noted it does make sense for economies of scale and for operational efficiency, and because criminals don't respect borders, to have certain parts of police services amalgamated, such as for homicide and organized crime. That is something that does take place to some extent under operations such as the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. The debate over regionalizing police forces also comes against the backdrop of questions about whether the RCMP should become solely a federal force and focus on areas such as cross-border, organized and financial crime, and stop providing contract policing to municipalities and provinces like B.C. because it drains their staffing resources. The history of calls to examine regionalizing policing stretch as far back as 1990. That year, the B.C. government launched an inquiry into policing, where police executives and other experts favoured regionalization, while most mayors and police board members were opposed. In 2007, then B.C.'s Solicitor General John Les said he was ready to talk about a regional police force for Metro Vancouver, an idea that had been raised by Heed, who was then the police chief for West Vancouver. Heed became solicitor general in 2009 and again advocated a regional force. In 2012, former judge and B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal, who headed an inquiry into the response of law enforcement into missing women and serial-killer Robert Pickton's case, recommended that Metro Vancouver form a regional police force. So far, the B.C. government response to the recommendations, including to those from the all-legislative committee, has been muted. Mike Farnworth, a recent B.C. solicitor general, said in 2023 the idea is not on the front burner. The province's current solicitor general, Garry Begg, who sat on the all-party legislative committee and is a former RCMP officer, has not said what are the government's plans, if any, for a provincial police force or combining numerous police forces into regional forces in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria. The B.C. government did not make Begg or someone else available for an interview for this article. In Pitt Meadows, the council believes having its own force will better serve the needs of the community, with a population of 19,000, than a combined force with Maple Ridge, with a population of 102,000. In a recent council meeting that provided a transition update on its new force, Pitt Meadows councillor Bob Meachen said now the city gets to manage the resources for which it is paying. 'That's a fundamental reason for doing what we are doing,' he said. Meachen noted that increased costs from areas such as body-worn cameras that the RCMP is bringing in would have to have been paid under the old model as well. Mayor Nicole MacDonald noted the transition is on time and on budget. 'There are lots of questions from other areas that are seeing what Pitt Meadows is doing,' she said. ghoekstra@
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Boston Globe
Long-buried claim of rapist priest at Catholic summer camp puts N.H.'s statute of limitations to the test
Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up According to the plaintiff, counselors at the camp would play a game they called 'strip the campers,' in which adults would chase children and remove clothing from whoever they caught. Advertisement In his efforts to avoid being forcibly disrobed, the plaintiff recalled hiding behind a bench where three adults laughed at him, and one directed him to hide in a nearby cabin. The camp's director, The plaintiff alleges Dowd told him to rest on a bed, where he could watch the other campers through the window. Then Dowd climbed onto the bed and raped the child, while saying that he and God both loved the boy and wanted him to be there, according to the lawsuit. Advertisement This wasn't the first allegation of predatory behavior at Camp Fatima, nor was it the first against Dowd. Several other claims More than 20 years later, states are still struggling with how to hold abusers accountable — and whether statutes of limitations apply. As society's understanding of trauma and its complex impacts on victims has evolved, many states have sought to give survivors more time to file litigation seeking accountability from individuals and institutions, especially in cases of childhood sexual abuse. Heed's report concluded the diocese could be criminally charged with endangering the welfare of minors for failing to protect children from priests who had abused kids in the past. In lieu of prosecution, the attorney general's office reached an agreement with the diocese and released the facts that investigators had uncovered. Dowd's name appears among dozens of others on the diocese's Advertisement New Hampshire lawmakers enlarged the statute of limitations repeatedly in the 2000s, then abolished it altogether in 2020; however, the 2023 lawsuit over Dowd's alleged conduct at Camp Fatima is now testing whether the abolishment of the statute of limitations applies retroactively. The diocese contends the plaintiff could have filed his lawsuit until 1986, when he turned 20 years old, since the statute of limitations that was in effect at the time gave childhood victims until two years after they attained adulthood to bring such claims. The diocese contends the expiration of the prior statute of limitations created a 'vested right' that state lawmakers cannot revoke later on — and Superior Court Judge Elizabeth M. Leonard agreed. 'The Court acknowledges that the plaintiff is one of many who was not served by the prior law,' Leonard wrote in a decision last fall granting the diocese's motion to dismiss this case. 'However, the fact that the current law allows the plaintiff a path of recovery cannot justify the revival of a time-barred claim through the retrospective application of the law.' 'Ultimately, it would be more unjust to allow for a system in which vested rights can be taken away by subsequent legislative amendments,' Leonard added. The plaintiff's attorneys, Scott H. Harris and Stephen A. Weiss, have appealed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, urging the justices to overrule Leonard's decision and prioritize their client's right to seek a judicial remedy over the diocese's right to be free from previously time-barred litigation. Harris and Weiss argued the concept of an unambiguous vested right is 'especially odd' in a case like this one, since a hypothetical plaintiff in similar circumstances might be granted more time to bring allegations of decades-old misconduct if they didn't know enough earlier on about the existence of their potential claim. Advertisement 'Statutes of limitations are important tools to encourage parties to bring their disputes to court promptly, while memories are still fresh and evidence still available,' they wrote in a court filing. 'Statutes of limitation are not, however, substantive law that determines the merits of a disputed claim.' Harris and Weiss argue the diocese was negligent. They say church leaders either knew or should have known children were being sexually abused at Camp Fatima. And they fault the diocese for naming Dowd as camp director in 1971 shortly after he was accused of fondling a teenage boy in Keene, N.H. During oral arguments, an attorney for the diocese, Olivia F. Bensinger, will argue that Leonard's decision was correct. In a statement, Bensinger framed the outcome as a matter of practical fairness. 'As the statute of limitations law recognizes, a lawsuit concerning a report of abuse that is many years old can be difficult, if not impossible, to defend because witnesses and evidence may no longer remain available,' she said. Bensinger said the diocese has been working for more than two decades to meet the needs of victims and survivors of abuse, and the diocese has implemented safeguards to foster safe environments at parishes, schools, and camps to protect kids. While this case in New Hampshire echoes similar disputes across the country, state courts have Advertisement In Maine, the Supreme Judicial Court The New Hampshire Supreme Court may be inclined to reach a similar conclusion, especially since the state's constitution expressly prohibits retrospective laws as ' New Hampshire's constitution is one of only seven nationwide — and the only one in New England — with such a clear-cut prohibition. Steven Porter can be reached at
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Gateshead manager Magnay resigns
Gateshead only won eight points from their final 12 games to miss out on the National League play-offs by a point [Getty Images] Gateshead boss Carl Magnay has resigned after less than nine months in charge. The 36-year-old former Heed defender was appointed manager after Rob Elliot left to take over Crawley in October last year. Advertisement They were two points off National League leaders Barnet after a 4-3 win over Hartlepool on Boxing Day but won just five of 22 games after the turn of the year and missed out on a play-off spot with a final-day draw against Southend. After the game against the Shrimpers, Magnay told BBC Radio Newcastle the end of the season had been "a disaster".
Vancouver Sun
22-05-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Kahlon rejects calls from some B.C. city councillors to restore the municipal auditor general
VICTORIA — Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon was quick to dismiss calls this week for the province to restore an auditor general for local government. The New Democrats abolished the office after they took over from the B.C. Liberals. 'We're not bringing in additional measures,' said Kahlon. He argued that there is already sufficient oversight to catch financial abuse at municipal and regional governments. Yet the renewed calls for a municipal auditor general were prompted by high-profile cases of abuse that appear to have slipped through the cracks. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The RCMP is investigating the fate of $300,000 worth of gift cards gone missing in Richmond. Surrey is trying to recover $2.5 million in fraudulent transactions going back to 2017 and attributed to one employee. Still, Kahlon was not persuaded that Richmond and Surrey cases are by themselves sufficient cause to bring back the office, created by Christy Clark, and abolished by the New Democrats five years ago. 'We of course share concerns that are raised around these two particular situations,' he told Simi Sara on CKNW Wednesday. Even so, 'it is important to know that there are really strong financial oversight measures already with local governments. They are required to have all their financial statements made public. 'They're required to be audited by an independent body. In both these circumstances, their own systems caught the issue. 'It'll be investigated,' the minister continued. 'But their systems flagged that there were issues, and they were able to bring it to light.' 'Too often that important piece of the requirements, of audited statements, gets lost in the conversation,' said Kahlon, warming to his claim that the system worked as it was supposed to do. 'We are not going to rush to change a complete system for everyone because of a couple of incidents that were caught by the systems that they already have in place.' However, Kahlon version of events was disputed by Richmond councillor Kash Heed. 'The minister might want to check his facts,' Heed told the CBC. The CBC did extensive reporting on the Surrey fiasco. The Richmond gift card abuses only came to light publicly through persistent reporting by Catherine Urquhart of Global TV. Heed and several other councillors want Premier David Eby to restore a stand-alone municipal auditor general or at least expand the mandate of the provincial counterpart to include municipalities and regional districts. He made the call in an open letter co-signed with New Westminster councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas and Burnaby's Richard Lee. Heed was a cabinet minister under the Liberals and Lee was an MLA. The quartet have since invited the public to sign an online petition. Meanwhile this week, Surrey Councillor Linda Annis repeated her earlier call for Surrey to establish its own auditor general. Council voted down her motion to that effect in 2021. 'In light of the allegations that our city was defrauded of some $2.5 million by a former employee, I will be bringing back my original motion,' Annis said in a news release. 'I want our city to have the expertise that comes with an independent auditor general, an office that can look at every part of operations. The theft of $2.5 million is no small thing.' Heed noted that an auditor general for local government could provide answers for municipalities and regional government, rather than each having to establish its own such office. He also cited the $3 billion-and-counting overrun on the North Shore wastewater treatment plant as another case where an independent auditor could answer some of the questions mired in bureaucracy and litigation. A Deloitte report this week disclosed the extent to which recriminations over the wastewater treatment plant have generated 'extreme tensions' and a climate of 'mistrust' inside Metro Vancouver. The report goes to Metro council on Friday. Kahlon says the province will wait to see what emerges from that meeting before considering any action on its own. 'It really comes down to what options they discuss and what they think is a good solution,' he told the radio audience. 'We'll be engaging with them after their conversation Friday. It's in everyone's interest to address the governance challenges that they have as quick as possible.' NDP premier John Horgan abolished the auditor general for local government, having promised to do so before he took office in a speech to the Union of B.C. Municipalities. 'I believe that people in your communities will advise you if you are spending money poorly and they will advise you by removing you from office,' Horgan told local government leaders. When Horgan kept the promise in 2020, mayors and councillors hailed the decision as a gesture to restore local autonomy. Ironically, Horgan's successor, David Eby, with his housing legislation, has grabbed far more power from local government than Christy Clark ever did. He proposes to do the same with Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act now before the house. In retrospect, bringing back a provincially funded auditor general for local government would be a minor and perhaps welcome encroachment on local autonomy. vpalmer@
The Province
27-04-2025
- The Province
Lapu Lapu Day tragedy: How to investigate a crime involving a mentally ill suspect
The Lapu Lapu Day massacre may have been sparked by a mental health crisis, but a police expert says that doesn't change how the crime is handled. An unprecedented vehicle attack that killed 11 people and injured many more. A suspect in custody with a history of mental health issues. How do police investigate a complex case of this magnitude? Former police chief and B.C. solicitor general Kash Heed said investigators have to treat it like any other murder investigation, regardless of the suspect's mental health issues. 'The fact is we have 11 dead people here as a result of this person's action,' Heed said. 'Whether he is going through a mental health crisis or something else should not certainly take away from the fact that 11 homicides were committed here.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors He said the suspect will have to be charged with something within 24 hours of his arrest, though more comprehensive charges might take longer for Crown charge approval. 'Regardless of what the motive may have been behind this, it certainly doesn't reduce the tragedy of this particular crime,' Heed said. 'I think it was wise for law enforcement to come out at the outset, once they established who this person was, that it was not terrorist-related. I think we as a society will always default to terrorism when a tragedy of this magnitude happens.' Steve Rai, Vancouver Police interim police chief, speaks during a news conference that there had been a vehicle and a suspect involved in an incident at the annual Lapu Lapu festival celebrating Filipino culture, at East 43rd Avenue and Fraser, in the south of Vancouver on April 26, 2025. Photo by DON MACKINNON/AFP via Getty Images) Interim Vancouver police Chief Steve Rai said 100 investigators are working on the challenging case. Heed said the team would include eight to 10 different VPD sections, including forensic experts on vehicle collision scenes, homicide detectives and more. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Vancouver police with a drone on the scene where at least twelve people were killed by a speeding vehicle on Fraser St during Lapu Lapu Day celebrations in Vancouver April 27, 2025. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO / 10107854A Interviewing witnesses who saw the horrific collision would also form a key part of the investigation. Heed said it would be up to a court, down the road, to determine whether mental illness was a contributing factor to the offences committed. 'If a defence lawyer wants to come up with some other excuse as to why the person acted in this way, it's up to them,' Heed said. 'But when you're looking at a charge approval, you've got to go the fact that 11 people were killed by the actions of this person, regardless of the state of mind of this person. 'It's up to the court to decide whether the person had some type of crisis.' kbolan@ Read More News Vancouver Canucks News News News
