Campbell River plans to take its fight over repeat offenders to higher levels of government.
City council plans to send letters to Victoria and Ottawa asking for greater accountability from prosecutors and changes to legislation to deal with “prolific and priority” offenders.
The discussion came Tuesday as the city set out its priorities for local RCMP, which includes downtown safety.
Councillor Sean Smyth spoke about one frustrated citizen who lost her brother to drugs.
“She was talking about all the people that she knew who were drug dealers in town and that had been prolific offenders and, basically, it was a conversation of frustration that these people are always walking around free and the RCMP know who they are,” Smyth said.
Councillor Tanille Johnston says police are unable to act because current laws make the burden of proof extremely high.
“The burden of proof was just so amazingly high that I was shocked so I think if there is room to change that, it’s mind blowing that hundreds of people can know the exact same information about each other but the RCMP can’t act on it,” Johnston said.
Council noted the topic has recently been on the radar at the Union of B.C. Municipalities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Councillor Ron Kerr says it has to be addressed at higher levels. “This is a collateral result of all these crazy safe drug and legalization of drugs that have been brought in by the senior governments…everybody below them is not legally required to change,” Kerr said.
The letter will come to a future city council meeting for final approval as well as an advocacy strategy.
