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6 . Terrace Review — ‘Wednesday, December 18,1991". :

or as many years as this newspaper has been published,
K and for many years before that, local. merchants have

been bemoaning losses to property and profitability that
result from random crimes, mainly vandalism and break-and-
enter. Every year with stupefying regularity car owners go into
apoplexy over another insurance rate increase. Wilful damage,
theft by stealth and offenses involving motor vehicles account
for the overwhelming majority of incidents on the average police
blotter.

On page four of this issue is the first of our series of weekly
crime reports, compiled in cooperation with the RCMP and
concentrating on acts of wilful damage and theft. We hope that
in poring over this report any readers who can offer the RCMP
information about unsolved crimes will do so. Perhaps greater
public awareness and interest could evolve into a Neighbourhood
Watch system.

The arrest and conviction of criminals, however, is only one
part of a complex situation. Inspector Larry Yeske, in talking to
the local Chamber of Commerce about vandalism and theft (page
three), said many of the things one would expect to hear from

_the head of a police organization, but he also made an effort to

delve below the surface to the heart of the issue. Detection of
crime and punishment of the offender is only the most visible
aspect of dealing with crime as a social problem. Analyzing the
conditions that foster criminal acts, and doing something about
what the analysis reveals, is the only effective way of confront-
ing the human, social and economic costs of crime.

Deterrence is certainly a consideration in crime prevention, and
the threat of punishment is for some people and some types of
crime inhibiting enough to prevent the wholesale deterioration of
order, But there are other equally widespread, less visible forms
of crime that no degree of deterrence will prevent. As outgoing »
victim assistance coordinator Karen Walker says (page 4), its
been established that punishment doesn’t work on perpetrators of

family violence and sexual assault. These are problems that have .

to be examined as part of a broad social ailment.

“Law and the justice system are the outward manifestations of a

social contract among people to preserve the existing order of
things. For those who are too poor, too discouraged, too desper-
ate or too disenfranchised to have any stake left in preserving
the existing order, that social contract is meaningless, Let’s have
a Neighbourhood Watch, but let’s also have a treatment centre .
for sexual assault victims and offenders, let’s have more support
for organizations like the Ksan House Socicty. And let’s have
one other thing:

More than a year ago this newspaper called for the creation of
a Social Planning Advisory Commission. This year we're calling
for it again. Perhaps it could take the form of a New Year’s
resolution by city council.

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VARESE J Dox exo!

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GENTLEMEN, .. OUR
CORPORATE. REVIEW
SUGGESTS WE SHOULD

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The view from
Victoria —

by John Pifer

On-the-job training for

the Liberal opposition |

VICTORIA — As the transition
period for the provincial govern-
ment enters its third month, per-
haps this is a good time to check
on how the official opposition is
doing.

With most ministries of the
new NDP administration pouring
over the financial books to try to
prepare accurate budgets for next
spring, little is happening in the
public eye, other than the ICBC
concerns and pontifications about
native land claims,

NDP Cabinet ministers are on a
learning curve which has their
desks stacked high with docu-
ments and briefing books; and
most efforts to reach them by
phone at any time of the day are
greeted with “(S)He is in a meet-
ing”.

Meanwhile, the official Oppo-
sition, the B.C. Liberal Party, is
on a learning curve of its own,
With 17 rookie MLAs elected —
many to their own surprise —- and
with them about to be thrust into
the spotlight come the spring leg-
islative session, it could be argued
that they have just as much to
leam,

In fact, as part of that process,
those rookies will be in Victoria in
January for two two-day training
sessions about how the House
operates, and what their roles arc
as MLAs.

If last week's press conference
about allegations.of government

patronage is anything to go by,
maybe the time set aside for those -
training seminars should be dou-
bled.

Liberal House leader David
Mitchell and government services
critic Daniel Jarvis hurled accusa-
tions of patronage-style politics
against the NDP, But they failed
to back it up with much more than
innuendo, and nudge-nudge, wink-
wink suggestions that the NDP
were as bad as the Socreds had
been when it comes to political
appointments,

They had no lists, no examples,
no names; and it was not until they
were pressed by reporters that the
Liberals gave some specifics —
primarily the government
appointees to the board of the
Pacific National Exhibition.

A defeated NDP candidate
from Surrey and a party con-
Stituency president from Vancou-
ver were the prime examples
there, replacing Socred Morgan
Thomas of Armstrong as presi-
dent, and others who had known
connections to the former govern-
ment.

In other words, hardly a sur-
prise. More like standard operat-
ing procedure.

And the Liberal duo tried to
have it both ways — the MLAs
agreed that ministerial and execu-
tive assistants were traditionally
political appointments, and by the
very nature of jobs, should be.

But when they then bemoaned:
the fact that more than half of the
100 positions filled in the first two

. months of this government were

partisan ones, that total included
those same assistants. Such con-
fusing, mixed signals didn’t help
their case, .

The Liberals’ idea of setting up
a “patronage watch”, a la some
neighbourhood patrol, to point out
examples in which senior civil ser-
vants are hired more for their
political connections than for their
abilities, is not a bad one.

Hell, they could even set up or
publish a chart of such examples
monthly, just to keep the NDP on
their toes, But they need to do
more homework if the whole plan
is to get a passing grade.

The Liberals are quick to point
out that as well as learning, they
want to teach.

Rather than constant confronta-

tion, the Liberals say they want to
be a part of the governing process.
For example, they want to be
involved in reviewing all senior
appointments to Crown corpora-
tions, boards and commissions.

Sure they do.

But one of the rewards or privi-
leges of being elected with the
most seats is getting the power to
make such decisions. One doubts
that the NDP will be too eager to
relinquish much, if any, of its elec-
tion-won power as a gesture to
usher in a new era of co-existence
and cooperation.

And as a result, disillusionment
for the naive Liberal rookies may
set in rather more quickly than
expected,

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