a of files handled by each RCMP officer. In 2004, it -was.100,. rising to 103 in 2005. . ; A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 6, 2006 TERRACE STANDARD: 4 : _ ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. - V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard. com ‘Game of stats ‘A LAWNMOWER goes missing from a backyard. 1A digital camera disappears“from a vehicle. A ' ' s ’ t t i : ' t t : ae ‘merchant gets a call early one morning to tell him ‘his delivery van has had its windows smashed. ' To these people and to all the others who have ‘been the victims of crime, it is no surprise:to learn . ‘that theCity of Tertace has cracked the provincial - ‘top .10 list of places with the most crime for 2005. 7 We're No. 8 with 206 Criminal Code:and other _. offences per 1,000 ‘people. In 2004 we were No. 13 with 198 Criminal Code and other offences per ‘1,000 people. _ “And there’s another batch of statistics which would seem to back up these figures — the number | Victims of crime may also quickly seize on an- other fact. In 2003, the City of Terrace froze two -RCMP positions meaning there are 23 officers as- _ Signed to the city instead of 25. But here’s the tricky part in dealing with crime -- and police statistics. There are essentially two types of crime when it comes to keeping score. There’s ‘the type of crime. that police “either enounter while on patrol, such as an impaired driver, or go out and find, such as‘drug dealing. "And then there’s crime reported by people, such | as theft'or assaults. i Logic could tell us that the more police officers ‘there are, the more of the first type of crime there : ‘will be because there are simply more police of- ficers on the street. Conversely, fewer police offi- ‘cers should lead to less of this first type of statisti- -cal crime. And the more people are duty bound to _- report crime such as thefts and assaults, the higher those stats will be. But the more people give up in ‘disgust, the lower those stats will be. So if the city had filled those two vacant RCMP positions, a cynic might point out ther€ could have been more statistical crime on the books, moving us further up the top 10 list. But there’s far more to policing and community safety than relying on statistics to tell a part of the crime story. It’s .a cliche but it’s true — an ounce of preven- | ‘tion is worth a pound of cure. Stopping crime in Be AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, the first place is hard to nail down statistically but its rewards are many. ‘Having more officers on the street increases the _ visibility of a police force, boosting the deterrence -factor to crime taking place. And smarter polic- ing, acting rather than reacting, also pays off. _. As it is, the crime stats so far this year are be- low both the 2004 and 2005 levels. | _ Be that as it may, the city needs to re-think its freezing of the two vacant positions. Statistics may go up and they may go down, but the bad guys always seem to stay and, at times, there seem. to be far too many of them. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: , Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur o . NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada — _ NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping. Carolyn Anderson CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband, Todd Holkestad 2005. 2005 WINNER AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik NEWSPAPERS PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: - $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year: Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.55; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 Outside of Canada (6 months) Siseonet GST)=167.89 _ MEMBER OF — +CMA.. Lin soe NS Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of S each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, VBG 522. @ Black Press Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and tybesiyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy- right holders, including Black Press Ltd. its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department. for payment of postage in cash. COMPETITION CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND B.C. PRESS COUNCIL (www.bepresscouncil. org) Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents 4 a ! ApouT SUMMER ENDING | iS THAT WE WILL NO- LONGER BE SUBJECTED To A CONSTANT BARRAGE OF BACK-To-ScHOOL ~ COMMERCIALS. / ds BEGINNING To LOOKA » Lot UKE | Your private life can ‘hurt your job ‘THE PRIVATE lives of em- . _ployees are generally of little “concern to their employer. To | a large degree, employers take’ a hands-off approach to:judg- ing their employees. There are instances, howev--. er, when off duty conduct can ‘be of interest to the employer. That conduct can even form -the basis for summary (for: cause) dismissal. - This is because the com- | mon law of employment, im-. plies certain terms into the relationship, one of which is the employee’s duty of fidelity and loyalty. Flowing from this _ duty. is ‘the employee’s obliga- tion to avoid activities which . may create a conflict. In essence, the employee must avoid conduct which cre- ates a conflict between her per- sorial and work lives when the personal activities could detri- mentally affect the employer. Cases involving the clash between the employer’s inter- ests and the employee’s activi- ties are not overly common but they do arise. One such exam- ple was a recent case heard in the Ontario courts. The employer was the largest, business in the city of . Guelph, Ontario. ‘Tt employed “8,000 people in a community of approximately 100,000 and " gation, “ROBERT SMITHSON had developed an. excellent - reputation in the community. Amongst its achievements, the’ company had placed a heavy. emphasis on_ philan- thropy directed toward young children. This included spon- soring youth sports teams and working with schools. The employee was a long- serving manager with no “negative elements to his em- ployment record. He was well ‘respected by his co-workers, was a trusted employee, and had no history of misconduct at all. He had 10 staff report- ing to him. In 2002, as a result of a widespread police _ investi- the employee .was charged with possession of child pornography. He was summarily dismissed for. just . cause reasons. At that point «the employee had not been convicted. The employee sued - for wrongful dismissal. The Ontario court upheld the summary dismissal. The. court first: acknowledged that, from moral and public relations perspectives, the employer’s reaction was both understand- | _able and easily supportable. On the question of whether ‘just cause for’ summary dis- missal existed, the court noted that the employee had been charged with a crime of mor- al turpitude. The arrest and charges. had been. publicized — notoriously in the local news- _ papers and on radio stations. The employer argued, suc- cessfully, that the employee had a.duty to ensure his off- - duty conduct did not adversely impact his employment. By permitting himself to be placed in the position where he would be charged with pos-. session of child pornography, he had failed to discharge his duty. The court agreed, stating that:the employer had over a long period of time built up a good reputation in the commu- nity which it jealously protect-’ ed. This reputation included the promotion of its activities - - mary dismissal. with young people. The court stated the company was enti- tled to take reasonable steps to protect its reputation and the summary dismissal was just such a step. ‘The court was careful to note, however, that not every ~ such case: would necessarily result in just cause for sum- Factors such as. the. degree of responsibil- ‘ity exercised by the employee, the company’s notoriety and the extent to which its.reputa- tion in the community would . be adversely affected must be considered. This case will surely stand -as precedent across Canada in © future cases involving dismiss- als on the grounds of moral turpitude. But, it is probably one of the most extreme exam- ples of an employee’s ‘private conduct negatively affecting the employer’s business ac- tivities. As such, employers should be extremely cautious in rely- ing on this decision as a basis ~ for dismissing employees for objectionable off-duty con- duct. Robert Smithson is a part- ner at Pushor Mitchell LLP in Kelowna practicing exclusive- ly in the area of labour and. employment law. — Do your part to improve literacy THE PHARMACIST who filled my last prescription was new to me. When I asked for ‘a pen to write my cheque he said. you,” and proceeded to do so. I was taken aback. thought, “What an insult! This fellow thinks I'm one of the 5.400 adults in this area who. can’t read or write well enough to handle day-to-day situations.” But how was he to tell by look- ing at me if I could write? Low literacy -exists in all genders, races, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds. The reached age 61 unable to read or write English or French., ‘Noting my reaction, the pharmacist added, “I’ve al- ways written cheques for cus- _ tomers, as a courtesy.” Perhaps offering. to write cheques is his way of sparing low literates the embarrass- ment of asking for help. By using their wits, low literates fly below the radar. They ride buses noting land- marks, shop with family who can read labels. depend upon Jandlords and social workers - to. interpret apartment leases and government notices. De- mers memorized the words he “I'll write that out for. Stanley — Cup-winning NHL coach, Jacques Demers, : ‘daily. — « on the job and in life. * THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI autographed for fans. Low. literacy can ‘come from dropping out of school to support the family (as De- . mers did), illness, changing schools frequently, failing to get the classroom help needed. A residential school survivor got only two hours instruction Literacy is an essential skill ‘Litera- cy is at the root of a lot of so- cial issues.” says Janet Lane. executive director of Literacy Alberta. Low literacy affects the well-being of individuals, communities, and the econ- omy. Sixty per cent of Cana- dians on welfare never com- pleted high school. ‘Children whose parents are jobless and didn’t graduate high school are five times less likely to gradu- ate than children of employed high school graduates. This “perpetuates low literacy and family poverty. The unemployment rate among low literates is 26 per - cent. Their average annual in- come if employed in. British Columbia is $22,000. They smoke more, and are nutritionally deprived. This increases our health care costs. , ‘Terrace has many diabet- s. “Diabetic patients rely on a number of tools to manage . their disease and prevent seri- ous health problems,” ‘writes Dr. . July 23, 2002 issue of the Jour- nal of American Medical As- sociation Health Scout News. “For patients with low litera- cy, it’s as though they have re- ceived the tool kit, but Rot the operating instructions.” Today tutoring to improve reading and. writing skills is available free to any adult, and is supported by society. Demers proved that last No- vember when he admitted to the world he couldn’t read or write. Expecting ridicule, he exercise less, Dean Schillinger in the ... was. instead flooded with con- gratulatory calls, non-readers lined up to shake his hand. and requests to literacy foundation . helplines (such. as Terrace’s Community Readers & Writ- ers Program, phone 638-1330) shot up 300 per cent. on “Literacy is an essential — skill on the job and in‘life in general.” says Wally Stewart, co-ordinator of the 2006 Pe- ter Gzowski Invitational Golf Tournament in support of lit- . -eracy. We can all encourage liter- acy. Read to your kids; listen _ to them read. Let them know good grades are important. Urge them to stay in school. Visit teachers on report card day. Give adults seeking literacy tutoring a ride to and from class. Babysit their kids while they attend. Pass your daily - - newspaper along to them. _ Employers can allow par- ents time off to attend their _ Kids’ award days, and pay tu- ition costs for employees’ up- grading. Companies can donate ob- solete office equipment to a local literacy program, donate money or books to a school. Tell politicians literacy gets your vote. :