An advocacy report about crime in Kelowna has drawn criticism from B.C.’s Attorney General.
To be presented before city council on Monday, the report says senior levels of government should be making changes to address prolific property crime offenders, “and the impact of the catch-and-release cycle of the justice system.”
“After a 2020 pandemic-driven decline in property-related offending, communities across British Columbia are once again experiencing increased property crime,” reads part of the report.
“Frustratingly, a disproportionate amount of property crime is committed by offenders who persistently re-offend, unabated by a catch-and-release justice system.”
Among the items the report wants done is more Crown prosecutors in Kelowna.
City mayor Colin Basran told Global News that “the justice system is letting us all down in the sense that there seems to be a catch-and-release cycle where people are arrested, but don’t seem to be facing any consequences or being forced to get the help that they need if they have a mental health or addiction issues.”
However, Attorney General David Eby says while the report has some legitimate concerns, he says “there are some fundamental errors” in it.
“The mayor and I have a lot of common concerns, and they relate to an increase in crime in downtown cores in many parts of British Columbia, in many major cities, as well as across Canada,” Eby told Global News.
“And a lot of this is driven by prolific offenders. People who, again and again, and again, because of mental health and addiction issues are involved in the justice system.”
While Eby did say there’s an opportunity for Crown Counsel to be more effective, “there are lots of different issues in the justice system.”
Eby said there are changes at the federal level about the use of bail, “so it’s important that council have the full picture of what’s happening in the justice system – the federal government role, the police role and the Crown role. So I’ve written the mayor to outline some other areas of concern.”
Eby continued, saying “it’s a challenging issue. That’s why I’m glad we’re working together on it.”
Asked about the reduction in crime levels during the past two years, Eby says it could be related to fewer people being out and about during the pandemic.
“In fact, there were fewer crimes committed,” he said. “When we look at the Crown Counsel numbers, we can’t look at them separately from those police numbers that were profoundly affected by the pandemic.”
Eby also said the courts drastically reduced their caseloads during the pandemic, which created a backlog. Yet that’s not mentioned in Kelowna’s report.
“Thousands of criminal trials were put off while we tried to figure what was going on with the pandemic, how to manage the pandemic and prison populations and protect people in the justice systems,” he said.
“The report felt a little unfair to Crown Counsel to me, to be blunt. But the core of the report – that people are concerned about crime, that Kelowna city council is (concerned), and certainly the provincial government is – we’re working together on that, and I think that’s right.”
The report can be viewed on the City of Kelowna’s website.
While not committing to hire more Crown lawyers, the province says it wants to work with Kelowna and has hired two experts to investigate the issue of prolific offenders.
Their report and recommendations are expected to be released in the fall.
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