ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS
A10 | NEWS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020
Candidates weigh in on political policy and philosophy Question: Fort St John has seen a record number of fatal drug overdoses this year. There is much debate among residents about the potential for a safe injection site in the city, while the Peace region continues to suffer a severe shortage of recovery beds. What will your party do to address this crisis in our community, and how will it address the poisoned drug supply? Trevor Bolin: “I have a very personal experience with that; my father was a drug addict for 25 years here in Fort St. John up until his death about nine years ago. We need help, we need support, we need the government to partner with communities to ensure that facilities are built in order to treat those that are addicted to them.
“We need to ensure that when our RCMP arrest a drug dealer in an illegal drug transaction, where somebody is going to or could fatally die, that the courts don’t let them back out again. “Our system is broken. The fact that you’ve got 32% of existing addicts, once they become sober and clean up, that actually reflect back on the fact that their addiction was caused by mental health gives you a sense of the fact that we have failed. “Communities have been crying for help for the province, Fort St. John has been crying for help from the province for the 12-13 years I’ve been on council. This has been a near and dear issue to my heart. But until we start to ensure that we treat the root cause, we’re never going to fix the issues. And if we’re
never going to fix the issues, it’s going to continue to get worse, and right now it’s as bad as we’ve ever seen it. “Lets band together, let’s ensure treatment facilities are readily available or at least planned and coming in to communities such as Fort St. John where these problems exist. And then let’s ensure that when our RCMP are doing their job in getting these guys off the streets, that we’re after the federal government to ensure that the courts are keeping them off the streets, keeping our families safe, keeping our children safe.” Dan Davies: “I hosted a roundtable on mental health and addictions about a year ago. We had our mental health and addiction critic up, we sat with RCMP, paramedics, the social
services locally. This is a really big issue in the North, and I don’t think people know how big it is. “It’s something we need to start looking at, it’s a medical issue, and we need to start putting the right pieces in place to get the supports people need. But it’s not just a matter of getting people to detox and then sending them on their way. We need complete wrap-around supports to get people off of drugs so they can start leading a regular life. “I think that’s something that we’ve really seen fail lately. We see our present government warehousing people, putting them in hotels, and hoping for the best, which has absolutely turned into a chaos situation of crime and everything else. That’s not the right way to manage this.
Fined in 2018 for discrimination Jeremy Hainsworth jhainsworth@glaciermedia.ca BC Conservative Party leader Trevor Bolin in 2018 was found to have discriminated against a worker by firing her after she complained about being sexually harassed by one of his senior staff. Though his name is mentioned nowhere in the 2018 WorkSafeBC decision, Bolin, who is running for MLA in Peace River North and is a sitting Fort St. John city councillor, confirmed he is “the owner of the store the WorkSafeBC report was done on.” He noted was he was fined and apologized to the employee. “The fine off the top of my head was about $4,000, $4,500,” he said. He said he fired her for yelling at staff members. Asked by Glacier Media if he would step aside as party leader and candidate, Bolin said, “No, I will not step down.” An Oct. 17 BC Liberal news release said, “As the leader, Bolin needs to publicly address why he minimized the sexual harassment and then punished the female employee.” A July 2018 occupational health and safety regulator’s investigation report said the worker had been at the restaurant 23 months when a team leader said January 10, 2018, that he wanted to have sex with her, and that he was willing to pay. The decision by WorkSafeBC investigations legal officer Abudi Awaysheh said the owner asked the team leader if he made his comments to the worker, to which
the “team leader confirmed he did.” The decision said she soon reported the matter to management, and met with the owner, who offered to move her to another shift. She declined as she was the more senior employee and worked another job at that time. She was told she should move as the team leader worked the other shift time in a different restaurant. Soon after, she met with a member of victim’s services with an RCMP officer present. Police went to the restaurant. On January 31, 2018, she was called into a meeting with general manager and owner who asked if the police attended the workplace for a personal matter or because of the sexual harassment report. She said it was for both. She was the given a cheque and told she was being terminated for “disrespectful and uncooperative behaviour.” She said she reported the situation because, “if I had not put in the incident report and had witnesses, I think he would have kept on until one day he made good on his suggestions and attacked me.” “After her termination, she submits that owner texted her that he wished she could have gotten over the sexual harassment incident,” Awaysheh’s decision said. Indeed, the employer produced a summary of the termination meeting. “When asked again if she would return to the happy, bubbly staff person she was before this incident began, it became clear she would not,” the summary said
of that meeting. “We told [worker] that unfortunately, this had gone on long enough, and that we could not tolerate her hostility and insubordination within the restaurant.” Co-workers and an assistant manager submitted to WorkSafeBC that she was a hard worker and good team player. Awaysheh’s decision says the employer produced no evidence of warnings that her behaviour was a concern. “I find that the worker has established a basic case of discriminatory action against her employer,” Awaysheh said, noting the fact a final cheque was ready indicated the January 31 meeting was intended for termination, not a discussion of her behaviour. Further, Awaysheh said, the employer had not followed its own harassment and bullying guidelines. “I infer that the employer did not take the worker’s sexual harassment complaint seriously,” Awaysheh said. However, the employer told Awaysheh the employee had yelled at him January 23, and that poor attitude was a problem. “I believe that I mismanaged the situation, and that I failed in my position by allowing her to continue poisoning the workplace with her negativity and insubordination,” the employer’s submission to WorkSafeBC said. WorkSafeBC decisions are not available publicly online. They must be requested under freedom of information legislation. Read more at alaskahighwaynews.ca
“We need more psychiatric nurses and doctors up here, we don’t have those in Fort St John. Right now, if there’s an issue, it’s Dawson creek. We need to make sure we’re supporting that. “Another big issue is a private member’s bill that was introduced by our party recently, it’s called the Safe Care Act. We see a lot of young people that get addicted to drugs, and again there are a lot of issues around mental health. But we can’t get them help because there is nothing enforceable that a parent can do for their own child to get them the help that they need. The Safe Care Act is a piece of legislation that we would look at passing to make sure parents have the tools that they can get help for their son before they’re living on the streets, here or in Eastside Vancouver.”
More Covid at Site C BC Hydro is reporting a fourth COVID-19 case at the Site C work camp. The worker arrived on site on Oct. 12 and was isolated the next day after showing symptoms; a positive test result was confirmed Oct. 15. “The worker did not begin their scheduled shift on October 13 or travel outside of the worker accommodation camp,” BC Hydro said in a statement. “Northern Health has confirmed this case is not connected to the case that BC Hydro announced on October 13.” That case was reported after BC Hydro said it was notified over the Thanksgiving long weekend that a contractor worker tested positive. One other worker was asked to self-isolate. The infected workers were being cared for by on-site health staff, and will remain quarantined in their room until they are medically cleared to leave, BC Hydro said. As of Monday, Oct. 19, there were 1,598 workers reported at the work camp, 12 of them in self-isolation.
Postal package no threat RCMP say a suspicious package that closed the Fort St. John post office on 101 Avenue last week was no threat to workers or public safety. Workers were evacuated as a safety precaution after the package, leaking an unknown substance, was located by employees during their daily duties. The BC RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit determined that the leaking substance was an “inert powder.” “The RCMP needed to take every possible precaution,” said Const. Chad Neustaeter. “In this case, we had a best case scenario, nobody was injured and everyone went home safe.”
TOM SUMMER, DILLON GIANCOLA PHOTOS
Above: Susan Haagsman working security at WAC Bennett Dam. Below: The only people in the stands for the hockey game on October 16 were the Dawson Creek Jr. Canucks (left) and Fort St. John Huskies (right) players who didn’t dress for the game, and were required to socially distance in the bleachers.
DILLON GIANCOLA PHOTO
Naveah Vega makes a pass along the brand new turf at the Kid’s Fieldhouse Arena during a U15 Girls soccer practice on October 7, 2020.