Darwin aims to have second costly surgery
LIVING, Page 10
Saying ‘yes’ leads to banner Duncan Baseball year
SPORTS, Page 18
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Friday, September 5, 2014
Prolific offender program a success: report LEXI BAINAS CITIZEN
A small but determined group of students show their displeasure at the continuing teachers’ strike by holding a demonstration Wednesday morning across the street from Cowichan Secondary School. [LEXI BAINAS/CITIZEN]
Students say ‘enough is enough’ LEXI BAINAS CITIZEN
“This has been going on for four years. Enough it enough,” said Chloe Gelinas as she joined a group of students waving placards across from Cowichan Secondary School Wednesday morning. The students, from both the Cowichan and Quamichan campuses, were protesting the ongoing dispute between the BC Teachers’ Federation and the provincial government. Gelinas, a Grade 12 student, was not just referring to the teachers’ strike, which started in June, but previous job action that has affected her ability to get what she needs from the public educa-
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tion system. “It’s gone on long enough. They’re taking away our right to a public education,” she said. “We’re tired of being caught in the middle, of seeing our right to an education being violated. We’re tired of being pawns in a chess game between the teachers and the government. This is just us saying: enough is enough.” TV experts have been prognosticating that the strike may not even end this month and Gelinas said she’d heard those comments, too. “That’s why we’re here today. We’re taking a stand and saying that is not acceptable. We need that month of school. We need it for our provincials. We need it for
education and for getting into our university classes.” She said some students looking at post-secondary education are really being harmed by ongoing disputes between government and teachers. “Grade 12 students have been going through this for the last four years, this on-and-off job action. This year, I think our grad class is just not having any of it. We want to be the last.” Gelinas had an example, too. “In my Grade 11 provincial exam for social studies, the essay part was taken away because there was no one to mark them. So we were only able to write the multiple choice part. I personally want to get the best marks pos-
sible and to have my essay taken away, which was my strong suit, I had to rely solely on my multiple choice questions, which made it very difficult and stressful,” she said. With both sides not holding many meetings, she wondered if there’s been enough effort. “It’s been going on for two months of summer but it also was going on during the last part of the last school year. The fact they’ve had two months to do something and haven’t is getting extremely frustrating at this point. I think that’s why we’re all here. We may have different reasons for being here, however we just want to get back to school,” Gelinas said.
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There’s been real success in both the prolific offender and domestic violence reduction programs, RCMP Inspector Ray Carantan told North Cowichan council on Sept. 3, as he presented his quarterly report. He focused on successes in the detachment’s prolific offender program. This effort, which is concentrating on a few people who police believe might benefit from targeted help, has resulted in some heartening success and Carfantan wanted to share with councillors. “It seems like we’re always talking about good stories and we do have some this time, too, in terms of managing some of people whose names are always coming up before us.” “I have to say that [Const.] Eric Coyne puts his heart and soul into the prolific offender program. He’s been nominated for an award within the RCMP for spearheading that program and I hope that will come through for him,” Carfantan said. See DOMESTIC, Page 9
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