CRIME IN QATHET PART II: Speaking with Josh Bennett

Crime, Courts & Corrections : Why qathet’s criminals are bouncing out of jail & what’s coming next

BY ISABELLE SOUTHCOTT AND PIETA WOOLLEY

You might know Josh Bennett if you grew up here. He graduated from Max Cameron in 2007, and has since been a manager at RONA, worked at 7-11, and at Oceanside Resort.

In the 15 years since high school, Josh has also been a chronic offender – with crimes ranging from embezzling money from his employer, to stealing meat from the grocery store. If anyone is an expert on chronic offenders, it’s him. He’s clean and sober today, thanks to a successful stint at Miklat House.

Josh wanted to tell his story to qL magazine to help the community understand where the crime wave is coming from.

“Growing up, my house was a shit show,” he said. “I ended up in foster homes on and off about a dozen times.”

By 13, he was drinking and smoking pot. Still, Josh managed to graduate, and by 17 he was working full time at RONA and living in the Harvie apartments. The next years were a blur: he started out drinking a 26-ouncer every night, then moved on to oxycontin and cocaine, then heroin, fentanyl and crystal meth.

“I was down to 120 pounds,” Josh recalled. “The first time I used fentanyl, I used it for a week straight. My dealer ran out and all she had was heroin. I couldn’t shake the feeling of withdrawal and sickness – I had to use five times as much just to stop feeling sick.”

He lost girlfriends, destroyed a new truck, lost the home he’d bought and the cash he got when he sold it, lost jobs, lost a best friend to an overdose, lost friends by overstaying his welcome on their couches, and lost the right to see his infant son.

Josh spent 11 days in jail for breaching a no-contact order with his ex-girlfriend. He spent three months staying at Lift’s winter shelter at the former Lutheran church, then got into rehab in the Lower Mainland. The workers at the shelter got him ready to go with clothes and a backpack, and arranged a ride.

A MUCH SLOWER PACE: Josh Bennett weather-proofs the new gazebo at Miklat Recovery House in Cranberry.

“I used all the way down, every time I could find a bathroom.”

At treatment, he got into a fight with another client, and his life got much worse.

Josh was booted out of treatment. He lived on the streets in Maple Ridge and Vancouver for five months.

He was arrested, went to jail for a month, and returned to Powell River with no plan or supports. So he stayed at the COVID shelter at the Westview Hotel with his ex-girlfriend.

“Things were out of control. We were fighting all the time. Then I was kicked out and I had nowhere to go.”

He slept behind the courthouse on Alberni, through the fall and winter, on a bed of pallets infested with rats. An ex-girlfriend bought him a tent and stove, and he lived in the bushes near Quality Foods.

In mid-2021, Josh got into treatment at Miklat House. He used and got kicked out. Lift bought him a tent, he said, and he and a girlfriend lived near the hospital.

“The blankets were always wet. We had no food. Everything was dirty and there were lots of bugs.”

Rob Fitzpatrick from Miklat House kept in contact, bringing him food, smokes and water.

“I wasn’t getting high anymore; I was just using to stop being sick, to stop having withdrawals. The drug dealers would give me lists of stuff they’d want stolen, and I’d go to the stores and get what they wanted.”

Clothes, electronics, ice cream and meat were on the list. He’d pick locks, break into houses and garages, and steal tools, weed eaters, vacuums and more.

“You’re not thinking about anyone else when you’re doing this,” he recalled. “You don’t care who you hurt or who you walk over. You use drugs to push away all the guilt and hurt.”

Even in the thick of it, Josh hoped to escape.

“I wanted to go back to Miklat House.”

Eventually, a bed opened up for him. This time, it worked. He spent three months there this summer, and last month, moved on to second stage treatment.

“It’s my last chance,” he recognizes. “I couldn’t live the way I’d been living anymore. After everything I’ve been through, I am so grateful for my life today.”

Josh says you can’t make anyone go into treatment and expect it to work if they are not ready. “You have to be ready. You hit so many rock bottoms and you tell yourself it can’t get any worse, but as long as you are using, it can, and it does get worse. I was tired of the suffering.”

“You have to take your recovery and put it at the top of the list. I have to take care of myself and make my recovery my number one priority. My relationship with a higher power is a big part of it and staying connected to recovery programs.”

Today Josh tries to make healthy choices and asks for help when he needs it. “You have to take one day at a time. Do not hold onto the past because it does no good.”

Someday he hopes he can have a relationship with his son.

“I lost my son. He’s been out of my life for three years, now. I want to be part of his life.”

An end to surging crime: Part 2

This article is the second in qathet Living magazine’s three-part series on crime in this region.

Part 1 explored the crimes themselves: what is happening, and what is the impact on this community?

Part 2 dives in to courts and corrections: how changes to our justice system are playing out locally.

Part 3 asks what those who are perpetrating the crimes need to be able to stop harming this community and themselves, and re-join society.

We hope these stories help inform the current conversation about crime, justice, addiction, and solutions. And, we hope to hear from you.

Please send letters (ideally before the 20th of the month) to isabelle@prliving.ca.