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Province appointing outside investigators to probe historic allegations of abuse by Prince George RCMP
Read to the end for a picture of a fat bird. It's so fat, I put a picture of two lynx in the middle of the newsletter. That's how convinced I am you will want to see the fat bird
Global News has a scoop in the latest developments in a story that has been bubbling up for a while now:
Twenty years after disturbing allegations were made against members of the Prince George RCMP by Indigenous girls, there has been a stunning development.
B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth confirmed Thursday that the B.C. government will instigate an out-of-province investigation.
“We as a province are now taking the next step which is to have an outside independent agency do a full investigation,” Farnworth said.
Readers of this newsletter will remember this started with a report from freelancer Jessica McDiarmand in a Toronto Star article titled, “A video allegedly showed an RCMP officer sexually harassing an Indigenous teen. Then it went missing.”
The basic timeline is this:
In 2004, Judge David Ramsey pled guilty to five charges of buying sex from minors, Indigenous girls between the ages of 12 and 16, as well as sexual assault causing bodily harm and breach of trust.
At the time, reports also surfaced of RCMP officers harassing Indigenous girls. A task force was formed but no charges were laid.
As reported in the Star, in 2006, an RCMP officer who had formerly been stationed in Prince George and married to an officer who worked here, found a tape that she says showed him and another officer verbally harassing an Indigenous teenage girl on the streets of Prince George, making sexual comments.
She reported it to a higher officer.
Shortly after, she says her door was kicked down and the tape went missing.
An investigation was launched but no charges were laid.
Years later, in 2016, a now-retired officer who felt that the investigation wasn’t well-handled filed a complaint to the RCMP Civilian Review and Complaints Commission.
In late 2022, a report from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission finds the B.C. RCMP failed to properly investigate the missing tapes.
That gets reported by the Star and picks up steam…
The story was then picked up by Postmedia and then other outlets and yesterday, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs put out a release demanding the case be re-opened (strictly speaking, it was never closed) and now the province says rather than having the file sit with the B.C. RCMP, an outside investigative body will now be brought in.
whoever decided to add these windows to the library was a genius
— Rebecca (@beccxcamp)
9:06 PM • Feb 23, 2023
The Ospika affair continues
Mayor Simon Yu tells the Citizen there’s still an investigation into why the city failed to follow proper process when it sold a piece of land at 4500 Ospitak Blvd. to a private developer:
“We are looking at all aspects of this deal. We are looking if this is a simple oversight, or a structural issue that caused this oversight, or if it is something to do with this project,” Yu said. “I campaigned on transparency, accountability. I’m taking this very, very seriously.”
Yu wen on to say he’s “not satisfied at all” with how this was handled by city administration but no words on jobs being lost.
Meanwhile, CKPG spoke to several real estate agents about whether it was reasonable for the land to have been sold for below assessed value and were told that given the market at the time the sale went through, if anything, it should have been for over the assessed value.
Bear in mind: Since the developer hasn’t actually completed the work it said it was going to, the city still has the option of buying the land back and selling it to someone else.
Kate Kern, one of our @ckpgnews viewers caught this cool pic for our #CKPGSnapshot.
Not often you ever see one Lynx, let alone a pair of them! Great stuff, taken in #CityofPG.
— Caden Fanshaw (@CadenFanshaw)
10:20 PM • Feb 23, 2023
A year of war
I stopped by the vigil for Ukraine organized outside city hall last night. There were about 100 people there and the speakers were refugees who noted that the cold here wouldn’t stop them, just as it hadn’t stopped those at home still fighting.
CBC Daybreak North spoke to Mykhailo Pluzhnikov who helped organize the event about his arrival in the city with his family, and his thoughts on this back in Ukraine:
"I wasted the whole three months looking for a job in Vancouver, the same as my wife. In Prince George, we did that in one month," he said.
More importantly, he says, they have found a community they can lean on in Prince George.
From the moment they landed at the airport, he says the people of Prince George have helped him with paperwork, finding housing, jobs, clothes, schools and child care.
"You don't feel yourself alone," he said.
huge if true: possible snowfall totals of 30cm+ forecast for @CityofPG through Monday morning
— Dr. Joseph Shea (@JosephShea)
2:25 AM • Feb 24, 2023
Quick news:
Aside from the vigil for Ukraine, dozens of people braved the cold for a march for murdered and missing Indegenous women and girls.
The federal housing advocate is launching a review of encampments across Canada, including Prince George.
The Prince George passport office is still on track to open in April.
An adorable tabby cat is healing after being found 14 km up a frozen logging road on Cranbrook Hill.
As promised:
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