North Battleford has seen another in a string of recent public safety meetings in the city.
The "community wellness" meeting was organized in the wake of a recent string of high-profile crime incidents to hit the city of North Battleford, including two shootings and a homicide during the month of September alone.
The latest meeting was organized by Steven Cormons of the Good Neighbour Network and was held at the Knights of Columbus Hall Nov. 8.
Turnout was depressed due to inclement winter weather and competing events. Nevertheless the meeting attracted a large presence of media including from outside the city, who have taken a particular interest in the story of North Battleford's crime woes.
Also there were City of North Battleford officials including Mayor Ian Hamilton and City Manager Jim Toye, as well as RCMP representatives Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt and Sgt. Neil Tremblay.
Cormons noted the work being done already in the community including the establishment of the HUB, but also called for more work to be done. He called "social capital" our "greatest asset" and called for grassroots participation to help address the crime issue.
"What I hope to see is that grassroots come up," said Cormons, who added "we have shook some trees in our province, I've shook a few federally, we've got the press involved, and maybe we'll get some 'top down' and meet in the middle."
Cormons also spoke about gangs and what to do to stop gang involvement, but noted the problems didn't entirely originate with them. He referred to "other people in our community, some you would call upstanding citizens that are feeding that economy."
"There's a reason why people are doing what they're doing," said Cormons. "That's what we need to get down to."
While Cormons did much of the talking early on at the meeting, there was some active discussion from the crowd about initiatives being undertaken. One group called Str8 Up was in attendance, promoting their efforts towards gang intervention and helping people avoid gang involvement. They plan a Nov. 28 workshop at the Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Centre focusing on gangs, how to leave them and how to become responsible citizens.
Also at the meeting was Guy Turcotte, who founded the Facebook group North Battleford Victims of Crime, which he says now has over 1,000 members.
He spoke about what he wanted to see done. Turcotte called for the province to provide more RCMP resources to the city to "try and eliminate some of the gang problems and get the drugs off the street." He also called for more appropriate sentences instead of a slap on the wrist.
Turcotte also was critical of a recent editorial by the Battlefords Regional Optimist in which editor Becky Doig suggested a recent story by CTV National News on North Battleford's crime woes was "over the edge." But Turcotte said people agreed with the story.
"On their own poll it was definitely showing that people believed that was true," said Turcotte. "Let's report the news, and if they would have been reporting it, people would be more educated."
He added the reason he formed his Facebook group was because "we weren't getting the news."
"We weren't getting reports from the RCMP, the city, the newspapers - no one wanted us to know. I don't know if that's it, but we weren't getting information and I wasn't happy."
He urged people write the provincial and federal governments for help and vowed to continue to be a "thorn in the side" on the issue.
The meeting was by and large calm and non-confrontational in tone throughout, with audience members able to voice their opinions.
City officials, though, countered suggestions made at the meeting that they weren't addressing the issue.
Mayor Ian Hamilton pointed to the HUB, which includes some 15 agencies who meet twice a week to address public safety issues, as well as efforts towards setting up a Neighbourhood Watch program in the city.
"I want to make sure that people are assured that there are activities going on," said Hamilton.
City Manager Jim Toye also pointed to the HUB and to the hiring of seven additional police officers in the past three years. "I don't think it's fair that people would say in five years the city has done nothing," Toye said.
