Dear Editor:
Forgive me for not sharing the enthusiasm with which some of my fellow citizens are attacking Vic Toews and his Bill C30. I support his efforts to make an attempt and provide the police with a tool that is long overdue and may get us out of the rotary telephone era and into 2012.
The present firestorm reminds me of the time all airport workers were to be fingerprinted. Then, as now, my response is: "It will prove I did not do it!" Yet, many of my co-workers went off the rails about having their human rights violated.
Let me relate three incidents/situations which represent reality in Canada as I see it.
1. When our car was broken into, I expected the RCMP to come and take fingerprints so that other discretions could be matched with the individual concerned. Instead they gave me an insurance claim number over the phone.
2. On June 15, last year Vancouver city police practically stood by and watched millions of dollars worth of property go up in flames. It took six more months than in Britain before the first rioters had their first date in court. Even today we can only point at one conviction.
3. I cannot think of even one of my acquaintances who was not frustrated with the kid-glove approach of the local police, and also those in other cities in North America, with the one percenters who claim to represent the other 99 percent, while "occupying" downtown real estate and showing off nothing but their confused states of mind.
Only today was a frustrated police chief on the radio and he disclosed at the "missing women" enquiry that, at the time, he pleaded with the mayor that he needed more staff. Lawyers have withdrawn, or threaten to withdraw, their services as "duty lawyers". Even though nine new judges have been appointed in B.C., we have been informed this is nowhere near sufficient to clear up existing backlogs. Courtrooms have been shut down due to lack of sheriff services.
But, some of my fellow travelers are paranoid enough to believe there is enough slack in the system for someone to listen in when I order a pizza! How dumb does it get?
How silly is it to keep demanding more money for horses to catch up with those using jet aircraft? And, besides proper equipment our law enforcement needs improved procedures and laws to match! Bill C30 is but one of them.
Ziggy Eckardt, Burnaby
