A coalition of mayors from across British Columbia convened in front of the legislature in Victoria on Wednesday to express their outrage over policies that serve criminals — not law-abiding citizens.In conjunction with Save Our Streets, they called on the provincial and federal governments to take action and get tough on crime..Among those who spoke was Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas. He explained that while overall crime has gone down in his community, repeat offenders are wreaking havoc on residents thanks to policies at the provincial and federal level."In Kelowna alone, 15 chronic offenders were responsible for 1,350 police files last year," he said. "We know that this is not unique to Kelowna; we have heard this from other municipalities."Dyas pointed out that municipalities were "never designed to handle complex challenges like homelessness, unrelated mental health and addictions, and — where these two intersect — with criminal activity."He urged higher levels of government to work on bail reform and ensure there are enough prosecutors to handle the cases, noting that over the past five years, BC has had the lowest charge rates for crime in all of Canada.Dyas argued that the current system is also failing criminals, many of whom are vulnerable with underlying mental health and addiction issues, by cycling them through the streets, shelters, hospitals, and jails."This is not compassionate," he said. "It is not safe.".His sentiments were shared by Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, who pointed out that solving the issue transcended political lines.."You'll notice that it's a pretty diverse group," he said, pointing to the crowd of politicians behind him. "We may not have all voted the same way in the last provincial election or the last federal election, but the fact that we're all here on this issue calling for the same thing tells you a lot about where we are as a province."West noted that "from the largest city to the smallest town," everybody in BC is seeing "the same heartbreaking reality" and "feeling overwhelmed.""We need to be very honest about what's going on here," he said. "We are talking about an incredibly small percentage of the population that has been given the ability to repeatedly harm the vast majority of our people, and in many respects, effectively hold communities hostage."Like Dyas, West called on higher levels of government to prioritize law-abiding citizens over criminals."We did not get here by accident," he declared. "If deliberate policy decisions by government got us here, then you know damn well that government action can begin to turn this around ... On sentencing, on bail reform, on involuntary care, on all of this — we know what needs to happen, so government needs to stop talking about it, and start doing it."
