A group of Kamloops councillors are headed to Victoria for a Monday sit-down with BC’s Public Safety Minister and Attorney General.

Members of the City’s Safety and Security Committee, along with the acting CAO, have been granted a one-hour, face-to-face audience with Mike Farnworth and Nicki Sharma to press them on a number of issues.

These will include potentially deputizing Kamloops’ Community Services Officers (CSO’s), raising concerns about cost downloads on the RCMP, as well as the long-standing issue of a community court.

Councillor Bill Sarai will be pressing the community court concept with the ministers.

Sarai has been calling for the community court’s creation in Kamloops since the previous term of council, noting it’s an idea which isn’t coming out of left field for the province to approve.

“Vancouver’s got it. Victoria’s got it. Kelowna’s got it,” noted Sarai.  “Where I think we can make it even better is TRU has the Law program, it’s got the Nurses program, it’s got the Social Work program.”

Sarai says they’ve already compiled 165 letters of support within Kamloops for the concept to move forward.

“This goes right from Crown prosecutors, defense lawyers, Interior Health, community leaders, agencies, the City, CSO’s…everybody. Everybody is at the table, ready to go,” said Sarai.  “It’s an item that is on their desk. They’re well aware of it. We just need to get it past the finish line. I think we have a great opportunity here with this meeting on Monday.”

A community court would see people with mental health and addiction issues be pulled from the justice system for non-violent offenses, and offered recovery and support services, rather than doing jail time.

Minister holding out on comment ahead of meeting

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth isn’t willing to reveal his expectations about the meeting as part of comments made to Radio NL in an interview on Wednesday.

“The meeting that I’ve got with the Kamloops Council on Monday is along with the Attorney General. So I don’t want to preempt that meeting and the issues that Kamloops City Council wants to raise,” said Farnworth.  “But what I can say from the perspective as Solicitor General, obviously I’m always concerned about when there has been an increase in crime and increase in violence. And I know that we have seen that recently in Kamloops, and that’s something that I’m monitoring very closely.”

Kamloops has witnessed at least four shootings since last Thursday, including one which saw a man hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries on Monday.

It’s believed the shootings are connected to a turf war among rival criminal organizations.

This incident has prompted the RCMP to issue a public warning about the situation.

“[I am] Working with the RCMP and ensuring that the proper resources are up in Kamloops,” said Farnworth.  “I know the RCMP is very much on top of that and doing that, in fact, as we speak.”