'Everyone deserves a second chance': West Shore RCMP highlight successes with restorative justice program
If you do a bad thing, it doesn't make you a bad person. That's the message behind a program on the West Shore that is taking a compassionate approach to criminal justice, while saving time and money for the courts.
Liquor Planet in Langford is just one business involved in the program. Manager Wyatt Oickle says it’s not unusual for people to steal from the family-owned business, saying it’s like stealing from his family every time it happens.
That’s until one woman swiped an expensive bottle of vodka.
“She was an addict and wanted to just kind of fulfill her needs," says Oickle.
He knows she’s an addict because he got to sit down with her through the West Shore RCMP’s restorative justice program. Instead of pressing charges, victims can push for community service.
"They just make a one-time bad decision is how we look at it. And now we can set them back on the right track," says program coordinator Randie Johal.
“We believe everyone deserves a second chance, especially when it’s of a minor nature.”
This year alone the program has already helped divert 24 people from the courts, like two teens caught spray-painting around Starlight Stadium.
"It was a completely boneheaded move and they admitted it, too," said one of the teen's parents.
The teens wrote apology letters, paid a fine, and did park cleanups to repay their debts.
“I guarantee you, they’re not going to be doing that again," added the parent. “That would just be horrible for such a stupid minor offence to have that affect the rest of your life.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Fewer medical students going into family medicine contributing to doctor shortage
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
College students, inmates and a nun: A unique book club meets at one of America's largest jails
An unconventional book club inside one of America's largest jails brings college students and inmates together to tackle books that resonate with the mostly Black and Latino group members.