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Nanaimo council sticks with original jail guard decision

Nov 8, 2016 | 2:17 PM

NANAIMO — Despite nearly three hours of widespread community concerns and impassioned debate, Nanaimo city council is standing firm on its decision to end gender-specific jail guarding at the local RCMP detachment.

A 4-4 vote on Monday night shot down an amended motion from Coun. Gord Fuller to ensure that a female jail guard would be on call when a male colleague was staffed at the Nanaimo RCMP Detachment. A 12-year-old policy of a male and female guard on duty at the detachment’s holding cells at all times was struck down at an Oct. 25 meeting to save the city a potential $360,000 a year at the expense of four permanent positions.

13 speakers all voiced their displeasure before council on Monday evening, some calling on officials to restore its previous policy, but a motion to reverse the unpopular decision was not tabled by council.

“The on-call is not immediate enough,” said Coun. Diane Brennan, who expressed concerns about Fuller’s compromise.

“We were told at the tour (of the jail) that when a male guard was on and you needed a female to come in that they would contact a female from the on-call list, and that could take up to an hour they said, but there was no guarantee on that,” said Brennan.

The first speaker to take the podium, Lauren Semple, offered a harsh critique of council.

“It deeply disappoints me now that a council that I was proud of has decided to put a price-tag on basic human rights and send a much darker message to the world about what our community values,” said Semple.

Coun. Wendy Pratt, who passionately voiced her disapproval of the original motion, referenced being stuck in a hard place by Fuller’s new motion. She said while she saw the new motion as slightly better, it did not go far enough to ease her concerns about the lack of adequate staffing and gender-specific guarding. Pratt said it was clear the new motion would fail, but that effectively uphold the original decision from Oct. 25.

The plight of vulnerable women in custody has constantly been referenced by councillors, delegations before council, as well as comments from concerned citizens on social media.

Labour related concerns also came into the equation on Monday night, with CUPE Local 401 President Blaine Gurrie arguing that their guards are reporting that they can’t properly do their jobs 75 to 85 per cent of the time with just one guard. The City’s CAO Tracy Samra addressed what avenues could b explored when workplace environment and workload concerns are presented.

“We have processes to follow to investigate that, to determine what’s going on and to address it. It wasn’t brought to our attention until it was sent from CUPE to mayor and council,” said Samara.

The recommendation for the sudden change in Nanaimo’s jail guarding staffing was recommended in the core services review, which was presented to council in May.