THE FREE PRESS LAW DECEMBER 31, 1998 A7 Much needed cash from Ottawa to the RCMP From A6 for a while before joining the ranks of Hope Heinrich, where he became a partner in 1978. He had been a master of the Supreme Court in this city since November. 1994. only the second person to hold the appointment. New master B.C.’s Attorney General finally remedied a major source of local judicial backlog. Douglas Baker was officially sworn in this summer as the new Supreme Court resident master for Prince George and the north. He began his duties here on September 1, 1998. A Supreme court master deals with all interim court orders before they head before a Supreme Court justice. The orders deal primarily with family court matters, though in Prince George, the master also acts as the registrar and deals therefore with bankruptcy orders, cost assessments for civil proceedings and the like. Mr. Baker, a Vancouver lawyer for some 20 years, was a registered professional forester in the Cariboo prior to becoming a lawyer. He is the third resident master in Prince George and oversees an area substantially larger than Great Britain. The position had been vacant in the north since March, when then-master Eric Chamberlisl was appointed the resident B.C. Supreme Court justice in Dawson Creek. RCMP get a boost In early December, the federal government gave the cash-strapped RCMP in B.C. a capital infusion, spelling the end to a deficit that grounded certain services in the north. On December 8, federal Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay announced $10 million was earmarked of the RCMP's “E" Division, which had specified cuts to certain services earlier in the year due to budget restraints. In an October letter written to all staff of "E" Divi- ^the J v jood sion (British Columbia) by Assistant Commander Murray J. Johnston, the financial crisis in “E” Division was the "pervading constraint” and most “significant concern impeding our ability to deliver both federal and contract policing services in British Columbia.” The figure bandied about in the fall for a deficit was $8.4 million. Specifically, those “cutbacks” cited in the letter which will most dramatically affect Prince George and the surrounding areas were: 1) All federal policing (ie: narcotics units) over time was suspended. Instead, “rescheduling options are to be implemented where required to ensure complete coverage...” 2) All Standby Level II was suspended. In communities where there is a small complement of officers manning the detachment at all times, the detachment is not open 24 hours, but officers are on “standby,” similar to on call. They can be called into action at any time. Normally, while on standby, they are paid for it. Examples of detachments in such a position are McBride, Valemount, Tse Kay and Wells. With the cutbacks, payment for standby was no longer. 3) Overtime for contract (ie: Prince George) policing was curtailed and approved only when “absolutely necessary in response to critical operational situations. (A great deal of the overtime incurred by officers is due to court appearances, in which an officer is called in while off duty to testify in a court appearance, only to find their trial doesn’t go. Typically in Prince George, for example. Provincial court trials are often triple booked, and it is determined on trial day itself what is going ahead or not. All the same, the officers are called into court.) Also, Prince George’s air services were grounded and its four officers reassigned. Assistant Commander Johnston called these “hard choices," admitting “their implementation will make our tasks more arduous." The capital infusion came as fantastic news to Assistant Commander Johnston, but he was quick to add this is not a free reign to spend. Multiple murderer shut down In November, 1998, the nation’s highest court shut down a 38-year-old convicted murderer’s appeal options once and for all. Brian Peter Arp, was first arrested on July 26, 1990 and charged with the second degree murder of 18-year-old Mamie Blanchard. She had been seen outside a Second Avenue bar called The Rock Pit around 2 a.m. on Novem- ber 22, 1989. Witnesses say they saw her waiting outside the bar when a grey-coloured four-by-four pick up truck with a white canopy stopped. Her remains were found off Foothills Boulevard on Turn to A12 Your VW dealer since 1954 HUB CITY MOTORS & EQUIPMENT ltd, SALES, SERVICE & PARTS out Of Town 1822 Queensway St., Prince George Call 1-888-300-6013 564-7228 DLN 5365 J There’s no time like the present. 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