PGA Golf Weir finishes second without firing a shot – B3 Special Section Alberta Winter Games preview inside today’s Herald GAMESGAMES COUNTDOWNCOUNTDOWN 2 days to go www.lethbridgeherald.com TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2009 PRICE $1.01 PLUS GST Personal link to two killings has expert worrying about rising youth violence Violent youth crime rising Steve Mertl THE CANADIAN PRESS – VANCOUVER riminologist Ehor Boyanowsky studies gangs and youth violence for a living but the latest Cspate of killings in Metro Vancouver has burned through his professional detachment. He knows two mothers whose sons have been killed — the Herald photo by Ian Martens mothers of 21-year-old Tyson Edwards, stabbed outside a Vancouver nightclub on Feb. 1, Bill Still, right, leads a team of horses as they pull a sleigh load of people during a ride through the fields in Indian Battle Park as part of Family Day activities and 23-year-old Lee Matasi, shot Monday at Fort Whoop-Up. to death in 2005 outside a different club just blocks from where Edwards died. With a gang war seemingly playing out on the streets of Metro FAMILY DAY EVENTS A BIG HIT Vancouver and almost daily shootings, the Simon Fraser snack on authentic French-Canadian maple opportunity to throw tomahawks — with his University professor wonders if a Gerald Gauthier taffy and to listen to stories of the old west mother’s blessing — under the supervision of shift has taken place among LETHBRIDGE HERALD from characters dressed in an experienced thrower. He matter-of-factly Canada’s young people, toward a [email protected] period costumes. reported hitting the battered wooden target willingness to go to deadly “Everybody (in the twice. extremes. family) doesn’t have the With the smell of woodsmoke in the air, On Tuesday, two more shootings For local families, Monday was an occasion same days off. (This is) one other patrons warmed themselves by a large in suburban Surrey, B.C., left one when demands on their time took a rare day of the few days everybody campfire. A friendly goat wandered through man injured and a woman dead, off. gets off from work,” said the crowd, appearing mildly interested in a slumped over in the driver’s seat With time on their side for a change, Lexi Fowler who was on pat on the head but perhaps more intent on of her car with her four-year-old hundreds of parents and children soaked up hand with her husband soliciting a snack. son in the back seat. the splendid sunshine at Fort Whoop-Up Randy Kellar and her six- Mark Blackmore, who emigrated a year ago “I’m thinking something is in while taking in Family Day activities the air here that we’re having so year-old son Cyrus Fowler. from Great Britain, said he finds life less celebrating the region’s pioneering past. The hectic here than he did in his former home. much violence to the point that rustic fort was abuzz with youngsters eager to For young Cyrus, the it’s way beyond casual probability ride on ponies or in horse-drawn wagons, to event provided an ◆ PHOTO FEATURE and story continued – Please see page A3 that one would know two,” he says. Matasi’s killer, caught on video surveillance, is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder with no chance of parole 20-YEAR-OLD FINED $155 FOR SMOKING IN CAR WITH A MINOR, WHO for 10 years. No one has been PROCEEDED TO GET OUT THE CAR AND LIGHT UP, WHICH ISN’T ILLEGAL arrested in Edwards’ killing. “What we’ve got here are people acting out violently under the least provocation,” Boyanowsky Officer predicts smokers poised to ‘snap’ says. “There’s a shift to short- circuiting all the other intermediary steps of resentment officer said Monday in response to a smoke in cars. At some point or reaction.” quirk in the legislation that was made somebody’s going to snap along the A gut feeling, maybe, but hinted THE CANADIAN PRESS – PORT HOPE, ONT. evident during a weekend incident. way here.” at by Canadian crime-rate figures. “People got mad enough when Nova Scotia is the only other While the overall rate of crime they couldn’t smoke in bars anymore jurisdiction in the country to have a reported to police has dropped It’s only a matter of time before or bingo parlours,” said Sgt. Bryant similar law, though others are steadily since the 1990s, violent someone “snaps” after being pulled Wood, a police officer in the eastern considering it. youth crime has increased since over under Ontario’s new law Ontario town of Port Hope. the mid-1980s. forbidding smoking in a vehicle “Now you’re telling them they can’t ◆ CONTINUED Please see page A2 carrying a minor, a police ◆ CONTINUED Please see page A2 NEW 2009 DODGE JOURNEY Retail Value $21,395 Canada’s Best Selling Crossover 32 Street & Hwy Crowsnest Trail Sale Price Across from Agricore Elevators $ $ 328-3325 -OR- 114 /bw www.bridgecitychrysler.com 19,995 GST, freight, and fees included A9225 10315968 C Ag/Business A8 Crossword B6 Community A7 Directory/Online A7 Headline news B1-2 Health A10 Opinion Forum A6 Theatre/Movies A9 M INSIDE Classifieds B7-10 Comics B6 Deaths B7 Tunes & Ent. A9 Hometown A3-4 Lotteries A2 Sports B3-5 Weather B2 Y K TODAY For great savings and convenience talk to our Lethbridge Herald circulation specialists today about home delivery. Call us at 403-327-5511 INFORMATION, LUCKY TICKETS FEATURES & Extra: 3011216 NEWS FROM Pick 3: 004 ACROSS ODDS SOUTHERN UNLUCKY TICKETS ALBERTA Photo Radar locations can be found at the following locations today: NOTE: ALL LOTTERY NUMBERS ARE UNOFFICIAL UNTIL VERIFIED Coaldale, 13th St. North & ENDS ISSUED BY THE LETHBRIDGE REGIONAL POLICE SERVICE DO YOU SEE NEWS HAPPENING? Call our news hotline 403-328-4418 or email [email protected] LETHBRIDGE HERALD – TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2009 – PAGE A2 YOUTH VIOLENCE A THOUSAND WORDS ◆ CONTINUED from page A1 The Centre for Justice Statistics, an arm of Statistics Canada, noted a slight decline in youth homicides in 2007, the last reported year, while 2006 had the second-highest rate since 1961. This while Canada’s overall homicide rate has been dropping steadily since 1975. Boyanowsky, whose own son was a victim of random violence a couple of years ago, reluctantly points a finger at the usual suspect — the mainstreaming violence in popular culture. There are gory movies and TV shows that desensitize youth to violence, tough-talking rap videos and a thug code that has no tolerance for the slightest insult. “All of these things might contribute and you have these wannabe types of individuals,” Boyanowsky says. “But I think what it is, it’s become OK to do that. What you’ve got is a disinhibition process going on.” Add alcohol and drugs to the mix and the threshold of civility drops even further, he says. But Michael Chettleburgh says it’s not as simple as blaming a gang culture imported from the U.S. “I think those arguments are bull, frankly,” says Chettleburgh, a consultant and the author of several books on Canadian gangs. “Those things don’t produce what we’re seeing on the streets right now.” He says the common denominators today are pervasive influence of the illicit drug trade and the ready availability of guns. “Kids are more desensitized to violence; in ever- increasing arcs there’s more violence, more acute violence on the street,” he says. “That’s driven though not by U.S. influences or external influences but just the dynamic of the gang business right now.” Herald photo by Ian Martens Youth violence is not new, says Rob Rai, who works Canadian Search Dog Association handler Erin Olsen and her dog Bailey lead a group of children and families to an outdoor tracking as a youth diversity liaison for the Surrey school demonstration in the nature reserve as part of the Helen Schuler Coulee Centre’s Family Day events Monday. district to help identify kids vulnerable to gang recruitment. He says young men have always tested each other. “Now we’re seeing that the ones that are involved in this are the ones that are willing to push that TURNING POINT envelope and engage in jumpings as opposed to one- on-one fights or are more willing to use weapons.” STORIES CONTINUED FROM OUR FRONT PAGE Rai calculates only about 250 of the 67,000 students in the school district display “gang- associated behaviour,” a figure that doesn’t surprise him. Schools aren’t fertile ground for gang recruiters, who instead look on street corners, malls or outside SMOKERS READY TO ‘SNAP’ convenience stores. “That’s where you’re going to find the kids that are Ontario had previously banned week to find ways to improve the bored, vulnerable, at risk and willing to engage,” says smoking in all enclosed public places fledgling legislation. YOUR Rai. and workplaces before the new One improvement might be changing Both Chettleburgh and Rai think getting to kids legislation took effect late last month. the age limit on how young the very early is crucial. Wood’s comments came a day after passenger has to be for the smoking MORNING “When a kid is 12 it’s too late to have the one of his colleagues, Const. Tammie ban to kick in, Rinaldi said. conversation about staying away from drugs and Hartford, pulled over 20-year-old Port “In 99.9 per cent of cases, the NEWS FORECAST gangs,” says Chettleburgh. Hope resident Tory Ashton and wrote legislation is doing the job,” he said.