Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) Chief Clarence Louie has never shied away from speaking his mind on controversial issues and he certainly didn’t hold back in calling for much harsher punishment for prolific offenders from a judicial system he says is letting Canadians down at a community forum on crime Tuesday night in Oliver.
Louie said he’s never been to a community meeting in the Town of Oliver despite living his entire life on the OIB, but he wanted to share his opinions about crime issues affecting residents in Oliver and on his reserve.
“This issue is just not an Oliver issue … this issue is all over the country,” he said. “The concepts and ideas here I’m sure have been repeated many times in every city and town in this country and yeah we’ve got crime on the rez … just like you do here.
“We hate this crime just as bad as everybody in this room does.”
Louie praised police for doing an outstanding job catching and arresting criminals, only to have a soft judicial system treat them with kid gloves.
“I’ve dealt with the police a lot in my 30 years (on OIB band council),” he said. “They bring them there … it’s the damn court system. Whether it’s the federal MPs or MLAs, they need a kick in the rear. It’s too easy on crime.
“To me, and I’m sure everybody in this room, if you do the crime, you should do the time. That’s the way I feel.”
The longstanding system also coddles young offenders, he said.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are,” he said. “This youth offender system, that’s a big part of the problem.”
The vast majority of adult offenders started their criminal careers as young offenders, said Louie.
“They didn’t just start crime as an adult,” he said. “This youth offender system is letting them off too damn easy.”
When he grew up, publishing the names of offenders committing crimes would cause “shame” and had a significant impact on making them clean up their lives, said Louie.
“We should be publishing names. Publish the damn names,” said Louie, to loud applause. “In our culture, and some others have told me, name the name because shame is part of rehabilitation. I don’t care if you stole a chocolate bar, name the damn name. Put it in the newspaper, put it in our newsletter because shame used to mean something.”
The current court system and judges are “easier on the criminal than the victims,” he said.
Most the crime on OIB land is “drug related” and he’s convinced that’s the case in Oliver and the rest of Canada, he said.
The opioid drug crisis that has swept across B.C. and much of Canada just didn’t exist in 20, 30 and 40 years ago, he said.
“We’ve got this new problem to deal with, not just here, but all over the country,” he said. “These drugs that they are taking nowadays where they stay up four, five, six days in a row. That’s wacko. That’s zombie territory.”
Thankfully there are programs available to help addicts and it has worked wonders in turning around the lives of many OIB members, said Louie.
“I’ve seen them work. Seen some of my people come out of treatment centres and not use again,” he said. “So we need more treatment centres … to deal with this new fentanyl and new meth I didn’t grow up with. But it’s here now.”
Louie said it’s clear that being soft on crime isn’t working.
“I’m still a firm believer in bringing back some of the old school ways,” he said. “We need some of the old school ways we were brought up with … punishment. We need more punishment in this whole system.”
There’s always going to be a small percentage of criminal behaviour in every community, but the focus should be on reducing crime because it has become one of the more pressing issues in the Oliver area, he said.
“Let’s start reducing it a few percentage points every year,” he said. “We’re not going to get rid of it. I’ve told the people in my reserve, we’re not going to get rid of this dumb s… We’ll always have a few addicts and a few criminals around.
“That’s been this history of the world in every town and city and every reserve. What we want to do on the rez is reduce it and get some of these guys who belong in jail, keep them in jail.”
Those addicts on the OIB who genuinely want treatment and to be rehabilitated can have it paid for by the community, he said.
Louie praised event organizer Mike Guthrie and his wife Shirley for putting on this event and giving residents a forum to speak about this important issue.
