1.The Province

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

Court reduces sentence for 18-year-old driver

By Mike Sadava

Chad Kobelka, was a young man who received a 10 1/2 year sentence for a high speed car chase with police ending in serious injuries for a family he hit in a car. He had stolen his uncles truck and when being chased by police, he fled. During the chase he sideswiped a jeep and rammed a police car when they tried to stop him. In the end, he t-boned a car with two adults, who suffered serious injuries. The woman was 5 months pregnant with the unborn baby. The baby suffered "brain-stem injuries that will leave her helpless for her entire life." Kobelka was charged with the "evading police causing bodily harm and sentenced to eight years, with another two years consecutive for assault with a weapon causing bodily harm, and six months consecutive for vehicle theft, bringing the total to 101/2 years." They then decided to take off two years, when his age was considered and the fact that he showed remorse.

*I am not sure how I feel about this case. I am turning eighteen in two weeks and I would never do something like that, I know better and if I did do it I would know exactly what I was doing at the time I decided to flee from the police. I agree with the idea of stricter penalties and sentencing for people who create police chases and especially for people who injure innocent victims in the process. I do understand that this man probably was scared because he has stolen his unless truck, which was a stupid thing to do in the first place, but it would have been much easier and saved him 8 years in prison and the rest of his life with guilt, if he had just stopped and pulled over in the first place. I guess in this case I would understand taking the two years off his sentencing because 8 years is still a very long time. He will have to live the rest of his life knowing he made that families life extremely difficult and left the baby with brain damage that will effect her for the rest of her life. The eight years he will serve will not take back what he has done to the family. I do think though, that this young man has a lot to deal with and the fact that he has to live with that guilt is punishment enough. I do not believe he intended to hurt anyone and I highly doubt he will do anything like that again.

2.The Province

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

Cops crack global drug-trade ring

By Andy Ivens

Yong Long "Sam" Ye is now accused of heading "the biggest criminal conspiracy in B.C. history -- a $168-million enterprise with tentacles reaching into eight countries on three continents involving tonnes of drugs." Ye is 40 years old and first caught the eye of the police when he was charged with two counts each of extortion and trafficking in 2003. He is now in a Vancouver jail and he is facing 16 counts, including conspiracy, trafficking and money laundering. He apparently uses Vancouver's hot real-estate market to finance drug shipments. "Nine luxury homes worth $6 million that were bought by Ye were seized under proceeds-of-crime legislation as part of Project E-Paragon," said police at a news conference on Wednesday. A source also said, "Ye would renovate the homes and secure large mortgages on them to finance myriad drug shipments." The cocaine was shipped from Los Angelas to Vancouver, "methamphetamines went from Vancouver to Australia in specially constructed suitcases and boxes, and heroin came into Canada from India and Pakistan. Money was funnelled back to Vancouver through 38 bank accounts in China controlled by Ye," said police. 36 people have already been charged and about 70 more are going to get charged in the near future.

I do not understand why people get into this business. Obviously money is a plus, but the consequences of getting caught are not worth it. All I have to say to people who traffic drugs is get a real job, you're cheating. All they are doing is adding and contributing to the growing problem of drug abuse in Vancouver and the rest of the world. I do not understand how it is possible for these people to live when they know in the back of their minds that they are killing people and ruining families and lives. Drugs are a huge epidemic in all of the world. If you cut off their source for how they get them, then they can't get them and it wouldn't ruin their lives. So, why don't people stop trafficking drugs, it is un-necessary and against the law. I have no respect for anyone in this business what so ever and believe that what they are doing is negatively effecting our community.

The amount of drugs that were seized in this drug bust was extremely high: "640 kilograms of cocaine; 111 kg of methamphetamines and 83 kilos of MDMA; 26 units of heroin; 1,202 kg of ephedrine or MDP2P; 7,832 pounds of marijuana bud; charges anticipated for more than 100 people internationally; over $2,100,000 cash seized from various locations; 17 guns (mostly handguns, some prohibited weapons); nine real-estate properties worth $6,000,000; Six high-end vehicles worth $300,000; seizures in eight countries (Canada, U.S., Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, India). That is definitely one big drug bust and thank God they are getting what they deserve.

3.The Province

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
Dad charged in daughter's death

By Chris Wattie


A Mississauga cab driver has been charged with the murder of his sixteen year old daughter. He strangled her after she refused to wear her hijab. The police were contacted early Monday morning by a man saying he has killed his daughter. Aqsa Parvez had run away from home earlier this week because of conflicts we was having with her family over traditional Muslim garb, including the hijab. When talking with a friend she confessed that, "she was scared of her father: He was always controlling her." She apparently wasn't allowed to do anything and she was never allowed to go out. On the Monday morning she refused to wear her hijab and she got into a fight with her father about it. In the end it resulted in him strangling his daughter till the point where he thought she was dea. Whem paramedics arrived on the scene, they found a faint heartbeat but when she was taken to the hospital she was soon pronounced dead.
I have never understood religion very well. I was brought up in a family that doesn't have any specific religion, we just believe in what we believe. This does not mean I do not believe in God, it just means I do not go to church and that I do not call myself or obey any certain religion. I absolutely respect what others believe in and I normally think very highly of the Muslim religion, considering they take in many different cultures and are very open to people converting. The only problem for me about the Muslim religion is their beliefs are very strong, sometimes too strong in some circumstances, such as this one. When people believe in something so strongly, they might get out of hand especially when someone else is trying to disobey their beliefs.
In this situation, I believe that the father should have never even put his hands on his daughter, under no circumstances. They live in Canada, which is a place of freedom. I do understand that he would get angry because he has brought his family up in the Muslim tradition, but just because she did not want to wear her hijab does not mean she does not favor the Muslim lifestyle. The fact that he did not let her go out or anything is absurd, if I were her I would have run away too. People learn by going out in the world, especially teenagers. She did not have the life she deserved and her life was cut short due to an angry father who probably regrets what he has done greatly. All of this could have been avoided, you should never let a religion or a conflict in beliefs ever get in the way of your actions and should never be a reason to harm anyone.

4.Pantagraph.com News

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Lights slowly come back on after storm

By Murray Evans

In Oklahoma City, lights came back on for some lucky people as utility crews panic and struggle to repair power lines effected by the ice storm. The blackout effected millions of people across the "nations mid-section". There are tree limbs and fallen down trees everywhere, in roads, on houses just everywhere. Ice up to 1 1/2 inches thick has glazed much of the central Plains and Midwest this week. There has been 27 deaths reported due to the storm so far. The storm developed last week and since then "about 468,000 homes and business still had no power Wednesday in Oklahoma, suffering its worst power outage on record." Other areas around Oklahoma were affected as well and some are still out of power. Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma officials have declared a state of emergency.

This is another terrible, natural disaster and people need to bind together to help out the ones in need. People have had to pack up there belongings and move into shelters for the time being. It seems that a huge chunk of the United States has had some pretty horrific storms lately including the one in Washington, which caused that devastating flood. I do believe that these weird weather patterns and worsening storm in the last few years does have to do with global warming, which is a whole other issue I will not get into right now. In Vancouver last year, we had some wind storms which I thought were terrible because we don't really get that very often, but they were nothing compared to the severity of storms that other regions are getting. I couldn't imagine being in a storm like those, I was so scared when we had our own little storms. I can only hope that the worst is over for them because they are expecting another storm this Friday. I hope utility crews can get the power up and running for everyone and hope that no one else loses their life due to these storms.

5.CTV Online, Latest News

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

Cement truck driver charged in crash that killed 5

By News Staff

My feelings after reading this article was utter astonishment. This so called "accident" is absolutely horrific. It is heart-wrenching to even think about. On Friday, December 7th, a cement truck driver driving erratically ran a red light and t-boned a family of five in Calgary. The truck hit with such force that the car was pushed under the truck and carried 300 meters until they came to a stop. The family was killed instantly, a mother, 33, and a father, 41, and their three children ages six, nine and sixteen months. The driver had been speeding, which lead to a man calling in a complaint about his driving. While the man was behind the truck, on the phone with a complaint the truck driver hit the car. The operator listening to the man heard the crash in the background and he screamed and said, "oh my God! He has just gone through a red light and he has just hit a car, T-boned a car. Call 911. I have to hang up." The driver of the cement truck has been charged with refusing to take a breath sample, and five counts of dangerous operation of motor vehicle causing death. They are not sure whether or not alcohol was a factor at this time.

*This is absolutely horrible, it is hard to imagine what the friends and family are feeling right now. It was said that weather had nothing to do with it, it was a dry clear night and the roads were not icy, which means that this never should have happened and could have been totally prevented. A family of five could have had their lives spared if the cement driver had decided to drive more carefully. If alcohol is proven to be a factor, this man should be charged with five counts of second-degree murder. This just proves how horrific accidents can be when people drink and drive, although if alcohol is a factor I would definitely not call this an accident. Speed was the biggest factor in this crash. We have speed limits for a reason and under no circumstances should they be not used, especially in an area such as South Calgary were many people live, it is not a highway, it is an intersection. I am sure the cement truck driver did not intentionally crash into the car, but he was speeding and possibly drinking and that is no excuse and he should be punished accordingly for his actions that night.

6.North Shore News

Friday, December 7th, 2007

Crime boss dressed as janitor to escape

By Joanna Habdank

It is very unlikely that something like this would ever happen in real life, but evidently it does. On November 14th at 11:44pm, Omid Tahvili walked out of a maximum-security prison and no one stopped him. He was dressed as the jail janitor and the weird part doesn't end there. It wasn't noticed that Tahvili was missing until 8:20pm the next day. Prison inmates are to be checked on at least four times a day and the guards are supposed to see some form of movement or see the inmates skin.

*Prison Guard Edwin Tince is now being tried for helping escape Tahvivi. There is a video tape showing the two of them as Tahvili left the jail. I thought you only see stuff like this on Prison Break. It is astonishing to me that someone "who has worked as a correction officer for then years" would let one bad decision ruin his life. Unless Tince was the guard apparently "checking" on Tahvili, I do not see how it would be possible for his absence to go un-noticed. It seems fishy to me. I believe that Tahvili should turn himself in and be chaged with fleeing the jail and that tince should be charged with suspicion of helping him escape out of the jail. I believe the prison should work on harsher rules when checking on inmates, they should have to say something and be seen at the same time, at least four times a day.

7.The Province

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

1000 incidents involving Tasers in B.C. since 2005

By Jennifer Saltman

I've been having mixed feelings about the use of tasers because the fact of them being used with fatal outcomes quite often lately. According to Amnesty International, "there had been 16 deaths related to Taser use in Canada since 2001, before the recent case of Robert Dziekanski and the death of Robert Knipstrom, announced yesterday. Six of those people died in 2005 and 2006." In this article it is giving us a view on how tasers have helped many people and prevented some bad situations and fatalities. In May 2007 Victoria police saved a suicidal woman's life by using a Taser. "The woman, who was high on cocaine, had seriously wounded herself and was holding a sharp object when police approached her." The shock caused her to drop the weapon. In November 2006 a judge found that police used reasonable force during a Lillooet drug bust. An RCMP officer used a Taser on a large dog and a woman who was screaming and refusing to obey the commands of the drug squad. In December 2003, RCMP used a Taser to "subdue a weapon-wielding Fort St. John man following an incident at a bar."

*These incidents make me think that tasers are a good thing. I would rather police use tasers than guns. Tasers are a good way to stop a potentially bad situation before it happens and tasers besides occasional deaths are usually non lethal. I do think though that police could come up with more strict rules on when it is okay for the use of tasers and maybe come up with a taser that is not as powerful but still does the job, so there is not as big of a risk for death. Tasers are good because if police are trying to control a situation, before they use their guns they have a taser to try first if that doesn't or isn't possible to use then they have the option of using guns, if needed. Although, I do not like the fact that the taser related deaths have increased lately, but I do think that those incidents had more to do with the mis-use of the taser by the police officers rather that the actual taser itself. This article gives good insight into how police are going to monitor taser action more closely in the future and also it shows you the advantages to using tasers, that people usually forget about as soon as there is a death related incident.

8.The Province

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Suicides second-leading cause of child death in B.C. : report

By Staff reporter

In reading this article I was absolutely shocked at the statistics that were given. I knew that suicide has been a growing concern but I had no idea that it was the second-leading cause of preventable deaths in British Columbia, car accidents being the first. I did a project on suicide about five or six years ago and from what I can remember, the suicide rates were on a decrease. That is obviously not the case any more, it is extremely apparent that the suicide rates have gone up dramatically in the last few years and are very high in our own province. In this article, Kilpatrick said, "the increase in suicides is an obvious concern and we will be conducting a separate review of suicide deaths referred to the CDRU over the past five years to try to find some answers." The CDRU (child death review unit) will be conducting many more reviews to get more detailed reports. Also, most of the kids who died by suicide had "stated their intent prior to their death." This usually means these kids are reaching out and trying to seek help, they usually do not really want to die but they can't see any other way out.

This article caught my eye and is close to my heart because I have had an relative in which I was extremely close with commit suicide. She was only two years older than I was so it was very hard to deal with. The questions that go through the family and friends' heads are never-ending. I do not exactly know how or what people and organizations can do to help decrease suicide other than putting together more youth groups and activities and help lines. Another way is informing children in presentations on what to look for if one of your friends seems very unhappy in life and has threatened to commit suicide. I wish I had known what to look for and maybe things would be different but you can't go back in time, you can only go forward and help prevent things in the future.

People should not feel that suicide is the only way out. Sometimes people have their mind's made up and it cannot be stopped but many times people really do not want to end their lives. They will usually make it obvious that they are thinking about it and that is their way of reaching out. In many cases people who attempt suicide but do not succeed they are very grateful they still have their lives and will try and get help with depression and other illnesses. This article is a shocking realization for many people that this is a growing epidemic and it is very bad in our own community, we have to ban together and see what we can do to help decrease the statistics.

9.The Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

Motive unknown in deadly Nabraska mall shooting

By Reuters/Chris VanKat

There seems to be more and more of these mass shooting in the United States. After reading this article I felt sick to my stomach, to think that all these people were shopping for Christmas presents and for no reason were shot dead. It is horrible to even imagine. In Omaha, on December 5th, a nineteen year old man opened fire "with a rifle inside a mall crowded with Christmas shoppers". He was said to be planning on taking own life that day when his suicide note was discovered by his mother, but not only did he take his own life but he took eight other lives right before he took his own and injured many others. I do no understand what would make someone take innocent lives for absolutely no reason. I can't even imagine what must have been going through everyone who was in the stores minds.

"Mass shootings periodically shock the United States, where gun ownership is widespread and the right to bear arms is a hotly contested constitutional issue." This is a continually asked question, should gun ownership be allowed in the United States. My opinion is definitely not. I do not understand why on earth they have not band gun ownership already. You would think they would have banned it a long time ago after the first few mass murders, but they haven't and they keep having these mass shootings. Recently, in mid-April, there was the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history at the Virginia Tech university killing 32 people, and in October 2006, a milk truck driver tied up and 10 Amish schoolgirls in their classroom, killing 5 of them and then himself. Obviously, tragedies like these will inevitably happen once and a while, but the fact that in the U.S. you are allowed to own guns it increases the odds of this happening dramatically.

In Vancouver, we have our own problems dealing with gun violence, and we are seeing more and more of it lately, and we are not legally allowed to own guns. I believe that if the United States were to ban gun ownership, the amount of mass shootings would decrease subsequently. This article was very shocking to read and was a terrible tragedy for the people of Omaha, and the loved ones of the people that were shot. The words that come to mind after reading this article was sick, terrible, horrific tragedy. I really think that they should either ban gun ownership or work towards stricter rules on owning them and maybe there wouldn't be as many shootings in the years to come.

10.The Vancouver Sun

Thursday, November 22, 2007
B.C. Will need more jail space for pot growers

By Chad Skelton



If the new federal legislation is approved, in British Columbia alone, there will be "700 more prisoners every year". There is a growing amount of pot growers in B.C. so, "you basically need a new prison to facilitate that," said Darryl Plecas, a criminologist at the University College of the Fraser Valley. To me, this was not as shocking to hear as it must have been for most. As a teenager in high school you are exposed to the realization that marijuana is becoming a part of many teens every day life. Under the law right now, someone convicted of growing "between one and 200 plants would receive at least six months," between 201 and 500 plants at least one year and 500 or more would receive at least a 2 year prison sentence. If this law were to be granted, the length of these sentences would be increased 50%. I am not exactly sure how I feel about the sentencing. Right now, only 10-15% of people convicted of growing marijuana serve any time in jail, but with these new regulations, they will be very harsh and many more people convicted will serve time. I don't smoke marijuana and I am not a very big fan of it for myself but I do not think it is as bad as people make it out to be; if used appropriately, the same as alcohol. I do not think it should be legalized though because quite often, when used inappropriately, (usually by teenagers) it can effect peoples lives greatly in a negative way. Although I believe it should not be legalized, I'm not positive I believe in how harsh the sentencing is.
* "I'd say we're at the limit," says Lisa Lapointe, the B.C. Corrections spokesman, it is astonishing that B.C. jails are at their limit. She goes on to say that the jails are packed and most of the inmates are already double-bunked, making it almost impossible to take in any more convicts. Because only 10-15% of people convicted of growing pot serve time, right now the other 85% do not serve any time at all; but with the new rules being set in stone that other 85% will almost definitely be serving time as well, and there is no space for them. I think that if B.C. jails are basically filled up then they should build more jail facilities. It is not fair that people convicted of crimes are not serving jail time due to the lack of space. This article was interesting to read because I didn't really know the severity of marijuana growers in our own province. I think that B.C. should definitely put more money towards the building of a few more jail facilities, but I do not think that the sentencing should be as harsh as it is, but that is just my opinion.