JI
JUSTICE

What is PTEC?

OFB.C.

by Sarah Ross

INSTITUTE
Volume 9 Number 1
February 1997

Career & Community Studies
Corrections Academy
Courts Academy
Educational Services
Finance & Administration
Fire Academy
Fire & Safety Training Centre
Paramedic Academy
Police Academy
Provincial Emergency Program
Academy

Justice Institute of B.C.
715 McBride Blvd.
New Westminster, B.C.
V3L 5T4
Ph (604) 525-5422

PTEC has been in existence
for eight years, and yet
many people still ask: What
is PTEC? Who is PTEC?
For those of you who are
still asking, here are a few
answers.
PTEC stands for the Pacific
Traffic Education Centre
which opened as a joint
venture of the Justice
Institute and the Insurance
Corporation of B.C. on
October 18, 1988. The
Centre is dedicated to
improving the safety of
professional drivers through
the development and delivery of advanced training
programs. The Centre also
aims to enhance the quality
of accident investigation
through the development
and delivery of programs,
arid participates in research
on driver and vehicle performance.
Director, Al Lund, retired
from the RCMP in 1988 to
head up PTEC. He is an
accident reconstructionist
and professional driver
trainer. Al has developed
several specialized driver
training and accident investigation programs. He also
provides expert evidence to
the courts on emergency
vehicle operation and driver
behaviour.

The PTEC Crew: Al Lund, Kate Walker, Sarah R.oss, Jasbir Sandhu

PTEC's Driving with Finesse
(which Al developed) has
proven to be an excellent
accident prevention program.
The one day hands-on
course is taught in the vehicle and aims to help drivers
enhance their skills. An
onboard computer monitors the driver's braking
and cornering techniques,
and helps drivers develop
confidence and smoothness
in their everyday driving.
In order to encourage the
JI to set the example and be
a leader in collision prevention, PTEC offers Driving
With Finesse free of charge
to Justice Institute staff.
Additional advanced courses, such as Total Control
Driving, are available to
students from all academies
as well as to numerous
government agencies and
private organizations. Total

Control Driving is delivered
at the PTEC driving facility
at Boundary Bay Airport.
Two accident investigation
courses are also included in
PTEC's program offerings Industrial Accident/Incident
Investigation and Traffic
Accident Investigation. Both
courses were originally
designed by Al Lund, and
are now coordinated by
Fred Pachal who has 40
years RCMP experience.
These courses are designed
continued on page 8

Inside:
Confined Space Rescue

2, 3

Freedom Fighter

4

Cultural Conflict Resolution

5

Sex Offender
Awareness Program

6

Insiders snapshots

7

New Confined
Space Rescue
Course at FSTC

The above ground team wwers a

rescuer into the confined space.

There is no other course like this
in Canada. Confined Space
Entry & Rescue Level I was
developed through a partnership between Canadian
Airlines and the JI's Fire
and Safety Training Centre
to meet an obvious need for
this specialized training.
The course is aimed at people who work in or enter
confined spaces. When you
work in these situations you
have to be prepared for
accidents, and be ready to
rescue or remove injured
co-workers. Confined Space
Entry & Rescue Level I
prepares people to safely
enter confined spaces where
accidents have occurred,
and teaches basic confined
space rescue techniques.
The first running of the program took place at the Fire
and Safety Training Centre
in September of '96. JI News
was at Maple Ridge on the
second last day of class to
observe a simulation and
talk with some of the participants of this new program.
On top of the burn building
sits an orange tripod-like
device with pulleys and
ropes attached. The tripod
sits over an opening that's
about two feet square. Six

Page 2

people are buzzing around
the tripod doing various
tasks: monitoring ventilation
and communication lines,
securing safety ropes,
operating the pulleys. One
person holding a clipboard
walks around observing he's the safety officer whose
job is to keep track of how
long the rescuers have been
down in the hole and to
make sure all members of
the team are safely performing their duties. One of the
course instructors is keeping
an eye on the actions above
while another is down in the
hole.
Two rescuers will be lowered
into the hole to find and
remove a co-worker who has
been injured. In this case
the coworker is not a real
person, they're using a
dummy. The scenario feels
very real from the moment
the first rescuer is lowered
into the darkness of the
hole. Like an underwater
explorer of days gone by, he
has a number of life lines
connecting him to the surface - safety rope, air supply
and a communication line
so he can be in constant
contact with the team above.
The normal self-contained

breathing appararus wouldn't
fit in most confined spaces,
so the air supply line is vital.
As an emergency back up,
the rescuers carry a small
"ska-pak"(self contained
breathing apparatus) with a
20 minute air supply to
allow them to return to the
surface.
"These lines are your
responsibility when you're
down here," says instructor
Todd Wheeler of the first
rescuer's life lines "you get
these messed up and you
won't know what's what."
Todd is an Instructor
Developer with Canadian
Airlines, and is one of the
main instructors for this
course. JI instructors copresent the course with
Canadian Airlines instructors.
The second rescuer is down
and the crew above lowers a
spinal immobilization unit
and a "bumble bee" (an
appropriate nickname for
this black and yellow blanket-like harness) used to
remove the injured person.
Instructor Todd Wheeler
calls to the crew above
ground "Who's watching
these lines? They're all on
one side of the opening,
keep them separate."
As the rescuers prepare the
injured person for removal
from the hole they are in
constant communication
with the crew above "we
need more safety line ...
ready for the pulley... up on
the safety, we need to tilt
him to get him out." While
this is going on, Todd comments on technique, tells
them what to watch for and
ways to improve.

The instructor above
ground calls to the safety
officer "how long has res-

cuer one been down there?"
Seventeen minutes is the
reply. The crew begins to
raise the injured worker "is
that safety line looked after?"
asks the instructor, advising
them of the importance of
having someone in charge
of the safety line above
ground in case the pulley
line breaks or releases.

"We need mare safety line . .. ",
Gary Gerein of BC Ferries
(kft, in white) communicates
to the crew abuve.

When the simulation is
complete everyone gathers
around the tripod for a
debriefing - instructors
and course participants
comment on what went well
and what problems they
encountered. "I didn't feel
comfortable with how
organized we were when we
arrived, I'd like to work on
that a bit," says one participant.

''Your chances of an actual
rescue in these situations is
slim," says Todd Wheeler,
"you're often dealing with a
fatality. What's really important is that you practice
working safely."
Tomorrow the class will
spend the entire day in fullblown rescue simulations in vertical and horizontal
confined spaces. They won't
know the details of the
simulation beforehand,
they'll have to assess the
situation and react accordingly, just like real life.

The injured worker in the "bumbl,e
bee" harness is raised. The large

Gary Gerein, a Safety Officer
with B.C. Ferries took the
course in order to review it
for BC Ferries. The program
may become part of their
response team training.
The Coast Guard sent two
people to the course.
Machinist Ray Smith
explains how the program
will be valuable to them in
their work in cleaning fuel
tanks "we knew we needed
the proper training ... we've
had lots of theory, so these
simulations really start to
pull things together."
For Norene Parke, a firefighter with Merritt Fire and
Rescue, the simulations were
a very important part of the
course, "we have a lot of
confined spaces in the
Merritt area." The City of
Merritt recognized the need
to have people within their
community trained in confined space rescue - they
sent Norene and a colleague
to take the course.

tube in the kft of the picture is
used to monitor the air quality in
the confined space.

Now that this course is up
and running, the JI and
Canadian Airlines plan to
develop level two and three
courses to teach advanced
rescue techniques.
Confined Space Entry and
Rescue Level I will be
offered five times in 1997.
For information on the
course contact the JI's Fire
& Safety Training Centre in
Maple Ridge at
(604) 462-1000.

•

Other participants in the
course included a member
of the Victoria Fire
Department, staff from
Canadian Airlines and JI
instructors.

Page 3

Freedom Fighter Studies
Conflict Resolution
When Thomas Tewelde
finished high school in
1977 he had two choices join the revolutionaries and
fight for the freedom of his
country, or leave Eritria to
make a new life and support the revolution from
another country (as many
others did). He chose to
stay and fight because he
believed Eritria (in East
Africa) had a right to independence from Ethiopia.
Fourteen years later, after a
total of 30 years of war,
Eritria won independence
from Ethiopia. Thomas
found himself faced with
the qu~stion of "what now?".
When you've spent so many
years fighting for freedom,
what do you do when
you've won, and find yourself in a time of peace?

Thomas Tewelde, Freedom fighter,
studies Conflict Resolution at the
JI in order to work for peace in
his country. Thomas lives in
Asmara, Eritia.

Page 4

"I realized peace is the
most important thing in
life," says Thomas, "I wanted
to do something to help
the people of my country
maintain peace as we
rebuild Eritria."
While working as the
Project Manager of the
National Union ofEritrian
Youth and Students,
Thomas began searching
for training in peace management. In May of 1996
he attended the fourth
annual International
Conference on Conflict
Resolution in St. Petersburg,
Russia. At the conference
he met Duncan Stewart, an
instructor at the JI's Centre
for Conflict Resolution
Training.

"I found out about the JI
from Duncan, and I became
more and more interested...
I decided I wanted to take
the program, and started to
fund raise to pay for my
travel to Canada. My government paid the tuition,
but I had to find the
money to travel here."

Eritria
located on the coast of
East Africa. It~ beautiful
port dtie~ provide vital
links to the Indian
Ocean and the
Mediterranean Sea.
These ports are part of

Thomas arrived at the JI
in September and began
an intensive learning
process, taking the entire
Conflict Resolution
Certificate
program in
just over three months.
''When I arrived I was
thinking of conflict resolution in terms of political
conflict... through the program I learned that resolving conflict starts with
yourself and how you interact with everyone ... it goes
out from there. No matter
where you are from, we're
very much alike, our feelings, our needs and assumptions ... we must always
remember that and respect
each other."
Thomas took his last mediation course at the JI on
December 11 and completed
his assessments just before
Chri,stmas. Returning to
Eritria, he will work within
the government, helping to
maintain the peace he
fought for so long to attain.

•

the reason Ethiopia
wanted control of Eritna.
Equal in size to England,
-with a populatton of 3.5
million people.
Nine different nationalitie~ with two predominant religions: Christian
and Muslim.
Eritria waic. "given" to the
King of Ethiopia follow·
ing the second World
War.
In 1991 Eritria won
independence, and wa<>
acknowledged as a
country in 1993, becoming the 184th member
of the United Nations.
Currently drafting the
country's e,omtitution it will be ready by mid
1997 and -will be
pre'>entcd to the people
for approval.

•

New Programs
Deal with
Cultural Diversity
in Conflict
Resolution
January 1997 marks the 10th
anniversary of the Centre for
Conflict Resolution
"when we hear people from another culture speak in
a tone we 're not used to we quickly make judgements
which can lead to conflict, "

"Cultural differences matter",
says Marg Huber of the JI's
Centre for Conflict
Resolution Training "we
vastly underestimate the
importance of culture in
situations of conflict."
For some time now the
JI's Centre for Conflict
Resolution Training has
recognized a strong need to
address issues of culture as
they relate to conflict resolution. Over the past three
years, a number of initiatives
have been taken to explore
how culture impacts what we
teach in the program.
During the past year a multicultural development team
has been working with Marg
to build new elective courses
relating to culture and diversity. The result so far is three
courses dealing with culture
and conflict.
The first, Prejudice Reductwn,
was introduced two years

says Ed Eduljee,

ago, and is designed to help
identify and work through
negative stereotypes that

Director of Multiculturalism BC.

Members of the Multicultural Development Team:
Marilou Carillo • who works in conflict re~­

worked with cultural diversity and multicul-

lut1on and rac1sm/anti-racrsm with women,

turahsm issues for over 15 years.

immigrants, refugees and cross cultural com·

Sondra Marshall • a teacher with the

munitJes, a.nd 1s a graduate of the Conflict

Vancouver School Board (with two decades

Resolution Certificate program.

of ESL teaching) and a trainer with the

Valene Dudoward - who manages pre-

National Coalition Building Institute of Canada.

employment programs for the NatiVe

Jeannette Matson • a counseHor, mediator

Courtworker and Counselling Association of

and consultant in private practice and the

BC and is the Women's Equity representative

Director of the Vancouver and BC Interior

on the BC Labour Force Development Board.

chapters ot the National Coalition Building

She is a graduate of the First Nations

Institute of Canada

Negotiation Skiffs Certificate piogram

Marg Huber - Program Director of the Centre

Ed Edul;ee - the Director of MulticulturaUsm

for Conflict Resolution Training at the Justice

B.C. and a graduate of the Conflict

Institute.

have traditionally divided
people. The two day program is very popular, and is
offered twice a year.
The two newest courses,
(which were offered for the
first time last fall) are
Intercultural Communication:
Bridgi,ng the Divide in Conflict
Situations and Voices and
Spaces: Intercultural Conflict
Resolution.

Intercultural Communication
looks at cultural differences
in communication and how
those differences impact
conflict situations. The
course aims to help people
learn ways to prevent
intercultural conflict from
occurring as a result of miscommunication. During the
course, participants explore
attitudes, behaviors, verbal
and non-verbal messages as
they relate to culture, and
develop a greater awareness
of the role of culture in
conflict. The October offering of this course was full
soon after the Fall course
calendar was issued.
Voices and Spaces is a unique
course which aims to bring
together a rich cultural mix
of people. "By sharing stories of conflict and how our
different cultures approach
conflict we can begin to
develop strategies and skills
for dealing with situations
between cultures," says Marg.
The development team has
met every three weeks for
the past year, working to
pull these courses together.
''We can't just talk about culture to the community," says
Marg "we have to work with
the community in all aspects
of design and delivery."
That's what the multicultur-

Resolution Certificate program. Ed has
continued on page 8
Page 5

New Certificate Program
for People Working with
Sex Offenders

Course topics
include...
denial,
risk assessment,
relapse prevention,
the sex offender
as family or
friend ...

"It's designed to give people
who work with sex offenders
a solid base of practical
knowledge about the sex
offender," says Steve
Sharlow, program coordinator, Corrections Academy,
and the person responsible
for the development of this
new certificate program.
The impetus for the program started with the results
of the Gimache Inquiry
which prompted the
Corrections Academy to
look at what kind of training
was needed for probation
officers and the range of
people who work in the
treatment of offenders.
"Originally we began by
developing and delivering
some basic training (on sex
offenders) to probation
officers across the province,"
says Steve. "In doing so we
recognized the need for
more extensive training."
The Sex Offender Awareness Certificate program
includes five mandatory
courses and 18 elective
courses on topics such as
denial, risk assessment, the

Neu1Vice
President
Pat Ro5s, the Jl's Dean of
Educational Services and

sex offender and the church,
relapse prevention, and cultural considerations to name
a few. The program involves
classroom learning and skills
training in predominant
areas of working with the sex
offender in the community
and in correctional centres.
"It's a self-paced program,
so if you choose, you can
continue working while
you're taking courses for the
certificate," says Steve. ''We
can also deliver the entire
program on a contract basis
to employers, or these
organizations can purchase
blocks of seats in already
scheduled classes."

Career and Community
Studies, was appointed Vice
President, Finance and
Corporate Services effec.hve
January 1.

Pat first came to the .II as a
program director over 10
years ago when we were 1ust
developing the fee-for-service,

The official launch of this
new certificate program was
January, and the response so
far is positive ''We have over
100 people signed up for
courses," adds Steve.

community programs drea
Under her leadership, Career
and Community Studies has
grown to represent almost
one quarter of the overall JI
training p1ctvre

For more information on
the Sex Offender Awareness
Certificate program contact
Steve Sharlow at

"Pat's expenence and fam1har1ty with the JI, combined with
her background in busine~~
admirnstrabon, will be a bene-

(604) 528-5555,

fit to the JI as we continue to

e-mail:
sharlowrelapse@jibc.org,
Web site: www.sharlow.com

grow," says JI P1es1dent Larry
Goble

•

•

Bursar Retires
Dean Winram, Bursar of the JI since 1978, retired on January 1,
1997. In his 19 years of working for the Institute, Dean played a
vital role in its many stages of development. He also made many
friends along the way. Those friends held a special "Roast" on
January 9th to say farewell and to tell all the funny "Dean" stories
they had gathered over the years.
Dean Winram, JI Bursar,
retires after 19 years of service.
Page 6

•

Insiders-Snapshots from around the JI.
1 & 2: Premier Clark was the guest speaker at the
graduation of Police Recruit Class 63 on November 8.
Qualified Municipal Constable Jennifer McCarron,
began working with the Port Moody Department
following graduation. "Marching Drill" - Class 63
graduation ceremonies.

3. Graduates of the Management
Deve!,opment for Residential Settings
certificate program - September 1996.
4. "Shooting" the Fire Fighters Calendar the Fire and Safety Training Centre in
Maple Ridge is the backdrop for this
popular calendar that raises funds for
charity.
5. The 1996 summer open house was
a showcase of the many professions we
train.
6. The first graduation class of the Fire
Prevention & Inspection Program.
7. An evening with Story Teller. A special
stage production by this unique First
Nations group told the story offour
women and the impact residential school
had on their lives. The performance was
attended by JI staff and their family and
friends.
8. Rudy the Reindeer and the 'Santa's
quatch stopped at the JI in December on
their way to the North Pole.
Page 7

What is PTEC.. .
continued from page 1
to provide supervisors with
skills to perform in-house
investigations, and are often
customized as company
packages.
We recently introduced a
Road Sense Driving course
which is taught entirely in
the classroom. At present,
the main recipients of Road
Sense Driving are the participants enrolled in the
TaxiHost Level I Program.
So far, the course has been
enthusiastically received by
the taxi industry.
This brings us to PTEC's
latest endeavour, the
TaxiHost Centre. This

Level I courses. A Level II
Professional Driver Program
is now being designed and is
expected to be in place this
Spring.

Centre was created in
January of last year to help
streamline the processing of
several thousand Lower
Mainland taxi drivers through
the three courses of the
TaxiHost Level I Program
offered by the Justice
Institute. We were lucky to
recruitJasbir Sandhu to
manage the Centre. His
considerable administrative
skills, coupled with his indepth knowledge of the taxi
industry have helped tremendously. PTEC is the
information control centre
for TaxiHost. Records of all
drivers participating in the
program are kept in the
Centre, and certificates are
issued to those who successfully complete the three

And one final note, PTEC
also develops driver training
videos; a new video on tips
for winter driving was produced last fall and can be
purchased through PTEC.
A Driver's handbook is
available through PTEC or
the JI library.

Ifyou still have questions ahout
PTEC and those who work
there, feel free to contact Sarah
Rnss, PTEC's manager of
Administrative Services, at
(604) 528-5507.

•

Cultural Diversiry in
Conflict Resolution...
continued from page 5

Thanks!
The JI News is produced
for staff and clients of the
Justice Institute of B.C.

If you have any suggestions
or comments, call
Peggy John in
Public Relations at

(604) 528-5527.

Contributors to this issue:
Sarah Ross
Sabrina Tong
John Lewis

Something you'd like to
see in the next issue?
Call with your ideas, or
send your submission to
Peggy John.

al development team has
done, "they've worked very
had to try to give meaning
to these courses," adds Marg.
The experience of working
with the development team
has been very rewarding for
the entire group. ''We have a
diverse, multitalented group
of people on the team...
people with very different
perspectives and cultural
backgrounds ... bringing the
group together has been
challenging at times for all,
and at the same time an
extremely rich experience."
The initial response to the
courses indicates that the
team's hard work has paid
off. These three programs
demonstrate that cultural
differences matter, and a
true understanding of a
person's culture can help to
resolve conflict. •

Voices From Each
Generation;
Healing the Effects
of Generational
Trauma
Provincial Conference
February 20-22, 1997
at the Landmark Hotel in Vancouver
Sponsored by:
Native Education Centre<

•

SPAN

•

The Justice Institute of B.C.

To Register Call 528-5590