vol 3/#4

January 1991

JI programs span the province

Corrections Academy Instructor Paul Erickson

From Princeton to Prince Rupert,
Victoria to Vernon, and parts in
between, the JI's academies and
divisions take their courses and
programs where they are needed.
That the JI offers a variety of
courses at its Lower Mainland
site is reasonably well known.
But people are less aware of our
activities in other parts of the
province. In the past 12 months
alone, JI courses have been offered in the following locations.

Corrections Academy
The Corrections Academy has
a policy of delivering its advanced programs on-site or in
institutions whenever it is cost
effective to do so. When assurance can be given that there
are enough students to fill a
course in a particular area, the
Academy arranges for its own
instructors or a contracted
resource person to travel to

the region to deliver a program.
During this past year, regionally delivered courses included the
following: Conflict Resolution, at
the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre; Dealing with Sex
Offenders, at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional
Centre; Interviewing Skills, at
the Burnaby Correctional Centre
for Women; AdultJYouth Update
courses at Kamloops, Rossland,
Prince George and Prince Rupert;
Family Update courses at Victoria, Kamloops, Rossland and
Fraser region; Sex Offender courses at Prince George, Victoria,
Courtenay and Kelowna; and a
Multicultural Awareness
workshop in the Fraser Region.
In addition, a Personal
Safety/Self-Defense course was offered in Vernon and Kamloops, a
local director's workshop was
held in Vernon, and a Native Justice workshop for managers was
held in Victoria. ·Plans are underway to deliver on-site courses to
three institutions dealing with
the topic of the mentally disordered offender.

Courts
Included in Courts Academy's
training calendar for 1990 were
several courses delivered outside
of the Lower Mainland. Sessions
on financial management, performance appraisal, public relations,
continued on next page

Fire Academy • Police Academy • Corrections Academy • Finance and Administration Division • Courts Academy
Educational Services Division • Paramedic Academy • Provincial Emergency Program Academy

Outreach...cim'tfrom page 1
instructional skills and contract
management were among those
presented in Prince George, Kamloops and locations on Vancouver
Island. Courses conducted outside the Lower Mainland comprise approximately 15% of
training sessions co-ordinated annually through the Academy.

Extension Programs
Extension Programs conducted
approximately 40 fee-for-service
courses outside of the Lower
Mainland last year. Programs as
diverse as the Let's Talk About
Touching child sexual abuse prevention program for early childhood educators, courses in the
conflict resolution certificate program, and a range of workshops
for people working with adolescents, were conducted in 19 different centres including Campbell
River, Dawson Creek, Kitimat,
Fort St. John and Tumbler Ridge.
In November, the Centre for
Conflict Resolution went even further afield with a Native Land
Claims Negotiation Workshop
held in Watson Lake, Yukon.
Certificate programs are increasingly being offered outside
the Lower Mainland. For example, Extension Programs has
teamed with Okanagan College
and Yukon College to offer the
Conflict Resolution certificate program on an on-going basis in
Kelowna and Whitehorse, respectively; portions of the Child
Sexual Abuse Intervention certificate program are now offered in
Vanderhoof and Port Hardy; and
the certificate program in Working with Troubled and Troubling
Adolescents will be offered in
Dawson Creek in early 1991.

Paramedic Academy
The Paramedic Academy's offsite courses are delivered primarily through distance education.
The Academy has delivered training through distance education
for almost ten year years, and in
that time has learned a lot about
its value and effectiveness. It
does not see distance education as
2

a panacea for training and educating people who cannot get to a
learning centre. Rather, it sees
this type of delivery as being effective only for certain types of students (self-directed, independent)
and for certain types of skills.
The method has limitations in
technical skills and attitudes
training, for example.
The Paramedic Academy currently uses a combination of selfdirected study with tutorial
assistance, and face-to-face instruction in 16 districts covering
the province. Courses offered
through this mix of delivery
methods include: EMA 1, EMA 2,
IV Therapy, Automatic Defibrillation, Driver Training, Unit Chief
Training, Continuing Education,
and Advanced Life Support.
In addition, EMA 2 and EMA 3
students come to the Academy so
they can have access to specialized equipment. The time spent
on-site also enables exams to be
standardized and gives students a
sense of completion from a "real
academy."

Police Academy
With five municipal police
departments located on the
Saanich peninsula, the Police
Academy makes a point of conducting as many courses as possible at that Vancouver Island
location. Among the courses
planned for this year are
breathalyzer programs, a Drug Investigators course, Effective
Presentation, and a surveillance
course. The Academy offered
similar courses on the Island last
year.
On behalfof the Academy,
Steve Hess liaised with Crown
counsel, Victoria Police and
RCMP on Vancouver Island to
help develop and facilitate a
series of 34 workshops
throughout the Island dealing
with recent Charter decisions and
their impact on police policy and
practice.
The Academy is currently
delivering an 11-week Basic
Recruit Training program for native police personnel at the First

Nations Tribal Justice Institute
at Westbank.

Fire Academy
Fire Academy programs fall
into two main divisions: volunteer and career. The volunteer
certification program is delivered
with the support of 78 trained
evaluators from all areas of the
province. These individuals are
essential to the program. When
an evaluation was scheduled for
Grand Forks, but evaluators from
Trail and Castlegar were not
available on that date, an
evaluator from Kelowna filled in.
The commitment of the adjunct
faculty is essential to the program.
The career program is
delivered through distance education with the final module
delivered on site at the JI.
In addition to courses within
the two programs, Fire Academy
also offers specific courses such
as Auto Extrication, Hazard
Avoidance Training, Dangerous
Goods and Incident Command.
These are offered in each of the
areas of the province: Lower
Mainland, Vancouver Island, the
Okanagan, the Kootenays, the
North, and sometimes the Far
North. Different cities in each
area host the courses in order to
help distribute travel time for all
the learners. These courses
employ hands-on instruction and
simulation experiences. For the
auto extrication course learners
will use extrication tools on the
vehicles and may actually destroy
several cars and vans. Incident
Command and Dangerous Goods
use a table top model for the initial teaching phase before the students respond to simulation,
much like those seen on site for
the Incident Command course.
Contributors to this article:
John Laverock, Corrections; Chris
Poole, Courts; Flora MacLeod and
Patricia McNeill, Extension
Programs; Tony Williams,
Paramedic; Phil Crosby-Jones,
Police; Jackie Goodwin, Fire. a

TheJ/News Vo/31#4

• • • S P 0 T. L I G H T • • •
On staff
Changes...
Ian Dially will join the
Paramedic Academy on February
1 as the Program Director in
charge of all technical programs.
Ian was in the first EMA 2 class
the Academy held in 1980 and is
a graduate of the 1989 Paramedic
Class. He has worked in a
variety of roles in the Academy
during his career, from instructor
to course writer. He has also
travelled to the Yukon to teach
for the Academy.
Lori Wideski has replaced
Genie Regalado as Data Entry
Clerk in the Paramedic Academy.
On January 2, Christine
Babec joined Educational Services staff as Assistant Librarian.
Christine replaces Carol
Breeden, who accepted a position
with the Registered Nurses Association Library. Christine has
a Masters Degree in Library
Science from UBC and comes to
the JI from BC Hydro where she
was a records and microfilm
analyst.
Lydia Stewart returned to
her position as the Library's
Audiovisual Booking Clerk on
January 2 after a four-month absence.
Pay attention, this last staff
change announcement could get

confusing. It starts with Administration Division's Senior Stockman Bernie Astles. In early
February, Bernie will start out on
an extended motor home vacation
that will take him southward to
Palm Springs and San Diego and
from there to Phoenix, Tucson,
and El Paso. Bernie and his wife
plan to go across the US, ending
up in the Florida Keys before
they head back toward Canada
and more realistic weather.
Anyway, while Bernie's away
Paul Harris will take over as
Senior Stockman and Graeme
McGerrigle will come in to do
Paul's job. Graeme is originally
from Quebec. He's worked,
among other things, as a professional musician, an organic orchardist and a business machine
repair person. Paul Harris tells
us that Graeme is a great
guitarist and musician, who now
lives on Denman Island.

Recognition .•.
On January 2nd, one year to
the day after his secondment to
the Police Academy, Tim Lancaster, Legal Studies instructor
and star basketball player, was
promoted to Corporal by his
department. Tim is an 11 year
veteran of the New Westminster
Police Department.
Sgt. Warne Lynd, Police
Academy's resident Mountie re-

Sargent Warne Lynd receiving the
Canadian Police Long Service Medal.

sponsible for traffic and driver
instruction, was recently awarded the Canadian Police Long Service Medal for 20 years of
exemplary service. Deputy Commissioner Don Wilson presented
the medal at a ceremony at
RCMP Headquarters in Vancouver.
Steve Hess, Co-ordinator of Advanced Programs in Police Academy, is attending a three-week
Computer Technology for Police
Managers course at the Canadian
Police College, Ottawa. On his return, Steve will assume responsibility for computer training at
the Academy associated with the
Canadian Police Information
Centre.

Conferences

c:

l

Cl
Q)

~
~

if
Bernie Ast/es (right) and Paul Harris exhibit their advanced technical skills
in disassembling a built-in computer in Lawrence Hal/.

TheJINews Vo/31#4

Ross Mcintyre, Pep Academy
Instructot, gave lectures on Dangerous Goods Awareness in the
Home and Office as part of the
week-long Emergency Preparedness Conference hosted by Pearson Hospital during the week of
23-26 October. Approximately
300 people representing a wide
spectrum of agencies, levels of
government and disciplines attended. 0
3

Retired police
chief remains
active JI
Board
Chairman
After 37 years of service Chief
Bob Stewart is retiring from his
position as Chief Constable of the
Vancouver Police Department.
In a letter announcing his
retirement Chief Stewart pointed
out that the force has come a
long way over those 37 years.
Recruit training has expanded
from three weeks to three years,
beat callboxes on street corners
have been replaced by computer
terminals in police cars, and all
sorts of other changes have called
for upgrades in technology,
training and the calibre of people
hired.
Although he is retiring from
the Vancouver Police Department, Chief Stewart will continue
in his separate function as Chairman of the Justice Institute
Board.
When he returns from some
well deserved retirement leave in
Palm Springs and Hawaii, Chief
Stewart will be actively involved
in leading the JI Board through
the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. 0

The Justice Institute
of B.C.
Is dedicated
to Improving the
quality of justice
and public safety
by developing
and delivering
training programs
and offering
educational services
to professionals
and the publlc.

4

Corrections Academy
workshops cover diverse
topics
Over the past months, Corrections Academy has conducted
several workshops on specialized
topics. The workshops are
designed to provide probation officers and family court counsellors with the information they
need to better supervise and assist a growing number of clients
with specific needs.

Multiculturalism
Probation officers and family
court counsellors in the Fraser
Valley recently expressed concern
that they felt unprepared to meet
the needs of the increasing number of people from visible
minorities among their caseloads.
One of the initiatives identified to
correct the situation was training,
and the Corrections Academy was
approached with a request for a
workshop.
The workshop was delivered
in Langley on December 13, with
approximately 30 people in
attendance. The five workshop
leaders representing the Vietnamese, Chinese and IndoCanadian communities provided
information on the cultural backgrounds and adjustment
problems experienced by immigrants. The presentations
were followed by lively and informative discussions.

Dealing with Batterers
(Wife Assault)
Workshops on Dealing with
Batterers (Wife Assault) have
been offered by the Corrections
Academy on several occasions
over the past eight years.
Eighteen probation officers and
family court counsellors from
various locations throughout

British Columbia attended the
most recent workshop on the
topic held in early November.
Dale Trimble, a therapist in
private practice, delivered the
training. Dale is a founding
member of Vancouver's very successful treatment group for wife
assaulters. Based on his many
years of experience in the field,
Dale was able to explain the
dynamics of spousal assault, offer
strategies for confronting it, and
provide various supervision and
treatment methods.

Alcohol and Drug
In November, the Corrections
Academy sponsored a one-day
workshop on supervising
probationers who have alcohol
and drug addictions. This
workshop is part of the advanced
training program provided for
probation officers and family
court counsellors employed by the
Corrections Branch.
The workshop focused on the
realities of addiction, with emphasis on assessing a client's condition and developing effective
supervision techniques. Wendy
Potts, a family court counsellor in
Vancouver, and Nigel Smith,
director of the White Rock alcohol
and drug program, led the
workshop. Participants were all
experienced probation offices with
extensive experience working
with addicted clients.
The multiculturalism and alcohol and drug workshops will be
offered throughout the province
in 1991.

Contributors Micheila
Cameron and Chris Beresford are
Instructors in the Corrections
Academy. 0
The JI News Vol 31#4

Provincial Cabinet
New
partners in approves relocation
funding for JI
crime:
Police
Academy
and SFU
Criminology
by Ltzrry Goble

by Phil Crosby-Jones

The Police Academy has embarked on a new joint initiative
with the Criminology Research
Centre at Simon Fraser University. Together, they will provide a
series of forums for line-level
officers and police administrators
to examine critical issues confronting policing in the 1990s.
Using an interactive, limitedenrolment workshop format, each
program in the new Police Studies
Series will concentrate on a
specific topic.
The first program addresses
police response to gang activity.
The first seminar, Gangs in
Schools, was held on December 3
and 4 at SFU Harbour Centre.
Further seminars in the program,
offered in the spring of 1991, will
address responses to street level
gang activity and dealing with organized youth gangs. Guest
speakers for the first seminar
were Wesley C. Mitchell, Chief of
Police, Los Angeles Unified School
District Police Department; Dr.
Ronald D. Stephens, Executive
Director, National School Safety
Center, Malibu, California; and
Tony Ostos, Neighbourhood Counsellor, Human Services Department, City of Paramount,
California.
Phil Crosby-Jones is Director of
Police Academy. 0

TheJ/News Vo/ 31#4

Over the past few months,
studies have been completed and
reports written by the Ministry of
Advanced Education, Training
and Technology to support a request for relocation funds for a
new Justice Institute purposebuilt facility.
After being reviewed by the JI
Board, the JI Policy Advisory
Committee, the Deputy Ministers
Committee, and the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy, the final
test came on December 12, 1990
when the report and request for
funds were submitted to the
British Columbia Cabinet.
The concept of the Justice Institute was reconfirmed by
Cabinet and approval given to the
Ministry of Advanced Education,
Training and Technology, to
spend up to $33. 7 million for planning, building and furnishing a
new site and purpose-built
facility.
The JI's Board recently wrote
to the Honourable Bruce
Strachan, Minister of Advanced
Education, Training and Technology, thanking him and his staff
for the work they contributed to
making this facility a reality in
the near future.
When discussing the relocation
of the Institute, members of
Cabinet also discussed where the
best location for the JI might be.
With some concern for the fact
that too many institutions were
being built in the downtown Vancouver area, Cabinet decided that
a good location for the new JI
would be in Langley.
Since Langley was not one of
the sites identified in the initial
site search, the Board has recently authorized a site search in the
Langley area and a study to con-

sider an analysis of operating
costs and services to clients and
students in terms of the Langley
versus a New Westminster/Surrey site.
For the past 13 years, Justice
Institute staff and students have
enjoyed the challenge of operating our programs and services
from the Jericho Hill facility.
The view is great and the buildings have been adequate to support the variety of classrooms and
special resource needs required to
train the justice and public safety
people involved in Institute
programs.
The next few years will provide
much excitement for many people
as we move ahead with the planning required prior to the final
stage of building and moving into
our new building.
Look for regular stories in the
JI News to keep you up to date on
the new JI facility.
Larry Goble is President of the
Justice Institute. 0

Oops! .
If we slip, somebody always notices. This time,
we were caught assigning
Irwin DeVries to Emergency Health Services
Academy. Fire Academy
wants him back and has
graciously asked us to
reinstate him. Consider it
done - and please accept
apologies all 'round for the
error. 0

5

.Staff workshops
The series of workshops for JI
staffis well under way and
reports on the first ones to be completed are coming in. So far, so
good: "... a very informative and
enjoyable session. I think it's
great that this was made available to us in the form of staff
development. Thank you."
"Great course! All JI staff should
take it." "... this workshop concept for staff is a major step
towards an even greater sense of
harmoney than already exists
here." "Most enjoyable ... [ I ]
learned from the experience.
Many thanks to all who organized and provided this opportunity for us."
Twelve JI employees attended
the January 10 workshop in Native Spirituality led by Linda
Razor. Linda is a native counsellor from the Hey Way' -Noqu'
Healing Centre. Workshop participants took part in an opening
prayer, were smudged with the
traditional sage, and began learning about the Medicine Wheel,
the Sacred Tree, and native healing practices in general. Linda's
presence and the generous contribution of her personal perspective
made the experience especially
meaningful and enriching.
Marg Huber, Trainer and Pro-

gram Planner with Extension
Programs' Centre for Conflict
Resolution presented a one-day
overview course on Conflict
Resolution. Course content included essential concepts, skills
and attitude shifts, a model for
working through conflict, and
skill practice. Participants from
Fire, EHS, Police, Corrections
and Administration enthusiastically role played their thorniest
JI conflict scenarios (and in some
cases gained some real insight!).
Warne Lynd from the Police
Academy and Al Lund of PTEC
co-hosted an Advanced Driver
Level II course for JI staff on
December 18 at Boundary Bay.
Over the course of the day, bad
habits were cast aside and new,

enhanced skills were slowly put
in place as participants learned
the correct way to accelerate,
brake and steer a vehicle.
When a snow storm struck at
noon and turned the track into
glare ice, the novice drivers faced
a new challenge, but all successfully negotiated the track under
the most severe conditions possible.
Here are Instructor Al Lund's
observations of some of the participants:
• Ross Mcintyre was truly No. 1
on the course
• Ross Cloutier, a master of
balance and finesse - will have
no problem conquering
Everest
• Diane Oberton has an inner
desire to drive an Indy car with
a red light and siren
• Pat Abercrombie loves 90 degree comers with glare ice
Dean Winram - "Dean the
Mean Machine" - What more
can I say?
0

One side benefit of the workshops has been the opportunity
they present for staff to meet and
work with people from other
academies and divisions. Many
are now putting names and faces
together after working for the
same organization for many
months, or even years.

Kate Walker practices newly-acquired CPR techniques
at the First Responder workshop for JI staff.

6

Contributors: Tad Dick and
Marg Huber, Extension
Programs; Al, Lund, PTEC. 0
The JI News Vol 31#4

Paramedic training at the JI
is better than ever
by John Lynn

BC Ambulance Service Executive
Director Fred Bates recently
took one of his department's
management training programs
at the Justice Institute because he believes in leading by example.
''We have a strong series of
technical programs for our
paramedics on the street,"
Bates said. "Now we have an
equally strong program for
managers."
"Managers must know the
latest technical trends and the
best techniques for managing
emergency services," he added.
Bates and six other BCAS
managers graduated from the
course on the same day 24
paramedics received Emergency
Medical Assistant II certification.
This six-week program qualifies
paramedics to perform high-level
medical procedures in lifethreatening situations.
Fifteen years ago when people
called an ambulance, the crew
showed up and rushed them to
the nearest hospital for treatment. They didn't have much
more than basic first aid training.
Today, paramedics are trained
to,provide emergency medical

treatment at the scene.
The Paramedic Academy is accredited by the Canadian Medical
Association to instruct paramedics at all three national levels.
"Visitors from all over the world
come to study our paramedic
training methods," says Academy

Director Tony Williams. "We
now train doctors and nurses in
advanced cardiac life support and
trauma skills."
John Lynn is marketing communications and fund development consultant. 0

Practising pokes:
Are dolls as effective
as real people for
teaching IV skills?
It's a real problem finding
enough real patients for
paramedics to learn and maintain
their IV skills. An alternative is
to practice on IV mannequin
arms. But because we cannot
assume an equal level of skill will
be achieved, the Paramedic
Academy must set up a formal
research project in order to
compare two similar groups.
If the project can show that there
is no difference between the

skills of the two groups when
both are tested on real patients,
then we will have solved a
dilemma. A positive outcome
from the study could also
have a major impact on other
health professionals who must
maintain IV skills. Perhaps
the real beneficiaries of the
study will be the poor
patients who otherwise would
have to go through all those
·
pokes! 0

Native Prison Liaison Workers
to be trained at the Justice Institute
by Chris Beresford

The Corrections Branch has contracted a new service for inmates
in provincial institutions: nine
Native Prison Liaison Worker
will be assigned to prisons
throughout the province to help
inmates make plans for release.
The aim is to assure the inmates'
The JI News Vol 31#4

successful re-entry to the community.
The Corrections Academy will
train the liaison workers. A fiveday training program scheduled
for late January will include a
review of the justice system and
Branch services, and will look

into parole and other forms of
release from custody. Cultural issues will be addressed
throughout the week.
Chris Beresford is an Instructor in the Corrections Academy. 0
7

•••

NOTES & NQ,TICES • • •

::: :

Excellence Committee
begins deliberations
The newly-formed Ex.::ellence
Committee met for the first time
on January 16th to consider and
articulate its mandate and
objectives. Chaired by Phil Crosby-Jones, the committee membership reflects a cross section of
personnel from throughout the Institute. They are: Sandra Rice
(Educational Services), Jim Bond
(Fire), Debbie Watts (Administration Division), Peter Pershick
(PEP Academy), Tracey Mydonick
(Corrections), and Ernie Gaudet

(Paramedic). This newsletter is
an ideal forum for future discussion and expression of committee
ideas and initiatives in the pursuit of excellence, so watch these
pages.

Graduations
First Responder
Deputy Ministers, Assistant Deputy Ministers and Executive Directors all turned out to the first
responder graduations in September and November. In addition to
dignitaries from the ministries of
Attorney General, Solicitor General, Municipal Affairs and Health,

fire chiefs, police chiefs and the
Chief Coroner of BC also showed
their support for the new program. It was a particular pleasure to have JI Board Chair Bob
Stewart, Deputy Chair Tony
Pantages and board member
Peter Webster join in the activities.

Corrections Academy
The final security officer recruit
course of the calendar year
graduated December 14, with 26
officers successfully completing
the training. This was the 30th
recruit course to be offered since
the Academy completed the
new curriculum design in early
1988. 0

JI staff awarded ten
year pens

Board Chair Bob Stewart presents Bob Hull, Police Academy, with a
pen in recognition of his ten years' service to the JI. Tony Williams
Paramedic Academy; April Haddad, Ubrary; and Bernie Ast/es '
Administration Division, also received ten year pens at the annualstaff
party in December.

8

TheJ/News Vo/31#4