PARCA Minutes
PARCA Meeting
Minutes
Nov 7, 2011
In attendance: Tim Agg, Paul Barnett, George Curran, Gord Irving, Dave Johnson, Wendy Richardson, Tim Veresh
Regrets: Ann Alexander, Shawn Bayes, Marla Chandler-Soanes, Shelley Cook, Bob Ens, Daryl Goll, Dawn Hyrcun, Inder Madhok,
Yvonne Rigby-Jones, Dave Trepanier
Chair: Paul Barnett
Minutes: Wendy Richardson
Guests: Anne Kimmitt
Agenda Item
Discussion and information
Agenda
Accepted with additions
Minutes
Anne Kimmitt
Accepted
Update on who’s who:
Mover/Seconder
 Dave Johnson/George
Curran
 Tim Agg/Dave Johnson

Bill Rasmus will be moving to the Associate to the Director General, Chaplaincy for CSC, from
Director of Operations, Burnaby Youth Custody Services.
Nin Mand is continuing as Youth Justice Consultant, Youth Custody Services until the end of year
and then taking over from Bill as Director of Operations.
Charisse Giarraputo is back at work after 20 months of mat leave and will take up her old position
as Youth Justice Consultant, Youth Custody Services at the beginning of next year.
Regional Youth Justice Consultants are:
Coast Fraser: Fiona Pary, Lisa Romanuik
Interior: Ed Andrews
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North: Shannon Elliott, Julie Muldoe
Vancouver Island: Dan Alexander
Provincial Directors are:
Fraser: Amarjit Sahota
Interior: Einar Poulsen
North: Shawn Young
Vancouver Coastal: Mike White
Vancouver Island: Doug Hillian
MCFD budget is stable. Federal funding – offer from Min of Justice for two years at the same level.
SPOA inspections were completed Aug/Sep – team were impressed with quality of staff.
One set of standards for children in care, including those under youth justice – not recommended
to have two sets of standards.
Custody counts hit an all-time low of 83 recently – last year’s average was 121. Youth crime rate in
BC is down substantially. Notable drop in the numbers of male aboriginal youth. Probation officer
files are down slightly but not to the same extent as the reduction in custodial numbers.
Highlights of Bill C-10 – see attached summary. Get Paul to send me electronic copy to attach to
this.
Financial Report
President’s Role
Affiliations
Tim Agg summarized the financial reports. Membership fees have been received. Smith & Hughes
(annual reporting) are retiring. Transferring our contract to Robert Fenton who do the legal filing
for PLEA. Website update fees are recorded.
Discussion about Paul Barnett’s role as President. Board supports Paul’s continuing role as an
independent member of PARCA, including covering costs associated with Paul’s travel.
BC Halfway House Association: Continues to offer excellent training across the province in topics
like motivational interviewing. Tim Veresh has stepped down as President and Shawn Bayes is the
new President.
 Gord Irving/David
Johnson


CSSEA: New CEO hired. (add name). Whistler conference – write summary in here about CSSEA’s
latest stuff.
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BCCJA (BC Criminal Justice Association): Discussion ongoing about location of congress in 2013.
Will be in BC but decision not made yet whether it will be in Vancouver or Surrey. Vancouver
Island Criminal Justice Association (VICJA) has been formed. President is Vaughn Barrett. Victoria
Boys and Girls Club and John Howard Society of North island are interested in joining.
Co-op: They had their AGM. Still searching for new CEO. Acting CEO is doing a good job.
Financially, it had a good year. Membership has increased significantly.
BC Corrections: Paul Barnett will try again to invite Brent Merchant to our next meeting.
Old Business
Adult Forensic: Nothing of importance to report.
Board Voice: Coming up to its AGM on Dec 2/3. Making some progress towards making
connections with key provincial officials. Board Voice is useful in capturing the opinions of the
governance bodies. Paul Barnett offered to send a letter of thanks to the Fed. (why? Check in).
Thank you note to Jennifer who is stepping down as CEO of Fed.

Future Directions for PARCA: Tim Agg reported on his recent experiences in UK and Africa. He
noted the size and scale of the UK youth justice operations. The excessive focus on risk
management over the last few years has overshadowed other possibilities. The Youth Justice
Board was a creation of the labour governments ‘get tough on crime’ agenda. Well-funded but
now undergoing 20% funding cuts. Centralized decision-making and policy-making structure which
was very heavy on paperwork and bureaucracy including endless risk assessments every time a
youth moved has been modified to lessen the burden and transfer some of the power to local
authority thus making a more decentralized system. BC is ahead of the UK in terms of alternatives
to custody. They are held back by their intense risk assessment stuff.
Kenya – international institute on special needs offenders (branches in various countries including
Canada). Justice modernization going on in several African countries. Partnered with IISNO in
Nairobi. Conference was hosted by office of ministry of home affairs and institute (Canadian
branch). Most useful advice coming from Canada. All the alternatives to custody strategies that
were spawned by YCJA were of interest. Tim got scooped up to speak at conference.
Rehabilitation programs within Namibian custody centres. Tim looking for government to
government networking and sharing of materials. Tim was able to visit three facilities operated by
their youth services (i.e. not criminal justice) – remand, assessment and rehabilitation centres.
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Really awful physical facilities but people were very child-centred. Take pride in the number of
kids in the system that complete their education; emphasis on vocational training.
Their use of custody is outrageous compared to Canada – high use for minor offences. Do now
have a community service option but long (year) and a couple of hours a day so pretty harsh
sentence. Brand new constitution containing a bill of rights (incorporating key UN documents such
as Rights of the Child) is driving the change. Looking towards Canada for ideas and advice.
Federal Government Crime Bill: Editorials opposing the omnibus bill showing up in almost every
major newspaper. Most of the costs will fall to the provinces. Tim Agg wondered whether there
will be opportunities for more community alternatives to lessen the negative impacts of the crime
bill.
Awards: Paul Barnett will follow up on this.
New Business
Next meeting
Statutory Release and impact on CRFs: Parole Board are not releasing guys right now – we`re
seeing fewer guys coming out on day parole.
Domestic Violence Issues: Challenge of where to assign the accused partner of domestic violence
in order to protect the victim – e.g. Vancouver Island – why not send accused to another area
rather than force victim to relocate. (Look this one up – offender suicided, local victim who is wellknown. Brian Saunderson was judge. Why was charge aggravated assault and not attempted
murder)
February 15 - 16: Victoria. E Fry will book at Grand Pacific. Alan Markwart is scheduled. Paul
Barnett and Dave Johnson will speak to others.

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Next PARCA meetings:
1) Victoria, February 15 – 16, 2012
2) Prince George, June 6 – 7, 2012
Nov 2011
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