Studio Fair 2019 STUDIO 2880/COMMUNITY ART
TIME TO TAKE ACTION NOW: PAGE A12
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PRINCE GEORGE
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43rd Annual
Prince George Civic Centre
THURSDAY October 31, 2019
November 1, 2, 3 Fri: 10 am~8 pm · Sat: 10 am~6 pm Sun: 10 am~4 pm R0011749209 Northern BC’s Finest Professional Artisan Fair
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Downtown business owner fed up after assault
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out in the system - I dealt with all kinds of shit like these guys deal with - that was my life and that’s why my empathy was so high,” Roxburgh said. When street people walk in the door now, Roxburgh said her heart starts to pound. “What’s going to happen? Will I have something stolen?” she said. “Will I have to do a showdown? Will I have to tell them to leave? Will I get punched in the face?” Last Tuesday afternoon, a woman came into the store. “It breaks my heart to say it but I did stereotype her,” Roxburgh said. “So I watched
PRINCEGEORGECITIZEN
Drunks tie up resources, police say Citizen staff
Topaz Bead Gallery owner Kate Roxburgh has facial injuries she sustained during a robbery at her downtown store last week.
Citizen staff
Kate Roxburgh got punched in the face trying to stop a woman from robbing her downtown store. The owner of Topaz Bead Gallery had tried to stop a woman who pocketed an item from leaving the store. Roxburgh said she’s just had enough. “We’re either going to sell it, move it or close it,” Roxburgh said. Roxburgh, along with her partner Chris Gravenor, has had the store for 11 years and it’s always been located downtown with intent to add to the culture of the city streets. About eight years ago, Roxburgh, a retired social worker who worked with troubled youth
for 35 years, helped organize a program called the Community Warmth Tree where her store became the depot for knitters to bring their donations for the homeless. Roxburgh would facilitate that as a way to give back to the community most in need. Now things have changed. “My level of empathy and awareness of what it was like to be in that position has gone to that level to nothing - zero,” she said. “And I never in my life ever thought that I would be the person who would stereotype somebody walking into my store. I would call people out who used to do that. ‘How dare you make that statement about someone like that.’ But not now.” And that makes her really sad. “I was a kid in care - that was me - I aged
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
her because I have to watch people like that, so I watched her like a hawk and sure enough she picked something up and did the walk around, which is what they do and then they walk around a little more hoping you will ignore them and I saw her put the item in her pocket so I stood by the door and when she started to make her way out I told her I wanted what was in her pocket.” The woman immediately became defensive. “She said how ‘dare you say I’m a thief’ and I just said it’s in your pocket just give it back and I will gladly move from the door and you can leave,” Roxburgh said. “As this is transpiring I have a customer who’s Continued on page 3
A 37-year-old man spent more than 100 days or nights in cells sobering up in one year, from Sept. 1, 2018 to Aug. 31, 2019, Prince George RCMP say. At times the man has been in cells for several days or night in a row and even twice in one day. He was the source of 151 separate files in that 12-month period and more than 1,100 files in less than 10 years. He has spent more than a year of that sobering up in jail. A 59-year-old female has the second most contact with police with 112 files while a 33-year-old man has 91. The top 10 offenders were the source of 1,045 files. Most recently on what some people call Welfare Wednesday, when monthly income assistance payments are issued from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. eight persons were placed in cells for being so drunk they are unable to care for themselves. Frontline officers attend the call for the safety of those involved, which is not considered a criminal investigation, Cpl. Craig Douglass, media relations officer, wrote in a recent news release. Those people unable to take care of themselves are placed in police cells until sober. “With the lack of resources available to help these addicted persons, the Prince George RCMP will continue to work with our community partners to develop a better option to help these persons deal with their intoxication and ultimately, their addictions,” Douglass said. Read the latest updates at
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