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By Dylana Kneeshaw

SOBERING CENTRE

City to urge province to support sobering centre in Kamloops

Jan 13, 2021 | 8:22 AM

KAMLOOPS — Council has voted in favour of a proposal to once again seek provincial approval for a sobering centre in Kamloops.

Mayor and council voted on a proposal yesterday (Jan. 12) to send a letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix and Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson which would reiterate the need for a sobering centre in the city and reintroduce the business case for it. The motion was previously put forward at a December 11 session with the city’s community services committee in 2020.

The joint letter on the business case for detox beds and a sobering centre would be drafted by RCMP Superintendent Syd Lecky, and Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian.

Currently, when RCMP are called to deal with intoxicated people causing a disturbance, they’re brought to the cells in the detachment. While those individuals are sobering up, officers are required to regularly check to ensure they’re still breathing and don’t need urgent medical attention.

This is on top of their regular duties and given that officers are not medical professionals, the system has potential for unintended consequences.

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For example, in March of 2019, 49-year-old Randy Lampreau was arrested for public intoxication and brought to the Kamloops detachment. He later died in cells, despite the regular check-ins from the officers on duty. The Independent Investigation Office of B.C. found no police wrong doing in the standard of care he was given, while Lampreau’s family questioned whether the detachment was the appropriate holding facility. (See previous)

Similar situations have prompted calls from the Independent Investigations Office of B.C., the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, and municipalities for intoxicated people to be brought to a medical centre rather than an RCMP detachment. A sobering centre in Kamloops has been vocally supported by Christian over the last few years. (See previous)

“It is unfair to them and it is unfair to the Kamloops detachment and to the citizens of Kamloops to continue to use that as a form of a holding centre,” the mayor stressed at Tuesday’s council session. “This is a medical condition that requires a medical intervention and we’ve said it before and we will be saying it again on the strength of this motion.”

The letter will be drafted and sent off to the provincial ministries within the next several days.