Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 13, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Submissions to the Winnipeg free press editorial Board View from the West members Are Bob Cox Gerald flood Catherine Mitchell Tom Oleson Dave Obrien cartoonist Dale Cummings Are Welcome. Contact six month View from the West Archive available online at comment editor Gerald flood 697-7269 ? 2006 Winnipeg free press a division of up Canadian Andrew s. Ritchie / publisher newspapers limited partnership Bob Cox / editor Winnipeg free press est 1872 published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Patrick Flynn / Deputy editor a8 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697-7000 View vol 134 no 249 a member of the Manitoba press Council Winnipeg free press sunday August 13, 2006 Why can to City police solve More sex assaults i keep waiting for the outrage. About a month ago the Winnipeg police service released its crime statistics in its 2005 annual report and there was some Rea son to celebrate. Overall crime statistics have gone Down by six per cent compared to the same period last year. Since the release of the report columnists have been Busy writ ing about thefts from inside vehicles and the negative Impact that has had on our tourism. Hidden amongst the numbers is a statistic that made my blood turn cold. Winnipeg a clearance rate for sexual assault crimes stands at 37 per cent. Basically what this Means is that of the 672 sexual assault com plaints that occurred in Winnipeg in 2005, 471 remain unsolved. This does to include cases where police have made the decision that they can to proceed any fur ther because of the Lack of evidence or because the guns of August world conflicts could ignite More serious conflagration the Case would to make it in court. These Are cases where police can to solve the crime. That a frightening. By comparison 96 per cent of the homicides were cleared 68 per cent of the assaults and 89 per cent of the attempted murders. Only robbery had a lower clearance rate ? at 34 per cent. Winnipeg a clearance rate for sexual assault crimes is lower than Canadas aver age which stands at 60 per cent. Even Regina has a higher clearance rate at 45 per cent. And perhaps even More depressing is that the rate has been dropping ? in Winnipeg its Down from 53 per cent in 2001. So i have to ask ? where is our outrage Over this Why is our clearance rate in Winnipeg so abysmally Low when i was complaining about this to a male Friend his first response was that its probably because its difficult to catch the Guy responsible. But that does to make any sense either. In 87 per cent of the sexual assault cases the perpetrator is known to the victim. He a a Friend an acquaintance or even More disgusting a Stepfather father or rela Tive. Its not like there Are Bushy haired strangers jumping out of the Hedges and rap ing women and children. These Guys Are generally known. Recently the Case of Peter Whitmore made headlines across the country. Whitmore is a known paedophile who recently was implicated following the abduction of two boys ? one from Winnipeg and another from Saskatchewan. He a been charged with sexually assaulting both boys. Canadas Justice minister Vic Toews quickly responded by calling for an expansion of the dangerous offenders provision in the criminal code As it refers to sexual predators. There Are currently provisions in place to lock up repeat offenders of sexual violence and other crimes to prevent them from re offending. But Here a the kicker Vic the cops actually gotta charge the Guy first. And its Clear from our numbers in Winnipeg that a not happen ing. Its really hard not to become cynical when looking at the statistics on sexual assault in this country. We know that with 672 cases reported in Winnipeg in 2005, there Are Many More that never become known to the police. Some statistics suggest that close to 80 per cent of sexual assault crimes Are never reported. We also know that close to 40 per cent of women surveyed have said that they be experienced some form of sexual Vio Lence. We know that Young women and girls Are particularly vulnerable. So Are Little boys women who Are disabled immigrant and aboriginal women. Victims Tell counselling Cen tres that they re afraid of going to court afraid of the Media treatment they la receive afraid that police wont help them anyway. Given the crime stats released last month who can blame them for staying at Home when the police do actually Lay charges it is difficult to get a conviction. In fact in 1998/99, Only one in three court cases led to the perpetrator being convicted. This has to do in Large part because of the Way the Laws Are set up and because of societal stereotypes about sexual violence. To be fair maybe that a Why Winnipeg a clearance rate is so Low. Maybe cops Are looking at their limited resources and deciding instead to pursue crimes that at least result in a conviction. I Don to know. Repeated inquiries to get the Winnipeg police service to provide me with an explanation went unanswered. I Hope that Means they were too Busy chasing the bad Guy to respond to my questions. I Hope. For those of you who have lost your Dodge caravan because some idiot 16-year old wanted to take it for a Joy ride on a Friday night i can understand your frustration. But for those of you who have a daughter a wife a Girlfriend or a sister who has been sexually victimized you know that what a been stolen from them is much dearer. And a 37 per cent clearance rate on this Type of crime is simply not Good enough. Lets get a Little outraged. Shannon Sampert teaches in the department of politics at the University of Winnipeg. U of m has its priorities straight by Terry Sargeant i write in response to the article universities have their Priori ties All wrong August 6, 2006. The University of Manitoba smis Sion is to create preserve and communicate knowledge and thereby contribute to the cultural social and economic Well being of the people of Manitoba Canada and the world. The programs and initiatives we undertake As an institution focus on meeting these goals within the fiscal realities within which we live. Our priorities Are excellence in teaching research and Community service ? hardly priorities that could be considered All the University of Manitoba is the provinces largest University and Only medical doctoral research intensive University. To operate a first class medical doctoral University requires being Able to attract and retain the Best faculty students and administrators. In order to do so the compensation provided to them must strive to be competitive with other comparable universities in our Region ? the universities of British Columbia Alberta Calgary and Saskatchewan. If we do not offer competitive compensation we will not be Able to retain the excellent administrators we presently have nor will we be Able to recruit the candidates we need for these Leader ship positions when vacancies occur. At the present time our administrators compensation like those of our faculty lags behind our sister institutions in the West. For example in 2005, the salary of the president of the University of Manitoba was the second lowest for presidents of the other Western Canadian medical Doc toral universities despite president Emoke Szathmary being the longest serving president among the group. The articles authors ? Garry sran Meghan Gallant and Dorothy Wigmore ? feel that the University of Manitoba spends too much on administrative costs. The facts How Ever Tell a different Story. The University of Manitoba a total percentage of administration costs including administrative salaries is 7.3 per cent of total expenditures compared with the National average of 16.9 per cent ? the second lowest among medical doctoral universities in Canada. It is Worth noting that the refer ence to vice president Deborah Mccallum a increase was unfair As it did not also note that during the period reported she was promoted from associate vice president to vice president. It is also Worth noting that compensation for All employees at the University has increased in the reporting period and while the writ ers of the article included the annual performance increments in the reported salary increases for administrators they did not note that most faculty members received increments in addition to their three per cent increases. The University of Manitoba is moving Forward and delivering on its mandate to serve the needs of Manitoban. In the last number of years significant infrastructure improvements have been made on both University campuses research funding has increased As have donations to the University especially in areas of student support. These Are challenging times for our University and our administrative team led by president Szathmary is doing an excellent Job in building an Ever stronger University of Manitoba. To provide a competitive compensation to these highly sought after administrators is not Only reasonable but to not do so would be irresponsible. Terry Sargeant is chair of the univer sity of Manitoba a Board of governors ;