VANCOUVER – Back-to-school jitters have taken on unsettling new meaning at a British Columbia institute that trains people to work law-and-order’s front lines after Mounties said ten victims of arsons and shootings are linked to the school.
Officials at the Institute of Justice B.C.’s main campus in New Westminster assembled staff and began contacting students the same day classes resumed this week to inform them security has been stepped up at all seven teaching sites.
“We’ve been working on this and trying to understand it and trying to get our minds around what has happened,” institute president Jack McGee said in an interview Wednesday.
“The challenge is we don’t know why this is happening, we don’t know who is causing it and what the motivation is, and so all of that is in our thinking.”
RCMP have dedicated several investigators to the case since a detective made the unusual connection in late July to otherwise seemingly unrelated attacks.
Police say between April and July, three institute employees, two past students and five people with loose ties to the school have been victimized, though no one has been physically injured. A further suspicious incident occurred in August.
The past violence includes arson of homes and cars, while shots were fired at other residences and vehicles. The incidents were spread throughout the Lower Mainland and none occurred on any campus.
Mounties aren’t saying much about exactly who was targeted to avoid compromising the investigation, said Cpl. Holly Marks, an RCMP spokeswoman based in Langley.
“It could be janitorial staff, it could be BC ambulance trainees, the sheriffs train there, it could be any other agency — but at this point, not one is a police officer,” she said.
The investigators are still trying to determine what’s behind the threats, she said. They say no one else is currently believed to be at risk, but Marks couldn’t explain why.
Some 30,000 students attend the institute or take their wide-ranging degree, certificate and individual course offerings each year. There are programs for everyone from police and fire fighters to paramedics, emergency management and negotiators.
The institute moved to increase campus police patrols and review its security systems after police first alerted them to the situation in early August.
“The police are certainly doing everything they can, we couldn’t ask for more I don’t believe,” McGee said, adding the institute has also made counsellors available for anyone feeling unease.
Staff were able to ask questions at the Tuesday forum, while McGee said he’d already had some discussions with students Wednesday morning about their concerns.
“They had some very serious comments and very good ones,” he said. “I think that they’re resilient and they seem to understand the situation and they seem to be focusing on their studies. But this is obviously in the back of their minds.”
The union representing 206 staff at the institute is closely monitoring the unfolding situation, said Oliver Rohlfs, a spokesman for the B.C. Government and Services Employees Union.
“Health and safety of our members is paramount,” he said.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
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