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Following are a collection of reader responses to stories or letters to the editor for the first week of November 2024. They have been edited slightly for readability. 

Got something you want to add? Send an email to editor Marshall Jones at mjones@infonews.ca.

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Salmon Arm store breaches employee contract, but sues over $4,000 in training costs

I'm sure glad l don’t work for those people, some companies are not always honest. — Shev Friesen, via iNFOnews.ca

Eby says B.C. Greens not yet ready for minority talks as Furstenau stays Green leader

Again, this shows John Rustad to be Rusted. Nice turn of phrase and I’ll give it to you, Marshall. So he wants to lead this province? Nonsense, he just wants to hold another election and he would lose it. What an idiot. At least be gracious, as Eby is doing, congratulate the Greens and wait for the final outcome. Hmmm, looks like NDP will have a slim majority, hmmm. — Janis Joanne Thompson, via iNFOnews.ca 

iN PHOTOS: Kamloops deli making authentic European sausage for more than four decades

So good, love the cheeses and sausages and it smells so good in there. Love going in there for the European Christmas goodies as well. — Deborah Podurgiel, via iNFOnews.ca

JONESIE: How the BC Conservatives are already clearing decks for another election

How unfortunate. Kevin Acton got the shaft by his own party and the BC Conservatives would have been the better of two evils but in the end, they don’t want to see government that works together. They just want power and will sing whatever tune they think will help them win. — Bonnie Derry, via iNFOnews.ca

Meet the Kamloops man who cares for birds of prey, the creepiest of crawlies

Loved your article on Jamie Pearce the falconer. It was so interesting and informative. I love learning the stories of people we might walk by on the street, never realizing their history, how amazing they are, and how much we could learn from them. Great job. — Karen Klein, via email

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I lived and worked in Libya and one of the things that really struck me was the lack of vultures. One appreciates vultures or marabou storks to keep dead animals cleaned up, which I was used to by living in other countries with them. The usual method to dispose of a dead camel by the roadside was to pile truck tires around the carcass and set them on fire. The resultant smell had to be endured to be believed! — Daine Kelman, via email

Huge amount of cocaine seized during traffic stop on Trans-Canada in Shuswap

When one considers the thousands of cars that pass through the Salmon Arm area each day on Highway 1, it is truly a remarkable coincidence that police established a “joint enforcement roadblock” on exactly the day and time, that this particular vehicle was passing through the area. Yep, remarkable coincidence to be sure. — William Mastop, via iNFOnews.ca

Interior Health fined $274,000 after Penticton hospital staff exposed to illicit drugs

Somehow we have to get past this stupidity of one government agency fining another. Yes, bringing the issue to the attention of the other makes sense, but moving money from one pocket to the other only incurs additional expense and solves nothing. WorkSafe BC is a touch overbearing at best anyway, but to go after Interior Health with a fine is just bureaucratic idiocy. — Brian Porter, via email

OPEN LETTER: RCMP substation needed in Beaverdell

Editors note: This letter was sent to iNFOnews.ca along with the leaders of the major federal and provincial political parties, BC Attorney General and the MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay.

Dear Gentleman and Ladies,

I am writing to request all of your assistance in getting an RCMP substation returned to Beaverdell, British Columbia.

Beaverdell is an unincorporated town on Highway 33 in the Monashee mountains. It has grown to almost 2,000 people in the last ten years, with heavily increased traffic on Highway 33. Highway 33, due to geographical location, is almost 40 kilometres of no cell service except in isolated spots. The nearest RCMP are in Midway over an hour away, or from the Big White community policing office, still over an hour away. What this means to the citizens is the town is considered to be, as one regional district representative put it, "the wild, wild west" sadly, as the town is located 80 km south of Kelowna, the fifth or sixth richest town in Canada.

We have had incest, domestic violence, theft, beatings, gun fire rings out repeatedly and it's not from hunters, and of the children here, only nine have gone on to higher education, 13 or 14 have died from drug overdoses. Ministry staff is afraid to come here, and seniors here are afraid as well, even the local business owners of the Beaverdell Gas Station and the General Store feel the need for a police detachment.

Some eight women have gone missing along Highway 33, starting with Debbie Smith in Midway, and there is no transportation from Beaverdell to any other town, the closest is in Rock Creek, 45 minutes away. A trip to town, also includes too often passing dead bodies from car accidents as they await the RCMP to arrive to assist. In one instance, I left Beaverdell in the morning, past a dead body hanging from a tree, thrown there by the impact of his motorcycle accident and when I returned, the RCMP were in attendance and had placed a tarp over his suspended body, but he was still hanging from the tree.

Since the predominant number of voters in this area supported the Conservative Party of BC and their law and order campaign pitch, I hope the time is right that we will get the RCMP detachment returned to Beaverdell, and to that aim I hope the new MLA Donegal Wilson will continue the work of the previous MLA in getting an RCMP substation here. There is land owned by the community that is available to build on, and the need is desperate.

In conclusion, I am aware that money is tight, but this is desperate times, we have grown from 40 houses to over 440, and crime has increased substantially, not just a little, a lot. In 1995, the statistics for the Highway 33 corridor were 1,795 police stops, mostly drug related, and one rocket launcher, it has not improved.

Since it seems that most people want more law and order, please work together to help them help themselves, I am sure it would be much appreciated and it is so needed. The detachment at Midway is small, and as such are hard pressed to attend crime in Beaverdell, for the Kelowna rural detachment and Big White community policing office it means a drive of almost an hour and a half to attend, so we need help. I do hope you can put aside your differences and work together to assist and small but growing town with the need for policing.

Thank you,
Audrey L. Laville, BA, BSW (retired now, thankfully)

To contact a reporter for this story, email Marshall Jones or call 250-718-2724 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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