London Drugs forms anti-crime coalition with other BC retailers

The London Drugs on Granville Street. (Daily Hive)

Several retailers across the province are banding together to ask the government for more protection from theft and violent crime.

Members of the new coalition, “SOS Save Our Streets,” include London Drugs, businesses from Nanaimo and Nelson, and Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers.

“More and more British Columbians are afraid to walk in their own streets and shopping districts, employees fear being assaulted at work, and local businesses are losing millions from brazen in-store theft that leads to higher prices for BC families,” the coalition said in a statement.

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Spokespeople from the member organizations spoke in Vancouver on Monday morning for the official launch and to call on the provincial and federal governments to make immediate changes.

“I never thought I’d be at a press conference, in my role, that I’d have to be authorizing certain staff members to be wearing stab vests, but that’s the extremes that we’re having to take to protect our staff… and that’s not okay,” London Drugs President Clint Mahlman said Monday.

This comes after Mahlman had to respond to concerns earlier this month that London Drugs was considering closing locations in the coming years as a result of crime.

The company said it would only close stores as a last resort but added staff safety is a concern amid “escalating violence, vandalism, and economic loss.”

“The escalation in crime and violence in our communities has reached epidemic proportions. And it’s been building for a very long time. And governments and justice administration officials need to step up and do their jobs to make our streets safer,” Mahlman urged.

Karen Kuwica, vice president of the Nanaimo Area Public Safety Association, also called on the government to do more to prevent the ongoing crime she says she’s seeing in her community.

“My neighbourhood has lost half of its businesses due to social disorder, [and] fire and safety concerns. Violence and crime are symptoms of a larger cause, and treating the symptom alone will not cure the cause. We need to cure both with reformed social policy that can restore civil society rather than doubling down on what we already know is failing,” Kuwica said.

Last year, the province unveiled its plan to address repeat offenders, but critics at the announcement on Monday said there’s been no action.

“Our fellow British Columbians are nervous, frustrated, and many are afraid. As you’ve heard, the government has the ability to change that. But to do that, they need to hear from us all of us. Governments have the resources, the expertise, the legal and legislative authority and the responsibility to make changes that are needed to make communities feel safe again,” Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers president Adam Jaffer said.

You can read the report in its entirety here.