Editorial cartoon of a police spotlight on a revolving courthouse door and a handgun-shaped weight cracking small-town pavement
Cartoon: repeat-offender promises meet the street-level public-safety test.
Bottom line: CJDC reports Dawson Creek RCMP say a repeat violent offender was arrested after officers allegedly found a loaded handgun during a traffic stop. That is exactly the kind of street-level test B.C.’s public-safety promises are supposed to pass.

Dawson Creek residents are not asking for a slogan about public safety. They are asking why local police are still confronting cases like the one CJDC reported Friday: a man identified by Dawson Creek RCMP as a repeat violent offender back in custody after officers allegedly found a loaded .22-calibre handgun on his person during an August 17 traffic stop.

The current allegations must be treated as allegations. CJDC reports police said Stacy Laglace was stopped for an alleged Motor Vehicle Act offence, and that the BC Prosecution Service approved charges including carrying a concealed weapon or prohibited device, possession of a loaded prohibited firearm without authorization, breach of a probation order by possessing a weapon, and possession of a firearm while prohibited. CJDC says his next court appearance is scheduled for August 28.

The public-safety question is bigger than one accused person. According to CJDC, Dawson Creek RCMP identified Laglace through the detachment’s Violence Suppression Team, a program launched in 2024 to target prolific violent offenders. Police also pointed to a previous history that included January 2025 convictions for driving while prohibited, possession of stolen property, mischief, and two counts of assaulting a police officer. CJDC further reports that Laglace faced April 2025 charges after police recovered a stolen pickup and alleged a shotgun, body armour, night-vision goggles and a crossbow were inside.

Those facts should make Victoria uncomfortable. If a person is allegedly carrying a loaded handgun while prohibited from possessing firearms and bound by probation terms, the issue is not whether officers can make another arrest. Dawson Creek RCMP did that. The issue is whether B.C.’s justice, corrections, probation, mental-health and public-safety systems are preventing the same small number of high-risk cases from cycling back to the street with escalating danger attached.

Premier David Eby’s government has had years to prove its repeat-offender response is more than a press-conference file. Communities have heard about tables, teams, hubs, targeted enforcement and better coordination. Some of those tools may help. But the measure is not the number of initiatives announced. The measure is whether police in places like Dawson Creek are still seizing loaded weapons from people they already know as violent repeat offenders.

The province should publish a repeat-offender results ledger by region: how many high-risk offenders are under active supervision, how many are breaching weapons or probation conditions, how quickly breaches are acted on, what supports are actually available, and what outcomes follow. If the plan is working, show the evidence. If it is not, stop burying the failure under program names.

Front-line officers can suppress risk for a night. They cannot substitute for a justice system that keeps dangerous patterns from repeating. Dawson Creek deserves more than another arrest report after the next loaded gun is found.

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