By Lara Gerrits The Tri-City News

Jul 29 2007

It is unknown whether Coquitlam’s new pawnbrokers bylaw will be nixed or amended following a recent B.C. Court of Appeal ruling.

The ruling, which came down Thursday, killed a New Westminster bylaw that requires pawnbrokers share with police personal information about borrowers and sellers.

Coquitlam council passed a similar bylaw 5-3 last May.

“What we’ll be doing is reviewing our bylaw with the view of that decision and if there’s any changes that we need to make to bring it into compliance,” said Lisa Parkes, Coquitlam’s acting city solicitor.

The powers to regulate business fall under the Community Charter, which guides all B.C. municipalities except for Vancouver (which has its own charter). That means the aspects of Coquitlam’s bylaw mandating information sharing with the police could also be eliminated.

But city staff still need to review the details of the ruling to determine its applicability here.

The move to redraft the original bylaw — which did not require daily reports to police — came after city hall was inundated with phone calls from Maillardville residents concerned after Common Exchange (the only pawnshop in Coquitlam) moved from its prior North Road and Austin Avenue location to the corner of Lougheed Highway and Brunette Avenue.

Al Boire, president of the Maillardville Residents’ Association, pushed for more stringent controls on pawnshops to “curtail unwanted activity” there, but wasn’t entirely happy with the final result because it combined pawnshops with second-hand dealers — two very different businesses.

If the court ruling means Coquitlam RCMP will no longer receive daily reports from Common Exchange, the bylaw will lose one of its only good features, he said.

“That’s the only aspect of that bylaw that has any real curtailing effect on the [stolen property],” Boire said. “If the police have no ability to monitor the type of activity that’s going on in an establishment like that, then we might as well just say it’s open for business and away they go.”

Michael Isman, president of the BC Pawnbrokers Association and general manager of Royal City Jewellers and Loans Ltd. (which launched the court action), said disclosing all information to police is a “gross abuse of the individual’s privacy.”

“The purpose of the report [to police] is to locate stolen property so they know who brought it in and have a paper trail,” he said. “You don’t need the names and addresses and personal description of everybody until an item is found to be stolen. At that point, we’d be happy to comply with their request.”

The sale of stolen goods in pawnshops is a “rare occurrence,” he said, noting that when it does happen, the item has usually passed through so many hands, there is no way to trace its source.

But Coquitlam RCMP spokesperson Const. Brenda Gresiuk said any and all information is valuable.

“Any information we receive from the public, and [partnering] up with agencies and the city and [participating in] any initiative, are very positive things,” she said.

An officer is dedicated to reviewing pawnshop reports and checking them against police records to see if stolen items can be identified, she said.

John van Noordenne, operator of Common Exchange in Maillardville, said Friday he has been asked by head office not to comment because a press release will be issued Monday.

Because Monday is the last city council meeting until September, any possible bylaw changes wouldn’t pass until fall.