Pubdate: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 Vancouver Courier Contact: 1574 W. 6th Ave, Vancouver BC V6J 1R2 Fax: (604) 731-1474 Website: http://www.vancourier.com/ Author: Allen Garr MAYOR BASKS IN THE SUN'S SHINE A fifth pillar has been added to Mayor Philip Owen's Four Pillar approach to drug problems in Vancouver. We already have the original ones: prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction. Each supports the others, we are assured, in a much-needed synchronicity that guarantees success. The new pillar on the block is the Vancouver Sun, its editor Neil Reynolds and his uncommon support for the other four pillars. I should say at the outset that I'm a big fan of what the mayor is up to on this issue. I'm not certain it will work, but obviously the War on Drugs is destructive, costly and ineffective. I should also say that you expect an opinion from me, not just the facts. What you expect from the news pages of the Vancouver Sun is something more balanced than what you might find in an editorial column, and I'm not sure that's what you're getting. In fact, there is growing evidence that the Sun's relationship to this issue is mutually beneficial. Several months ago, the paper launched a high-profile 12-part series on the city's drug problem and possible solutions. The effort was trumpeted by the Sun as the most significant journalistic venture ever undertaken. It's no secret the paper expects the series will win it a national award. Inquiring reporters were sent around the globe and across the continent, then plunged into the grim reality of the Downtown East Side. All of this coincided with the release of the Mayor's Framework For Action, which lays out the strategy and hopes to kick-start the provincial and federal governments into throwing some money at the drug problem. So far so good. Owen's framework "draft discussion paper" was leaked to the Vancouver Sun first. Politician assists friendly media. Hardly news. Since then, the relationship between the mayor's office and the Sun has grown closer. I am reliably informed that the paper has put a request in to the mayor's office to endorse its series for the award it hopes to win. The mayor is currently hosting a series of forums to promote debate and sell the package to the public. The flyer announcing the meetings along with a message from the mayor was distributed by the Sun for free. Each meeting begins with a panel of speakers. I was at the first one at the Vancouver Public Library. For reasons nobody has been able to explain to me, beyond mutual admiration or reflected glory, each panel includes a reporter from the Sun, along with the expected doctors, police, educators and coroners, representing each of the original four pillars. A Sun reporter also covered the meeting at the library. She managed to estimate the crowd at 50 per cent higher than the number I came up with. Bigger crowds make better news. The $14,000 publicly funded poll to measure citizen acceptance of the mayor' s plan released last week was also helpful to the Sun. It's not uncommon for politicians or soap salesmen to poll people on where they heard about an issue or a product. While all Vancouver news organizations have reported on the mayor's scheme, the poll only asked questions about the Sun and its 12-part series. Essentially, the public purse paid for a reader survey, thanks to the mayor. The Sun learned how many people read all or part of the series, along with demographic statistics including their age, gender, education level and where they lived in the city. None of this information was reported in the paper's front-page coverage of the poll results—which, by the way, showed significant support for the mayor's plan. The following day, a Sun editorial called for "action on drugs." The difficulty in all of this is that, now that one of the usually reliable observers of the scene has become a player, it's harder for the rest of us to find the truth. This fifth pillar may do more to block light than shed any on the issue - --- MAP posted-by: GD