Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2002 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: Allen Garr Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?213 (IDEAS Symposium) ODD SQUAD COP BACK ON HOT SEAT OVER E-MAIL A Note To The New Vancouver Police Chief: Once you settle into your new offices, you're going to have to get after those cowboy cops in the Odd Squad. They're still up to their old tricks, bad-mouthing the city's drug policy here and abroad. There's an internal investigation into their role at last May's IDEAS drug conference in Vancouver. That little gathering, funded in part by the ultra-right, Florida-based Drug Free America and the deep pockets of local religious fundamentalist Bob Bentall, was set up solely to attack Mayor Philip Owen's "four pillar" approach to dealing with this city's chronic drug problem. Odd Squad cops provided logistical support, including, apparently, using an unmarked police car to pick up conference guests at the airport. One city cop regaled the exclusive crowd at the conference with a whole wall of confidential criminal records he downloaded from a police computer, with the names blacked out. What now has police board members grinding their teeth is an intercepted e-mail written a month ago by Odd Squad constable Al Arsenault to a doctor in Belgium he met at the IDEAS conference. (Arsenault has so far failed to respond to my requests for verification of the e-mail.) In this electronic missive, Arsenault crows that things are finally going his way. A new War on Drugs is on the horizon and dramatic changes to the Downtown Eastside will happen after Owen leaves the scene. He writes: "The politics are rapidly changing here, with a new chief of police to be selected in a few days time, some new right-wing police board members and a new mayor to follow in a few months." Indeed, his kindred spirits in the Community Alliance have succeeded in invading the NPA board and driving Owen from office in favour of Jennifer Clarke. They've also been lobbying their friends in Victoria to dump the NDP appointees on the police board and put in more, um, reasonable people. Victoria is reviewing all police board appointees and will put its own guys in after the civic election. Arsenault seems to be taking a page from the next mayor as she gets rid of the downtown "ghetto" block by block. He tells his Belgian friend that "the steamroller of gentrification is on the move." Let me know if you need a copy of this document. Thanks aren't necessary. I consider it a public service. Best of luck. --- Vancouver's mayor apparent Jennifer Clarke should do her homework before she decides to chew out COPE councillor Tim Louis again. For weeks now, Louis has had a motion making its way through the machinery at city hall to criticize the 2010 Olympic Bid Corporation for not being more transparent about its proposal. Between the time Louis introduced his motion and when it came up for debate, the Bid Corporation reversed itself and issued the bid mini-book. This was long after other bidders posted their proposals on various web sites. On Tuesday, Louis withdrew his motion and thanked the Bid Corporation for delivering the goods. He added that his motion and the prospect of a public debate helped turn the 2010 guys around. Clarke couldn't let it pass and rose to say that, essentially, Louis was delusional if he thought there was any relationship between his motion and the release of the bid book. The release was going to happen anyway. She's wrong. Bid corporation president John Furlong convinced the rest of the committee to keep the material secret. It was only increasing public pressure, comments in the media and the prospect of a city council debate that convinced Furlong the bid book had to come out to avoid a public relations disaster. Without the heat, there would have been no light. But then the mayor apparent would rather eat worms than admit COPE ever got it right. - --- MAP posted-by: Ariel