Pubdate: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 Source: Saanich News (CN BC) Contact: http://www.saanichnews.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1209 Author: Ian Cass HERE'S MY PRESCRIPTION FOR CLEANING UP THE DOWNTOWN Our daily newspaper is to be complimented for its recent extensive, on-the-spot coverage of the continued decay of the downtown core of the capital city of the province of B.C. Informing the public is a good first step towards dealing effectively with a problem. Unfortunately this problem has been around for 20 years and has been the subject of many thousands of words of coverage and, during that time has grown worse while the street population has increased. The main reason for this, of course, is that Victoria has become the Mecca for those who are street vagrants, drug addicts, panhandlers and, in general just wish to hang out with their peers and be a public expense and a public nuisance. They find that the weather is ideal, free food abounds, the police are friendly, free drugs are provided by government and the courts are understanding. What more could any genuine street person ask for? Actually, most of us support the idea that these people should be fed and housed if and when necessary. Many of us support the provision of drugs when medically needed and under controlled conditions. What we don't want is a system that perpetuates this social disaster. What we do want is a system that will give many of them their lives back and at the same time cut off the continual intake of new recruits into their ranks. First of all it will take money, it will take political courage and it will no doubt upset the human-rights activists who don't understand that belonging to any society demands some loss of personal freedom. This of course is a fact not well understood by many judges, lawyers and politicians. Before stating my views on the action needed, I want to point out that the final objective is to save lives. The nuisance value of a dying downtown area, the threats to the safety and well-being of the general public and the financial loss to downtown commerce enterprise and employment are important and need to be dealt with. However, the need to rescue those who can be rescued from this hopeless, dead-end and pointless existence is also important. We have to take action to restore family and marriage values so that young people can enjoy a stable home life in their formative years and are not abandoned by parents and left to the predation of TV and hanging about with their peers devoid of adult guidance. I have written at length on this subject and if we don't soon restore some family traditions and permanency to marriage, and a more loving and caring integration of all our young people into adult society, the street population will never be short of recruits. First of all, it must be understood that education authorities, law enforcement (police), local and provincial politicians, judges, courts, the legal profession and parents with growing children all have a responsibility in this matter and pointing fingers will not resolve anything, anymore than it did with leaky condos. First of all, it is essential that the basic approach to being a Canadian has been changed by the federal government who have opened the doors to millions of immigrants and now have no idea where they are or what they are. Being a Canadian must carry some responsibility or we will surely fail as a nation. Every adult person living in Canada must be identified as a Canadian citizen, an immigrant waiting to acquire citizenship, or a visitor here by right of a visa issued for a specified period. All persons should be issued with a photo identification card showing status, which should be carried on their person at all times and be available for security purposes if required. Those identified as immigrants should be upgraded to Canadian citizens within a specified period after meeting certain conditions and security checks. Now I can hear the shrieks of outrage from the voices of human rights and invasion of personal privacy stalwarts, and the cries of Hitlerism and militancy from all sides. Well folks, I gotta tell ya, if you have a driving licence -- which 90 per cent of you do have -- what's the difference? If you find that being identified as a Canadian citizen bothers you, maybe you're in the wrong country. The second action, which must be taken by Victoria's Mayor and Council in conjunction with the Minister of Municipal Affairs, is the issuance of bylaws that prohibit people from taking up residence on the streets or any other public property in the city at any time of the day or night. The third action is the issuance of other bylaws that give the police discretionary power to impose curfews requiring people to be off the street at night if they are deemed a public danger or create a public nuisance, or if they are homeless and without visible means of support. They may be directed to a shelter or if necessary detained in overnight facilities built for that purpose. Similar bylaws would also be needed to prevent begging, panhandling and public intimidation to extort money or cigarettes. The next item is to change the objective of the free drug hand-out program from one of support under controlled facilities to having an objective of achieving a cure. To that end, the provision of free drugs would continue but their use would be confined to facilities provided for that purpose and under regional health authority control. No drug equipment would be removed from this building and the use of drugs in public would be an offence. Persons taking advantage of free drugs would undertake to enter into a drug addiction corrective course as recommended by the medical agencies. The final item has to do with policing the area. I should precede these comments by saying that in the 50 years I have been writing about and involved in municipal affairs, I have been supportive of the police in the majority of their difficulties -- so keep that in mind. The most significant effect of the police in maintaining public order and safety is, without doubt, their presence. Over the past 20 years, since I first became a Saanich alderman, we have doubled the number of policemen/women in the Victoria/Saanich area. Despite this fact, the sense of police presence and their availability when on call to specific problems is now worse. In the worst area of Victoria, which covers only a few blocks, a constant police presence is essential. This means police on foot -- observing and being observed. This means at least six police in the area at all times. If special police have to be hired so be it. My own view is that we could have more police on patrol if we had fewer in the office pushing paper, watching computers or attending meetings. Finally, we will find that determined action of this kind will quickly put an end to the problem. If we continue with our indulgent approach fostered by human-rights activists and do-nothing politicians, the threadbare ability of government to govern will continue to erode and anarchy will surely follow. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh