Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jul 2007
Source: Aldergrove Star (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Central Fraser Valley Star Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.aldergrovestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/989
Author: Tom Fletcher
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)

SUMMER IN THE CITY, NOT SO PRETTY

The "honour system" has finally been abandoned on the  Greater 
Vancouver buses. The establishment of "fare  paid zones" beyond the 
driver's seat and at least the  theoretical appearance of someone to 
check tickets is  an effort to stem the problem of people refusing to 
pay  and assaulting drivers who remind them the ride isn't  quite free.

It seems that once a city reaches a certain size, it  doesn't have 
enough honour left for honour systems.  Surveys indicated that Ottawa 
doesn't yet have bus  anarchy, but Toronto does.

A relieved Vancouver bus driver interviewed on TV said  being spit on 
wasn't the worst of it. He's also been  punched, kicked and pulled 
from his seat while the bus  was moving.

Here in Victoria the Canada Day fireworks has been  known for a 
finale involving drunken brawls on the  upper deck of those 
London-style buses. (No reports yet  of fights breaking out in 
horsedrawn carriages or  rickshaws, but with international soccer 
matches in  town I'm not ruling it out.) Victoria's just 
reaching  the critical mass where such night-time public events  are 
surrendered and the downtown streets given over to  purveyors of the 
nightly buffet of blood, pee and pavement pizza.

Then there is the illegal drug problem. Victoria's  mayor still 
believes in something called a "safe  injection site," as the city 
looks for a new home for  its blight of a "needle exchange program." 
Nanaimo's  pilot project to hand out crack pipes has sputtered out 
like a spent Bic lighter, due to threats from  ungrateful recipients.

The Capital Regional District, which still can't keep  its emergency 
radio system working, is right on the  ball. They've just instituted 
a crackdown, not on  crack, but on outdoor patio smoking. New 
provincial regulations are being worked out now to bar 
smoking  around doorways and windows as of next year, but that's  not 
far or fast enough for some urban social engineers.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is offering a bit of fresh  air on the 
drug problems that plague his city. He's  moving on from the "safe 
injection" and "needle  exchange" stopgaps that promote continued 
abuse. Give  the hardcore addicts legal pills that approximate the 
ups and downs of cocaine and heroin, he suggests, and  at least they 
have a hope of getting off the mean  streets.

But the most sensible strategy is coming from  Vancouver-Burrard MLA 
Lorne Mayencourt, who earlier  pioneered the radical notion that 
pedestrians, like bus  drivers, shouldn't have to put up with being 
threatened  or assaulted. He has been touring the province 
to  promote the model of the San Patrignano treatment  community in 
Italy, a remote self-contained rural  facility where people can check 
in and stay for three  to five years, drug-free and working at a real 
job. It has more than 2,000 people in voluntary attendance, 
and  claims a 75 per cent success rate.

Mayencourt has identified a preferred location, a  former radar 
station called Baldy Hughes located 30 km  southwest of Prince 
George. It offers a dormitory,  mobile home pads, welding and 
woodworking shops, a  bowling alley, curling rink and gym.

Prince George already has its share of big-city  problems, being a 
service centre for the medical,  social and penal needs of the 
province's north. But it  too could benefit from this refreshing 
approach to the  low-level crime, panhandling and prostitution that 
is intertwined with drugs in urban centres.

There are other remote locations around the province  that could take 
a similar approach. It seems like a  better idea than waiting for 
Vancouver or Victoria to  develop something that actually has a 
chance of  working.

COMMUNITY COURTS

Vancouver is the site of another pilot project, a  community court. 
Attorney General Wally Oppal has high  hopes for this project, which 
has hearings underway led  by provincial court judge Thomas Gove.

The court will deal with the break-ins and other  low-level offences 
that form the revolving door for  drug addicted repeat offenders. The 
idea is to direct  offenders to treatment, housing and employment 
services  to break the cycle of crime and drugs. If it's  successful, 
community courts would be established in  other B.C. centres.

While this approach has had some successes in the  United States, the 
U.K and Australia, I have to wonder  how effective it will be if it 
keeps people in and  around Vancouver, or New Westminster or Surrey.

Perhaps a solution lies in combining the community  court or drug 
court model with Mayencourt's suggested  retreat. Getting people away 
from the open drug and sex  bazaar that is tolerated in major urban 
areas, and  doing it for a period of years, might make the  difference.

BUS FARE PROTEST

"Activists" in Vancouver were out to protest a six per  cent increase 
in transit fares last week. That's two  bits for a one-zone fare, or 
10 to 15 cents for those  who buy passes.

These sorts of protests are generally orchestrated by a  group that 
styles itself the "bus riders' union." They  want you to think they 
represent the working poor, but  these are the people who came to 
prominence by breaking  up transit authority meetings with threats, 
shouts, and  the general miasma of anarchist behaviour that's become 
commonplace in Vancouver.

Their antics are eerily similar to those of the  "anti-poverty 
activists" who periodically manufacture a  confrontation at Olympic 
events. They want free  housing, transit, food, drugs, whatever. 
Increasingly,  they get it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom