Pubdate: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Suzanne Fournier, The Province Cited: Pivot Legal Society http://www.pivotlegal.org/ Cited: British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS http://www.cfenet.ubc.ca Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Insite (Insite) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Tony+Clement MOUNTIES ACCUSED OF BEING ANTI-SUPERVISED INJECTION SITE Vancouver's Pivot Legal Society is demanding the federal auditor- general investigate the RCMP's role in trying to negatively skew public and political perceptions of Vancouver's Insite supervised injection facility. Armed with six internal emails showing the RCMP paid for two negative studies and then tried to obscure its own role in the research, Pivot lawyer Doug King also revealed a deliberate RCMP bid to influence a CBC show by asking police officers to call in with criticisms of Insite. The emails also show RCMP tried to influence Conservative MPs to shift away from harm reduction as a drug strategy. King pointed out that federal Health Minister Tony Clement has repeatedly cited the RCMP research as evidence the largely-positive peer-reviewed research on Insite was wrong. "The RCMP are supposed to be acting as peace officers for the citizens of Canada, and we think it is an abuse of public funds for the RCMP to fund a cynical critique of health-based research," King said in Vancouver Wednesday. In one email exchange, former RCMP Cst. Chuck Doucette of "E" division in B.C., reported to his superiors that one of the studies "has now been published . . . as per our request, the report has no reference to the RCMP." The RCMP-backed studies commissioned in 2006, one by Colin Mangham, director of the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, and the other by SFU criminologist Garth Davies, are at odds with more than 20 academic studies that found Insite has cut back drug overdose deaths and checked soaring HIV rates in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In May 2008 Doucette advised 17 email recipients, including Vancouver Police, RCMP and the author of one of the studies, to swamp CKNW's Bill Good with negative calls about Insite. And Doucette referred to the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS as the "Centre for Excrements." In another email, RCMP Insp. Lise Crouch, in charge of the RCMP Drugs and Organized Crime Awareness Service, says that RCMP lobbying seemed to be working: "The MPs that spoke to us at our meeting indicated that was the direction they wanted to go in. "As we know, with a minority government, it isn't going to change overnight, but, at least we know this is what they will be pushing for when they can." On Wednesday, RCMP Cst. Annie Linteau, spokesperson for E division, said she hadn't seen the emails but insisted "it's not unusual for us to do research on a semi-regular basis. We're not academic researchers, we're not scientists, we rely on outside experts quite often. We hire and consult with people to conduct research for us." Linteau said it was just coincidental that the RCMP-funded research was negative toward Insite "although we do not support the legalization of any criminally-illicit substance or anything that encourages its use." Linteau confirmed that Davies was paid $5,000 for his study while Mangham received $10,000. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake