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.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake