Pubdate: Wed, 09 May 2012
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Mark Hasiuk

CITY HALL CODDLES, PROTECTS POISONOUS PRO-DOPE LOBBY

Vancouver is the inversion capital of Canada. What Nietzsche called 
transvaluation blooms in full colour, where the absurd is reasonable, 
the perverse now sacred.

For example. The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, better known 
as VANDU, headquartered at 380 East Hasting in the Downtown Eastside. 
To identify the majority of neighbourhood residents with VANDU is 
ignorant. To confuse VANDU with other activists is to diminish all 
activism. To call VANDU radical is to libel radicals worldwide. 
According to VANDU's "manifesto for a Drug User Liberation Movement" 
available online, people have the "right to obtain, prepare, and 
ingest drugs-to deal with psychological trauma or physical pain, or 
for pleasure or fun." This philosophy, enablement on steroids, 
undermines the basic tenets of drug rehabilitation in a neighbourhood 
steeped in crack, heroin and crystal meth.

Despite claims of bloated membership, VANDU is mainly Ann Livingston, 
longtime leader, whose handful of acolytes elbow and intimidate 
around the Downtown Eastside. Last month at city hall, a VANDU-led 
mob stormed council chambers to protest an East Hastings condo 
development called Sequel 138. According to a VANDU statement, the 
development will cause "disruption and displacement of drug markets" 
in the neighbourhood.

A rogue group, you say. Unaffiliated, without backing from any 
reputable source. Think again.

Since 1999, VANDU has fed from the public trough. Last year, 
Vancouver Coastal Health, your public health authority, gave VANDU 
$250,000 and another $250,000 in 2012, not including $40,913 for 
VANDU's participation in VCH's crack pipe giveaway program. Why VANDU 
needs $40,913 to hand out crack pipes remains a mystery. Funding from 
city hall ($20,000 last year, $20,000 this year) pales in comparison. 
But here's the kicker. Since 2006, VANDU headquarters on East 
Hastings has operated without permits, a prerequisite for any 
business, non-profit or hotdog stand in the city. According to 
documents obtained by the Courier through Freedom of Information 
legislation, in February 2007 "after receiving complaints from area 
residents," city staff ordered VANDU to apply for a development 
permit. VANDU sought and received a 60-day reprieve, which expired on 
June 13, 2007. Since then, nothing. Well, almost nothing.

Email transcripts from early 2012 (also obtained through FOI) include 
conversations between Livingston and Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer. 
Livingston complains about "vending" bylaw enforcement in the 
Downtown Eastside, Reimer says it's "frustrating to hear it's still 
happening." Nothing about VANDU's outstanding permit situation.

Incidentally, according to the Province newspaper, during last 
month's VANDU-led protest at city hall, Reimer brokered a "30-minute 
informal information session" for protesters to speak even though 
Sequel 138 wasn't on the agenda. Next election, Reimer should run a 
pro-VANDU campaign so voters know where her sympathies lie.

Seventeen additional pages of VANDU-related email transcripts-four 
involving Mayor Gregor Robertson-are redacted, deemed off limits to 
public eyes.

Back on East Hastings, Manzoor Hussain, an immigrant from Pakistan, 
stands behind the counter at S. Amen Foods, a small convenience store 
next door to VANDU. Tall and burly with a black tuft of hair, Hussain 
points to the business licence hanging on his wall. He renews it 
yearly-$327 in 2012. Mention VANDU to Hussain, then stand back. "I 
complain so many times to the [VANDU] management," he says, all hands 
and gestures. "It's one thing after another."

To swell its ranks, VANDU offers $3 stipends to supporters who line 
up outside Hussain's store, creating a human barrier for his 
customers. During one incident, Hussain's front window was smashed. 
It cost him $600 to replace it. "I have to follow the rules, but they 
get away with anything they want. Why?"

Why, indeed. City hall won't say. But consider this. According to a 
spokesperson from the city's development services department, during 
any permit application process, city staff must consider the 
applicant's "impact on potential neighbours." Most probably, any 
honest analysis of VANDU's impact on the 300 block of East Hastings 
would result in a permit denial, probable court case and eventual 
eviction. Apparently, that just won't do. When it comes to city 
permits, your friendly neighbourhood prodope lobbyists need not apply.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom