Pubdate: Thu, 18 Feb 2016
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Gordon Clark
Page: 12

IT'S TIME FOR VISION TO STOP PANDERING TO THE 4/20 CROWD

It's just 2/18, but 4/20 is already making headlines. This time it's 
the war of words between Sarah Kirby-Yung, the Non-Partisan 
chairwoman of the Vancouver park board, and Mayor Gregor Robertson, 
her political foe, about where the city's annual pot protest/excuse 
to fry your brain in public should be held.

At least it would be a war of words if the mayor would speak to 
Kirby-Yung and the citizens he, ahem, "serves" instead of displaying 
his usual level of leadership by staying out of sight and issuing one 
of his customary "brief statements" on the issue, if he even 
participates in writing those missives. My bet is they're cranked out 
by the political pit vipers who run his office.

 From the cringeworthy photos on the Instagram account of Wanting Qu, 
the mayor's much-younger Chinese popstar girlfriend, Vancouver's 
Justin Bieber-styled poster boy to male mid-life crisis sure looks 
like his dreamy-eyed focus lies elsewhere these days. The mayor and 
others insist his private life is beyond comment, but how is it 
private when they routinely share it through social media?

"Thank you for your love!" Qu moons to her "human" in a recent post. 
"I love you baby! To the moon and back!"

On moonbeams, one presumes. (Oh, come on. How could I not?)

What Robertson does in his private life, within reason, is his own 
business. But for them to flaunt it online shows real disrespect to 
his ex-wife, his kids, the office that he holds and is, frankly, 
pretty narcissistic. It might explain why he's too busy to meet with 
Kirby-Yung about 4/20, urging her to discuss her concerns with organizers.

While Kirby-Yung's heart is in the right place in raising concerns 
about city staff secretly urging the marijuana-sales industry to hold 
its annual toke-fest at Sunset Beach Park, her comments that the city 
- - not the park board - would need to cover the costs and "legal 
liabilities" of the event won't be of much interest to taxpayers. We 
pay, either way, after all. She is playing politics with the issue, 
looking for a chance to take a shot at Vision.

The real issue is why no one in any official capacity is trying to 
kill the highly disruptive stoner-fest that's long overstayed its 
welcome. Many residents are upset that public officials, including 
the cops, spend all their time and resources coddling the organizers 
and attendees of the illegal event instead of standing up for the 
majority of citizens who don't smoke pot, don't want public spaces 
overrun by happy hempsters and really hate being inconvenienced when 
4/20 takes over the roads, especially in the middle of a workday. 
April 20 is a Wednesday this year, by the way.

Robertson and the rest of the Vision crowd are to blame for the 
city's marijuana mess thanks to their liberal views on the issue. If 
4/20 had been properly policed in the past when it was small, it 
wouldn't have grown into the enforcement nightmare it is today. 
Thanks to Vision and its influence on policing policy, we now have 
mob rule, where the 4/20 organizers tell the city where they will 
meet, won't pay for policing, apply for event licences or give a hoot 
about the impact on others.

City hall isn't just providing bad government, they are offering no 
government and they are doing it to appeal to Vision's political base.

The same can be said for Vision's ridiculous plan (yet more overreach 
beyond their responsibilities as a municipal government) to license 
what are still illegal marijuana shops instead of policing them like 
every other local government in Canada.

And what is the result? Now that they've selected just 14 of 176 pot 
shops that applied for business licences, the appeals are beginning, 
which will burden city taxpayers with more unnecessary administrative 
and legal costs.

And, of course, the entire exercise has been overrun by federal 
politics, where newly elected Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 
is vowing to legalize and regulate marijuana. Whether you agree with 
Trudeau's view, he at least has a mandate and the legislative 
authority to work on the file. If Vancouver City Hall had competent 
managers, it would halt its licensing scheme and wait until the feds 
enact the new legal framework for pot.

The 4/20 crowd should end their disruptive "protest," much the same 
way that the monthly Critical Mass bike-protest rides have largely 
disappeared. In both cases, the activists won. There is nothing left 
to protest.

Moving the 4/20 event to Sunset Beach isn't appropriate because, as 
Kirby-Yung points out, smoking is banned there. People out enjoying a 
park shouldn't have to breathe in thick clouds of pot smoke.

But this is typical of Vision's twisted thinking - fine one person 
for smoking a legal product, but enable others from puffing an 
illegal drug purely for cynical political reasons. That's life in 
Vancouver under this amoral government. If people want to smoke weed 
in their homes, be my guest. But they shouldn't inflict their 
behaviour on others. It's time for city hall to stop pandering to the 
4/20 crowd and start serving all citizens.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom