Retirement Turned into Fund Raiser for Fix

There will be no retirement dinner with lengthy and mushy tributes for outgoing Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen.

There will be no fund raiser where he hands over a pile of money to the new NPA mayoral candidate.

Instead, the mayor who has become a champion for the city's drug addicts has decided that he wants his goodbye to the city to be used to raise money to support a powerful about-to-be-released documentary film that portrays the tragedy and conflict in the Downtown Eastside and Owen's own difficult political battles to find a solution.

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A Note To The New Vancouver Police Chief:

Once you settle into your new offices, you're going to have to get after those cowboy cops in the Odd Squad. They're still up to their old tricks, bad-mouthing the city's drug policy here and abroad.

There's an internal investigation into their role at last May's IDEAS drug conference in Vancouver. That little gathering, funded in part by the ultra-right, Florida-based Drug Free America and the deep pockets of local religious fundamentalist Bob Bentall, was set up solely to attack Mayor Philip Owen's "four pillar" approach to dealing with this city's chronic drug problem.

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A Symposium Launches A Counterattack Against Pro-Drug 'Harm Reduction' Programs

In early May, Marc Emery, the president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, bought full-page newspaper advertisements to announce his intention to run for the mayoralty of Vancouver. The one-day media blitz, estimated to have cost him $25,000, centred on Mr. Emery's contention that the use of marijuana should be decriminalized. But in coincidental interviews with reporters, the drug libertarian went much further. He said, for example, that a Marijuana Party administration would order city hall to set up a program to deliver free heroin and cocaine to addicts.

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Vancouver Police Department Odd Squad constable Toby Hinton told the Courier he was speaking "as an individual" when he slagged police board chairman Mayor Philip Owen and the police department's official drug policy.

Police spokesman Scott Driemel excused the Vancouver cops who organized and participated in a controversial drug conference designed to discredit the city and the department, saying they were "on their own time, acting as civilians." These statements are not simply ludicrous, they fly in the face of policy directives that govern off-duty police and public servants in this province.

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Once you understand just who that Vancouver cop was supposed to be chauffeuring to the IDEAS drug conference in a "nice unmarked police car," you'll be able to figure out the size of the problem we have on our hands.

The cop is Const. Chris Graham. He is a member of the Odd Squad, a small group of Vancouver cops who made a name for themselves shooting an NFB film about junkies on the Downtown Eastside. The two senior members of the Odd Squad are constables Al Arsenault and Toby Hinton.

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One of the Vancouver police officers whose involvement in an anti-drug conference last weekend is under scrutiny says he joined the controversial organization because he believes in its philosophy.

Const. Toby Hinton declined to discuss his role in the conference while it's under review, but said that like Bob and Lynda Bentall, who formed the International Drug Education and Awareness Society, he doesn't believe "harm reduction" methods like safe-injection sites would solve the city's drug crisis. Harm reduction is one of the four pillars in Mayor Philip Owen's drug policy.

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Vancouver police are conducting an internal review after questions were raised about confidential documents on criminal records being posted at a controversial drug symposium last week.

Chief Constable Terry Blythe said Monday the review will also look at whether police officers used an unmarked police car to pick up symposium delegates from the airport.

The review will determine whether more investigation is necessary.

Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen, who was not invited to the gathering, said he is also concerned police members took part in a meeting that was restricted to people who oppose harm reduction and the concept of supervised drug injection sites.

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Last week I was trying to get press credentials to the IDEAS conference, the big anti-drug powwow for Vancouver's creme de la creme sponsored by local real estate mogul Bob Bentall and his wife Lynda in partnership with the Drug Free America Foundation.

Drug Free America...hee haw...that's a good one.

Why, without addiction to sit-coms, Budweiser, Marlboro's, artificial sweeteners, slot machines, internet porn and Viagra, the U.S. economy would flounder. If banks and stockbrokers stopped laundering obvious illegal drug profits the system would expire for want of fluid cash. The very notion smacks of treason and terrorism.

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The agenda item Friday morning at the drug conference in the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre was: "The media: Friend or foe?"

The event was sponsored by IDEAS, the International Drug Education and Awareness Society, a group of fundamentalist crusaders in the War on Drugs.

IDEAS is run by the deep pockets of Bob and Lynda Bentall, along with two Vancouver cops, Al Arsenault and Toby Hinton, members of the film-making Odd Squad.

Odd squad cops on the VPD payroll were to provide the conference with "staff support and logistics." According to a technical agenda CBC radio picked up, Odd Squad cop Chris Graham would chauffeur conference guests in a "nice unmarked police car."

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Health Canada Will Have Final Say On Drug Abuse Pilot Project

Vancouver city council agreed Thursday to participate in a national pilot project that would take a harm-reduction approach to drug addiction, including supervised drug injection sites.

In a move applauded by advocates of Mayor Philip Owen's "four pillar" approach to solving the city's drug problems, councillors voted unanimously to take part in the Health Canada project, which would conduct scientific research at a handful of such sites.

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It was a simple message, forcibly told.

"Drugs are bad," experts from around the world told a Vancouver audience yesterday.

And any measure to set up safe-injection sites or to decriminalize drugs is wrong-headed.

Delegates to the International Drug Education and Awareness Symposium came with a tough anti-drug message -- and only that message.

Attendance was by invitation only and no harm-reduction theorists were allowed in.

"Safe-injection sites are plain stupidity," said Torgny Peterson, director of European Cities Against Drugs.

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Vancouver - A Vancouver anti-drug conference is being targeted by advocates of a more permissive approach to illegal drug usage.

The B.C. Marijuana Party held a rally outside the trade and convention centre, because the International Drug Education and Awareness (IDEA) symposium is not open to anyone who supports drug use.

B.C. Compassion Club president Hilary Black says the conference is about oppression, not education.

"The war on drugs hurt people and more tolerant drug laws allow us to deal with health concerns and deal with real problems around drugs not oppression," she says.

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Vancouverites Hotly Polarized Over Drug Conference, And Whether City Should Help Users Get Their Fix

Bob Bentall, whose family-owned business has assets of $2-billion, is spending a lot of time these days thinking about drugs: crack,cocaine and heroin.

I'm trying to understand. It's about my education as much as anything," says Mr.Bentall, sitting in his office in one of the cluster of five towers in downtown Vancouver that carry the Bentall name.

This week Mr. Bentall, his wife, Lynda, and two police officers will host an international conference that targets the illicit drug problem, but their conference has itself become the focus of protests.

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