SQUEALING ON DEALERS IS CRIME-FIGHTING

Re: Squealing on the dealers, Feb. 23.

The steps that Ottawa Police Chief Vern White is planning for drug
dealers are in the right direction. Reporting welfare fraud is the
right thing to do and his new strategy is not two-faced as one critic
said.

Here's why: People's tax dollars that they work hard to make, go
towards making social assistance programs equitable for everyone who
needs them. Allowing those to profit from drug sales while they are on
any type of social assistance program makes a mockery of the system.
It is very unfair to the honest person collecting social assistance
who might have fallen on bad luck or who is a person with a disability
who needs every penny from the program to survive.

Mark Ertel, president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa,
uses a weak politically correct argument that cutting off welfare to
drug users and dealers will only make the problem worse. Turning a
blind eye to this issue will only create a larger societal problem.

If squealing on the double-dippers causes more crime on the streets
and places drug users in jeopardy, so be it. Maybe the dollars saved
from stopping welfare fraud could go toward a much needed drug detox
centre to help users kick the habit. It makes sense to me. Any other
approach only encourages a drug user to continue on a path of
destruction.

Joanne Ahern,

Ottawa