PM URGED TO DROP IDEOLOGY, ALLOW INSITE

Four Of City's Mayoral Candidates And An Ex-Mayor Ask The Tories To Do
The Right Thing

The Stephen Harper government should stop being ideological, look at
the facts, and allow Vancouver's supervised-injection site to stay
open.

That was the message from four of the city's mayoral candidates and
former mayor Philip Owen at a media conference Wednesday, where they
urged the Conservative government to do the right thing.

Non-Partisan Association Coun. Peter Ladner said he realizes it
bothers some policy-makers that people who now use the site often are
forced to commit crime and always need to buy illegal drugs on the
street to be there.

But, he said, they need to realize that the local site is supported by
the community and is a humanitarian response to a terrible health crisis.

"Listen to the experts, show some compassion; don't get hung up on the
ideology," said Ladner, who is running against Mayor Sam Sullivan for
the NPA's mayoral nomination.

Allan DeGenova, a park board commissioner who is one of three
candidates seeking Vision Vancouver's mayoral nomination, said it's
disappointing that he and others had to come out to fight with the
federal government just to keep the existing site open.

"We should be expanding, not fighting to keep the one open. We need
more than one site."

Former mayor Philip Owen, who championed the city's Four Pillars drug
strategy and became a convert to the benefits of a
supervised-injection site, said the federal government needs to
realize the site is just one part of the toolbox in drug policy. It's
also not the radical experiment some people think it is.

"There's over a hundred supervised injection sites in over 50 cities
around the world," said Owen. "Switzerland has had one for over 20
years."

Vision candidates Gregor Robertson and Raymond Louie also called
Insite a success that saves lives and is supported by the
neighbourhood, city and province.

Mayor Sam Sullivan was the only mayoral candidate not present. Liz
Evans of PHS Community Services, which operates the site, said the
mayor has previously indicated his support.

The public debate over the injection site has ramped up in the last
week, with advocates starting an intensive lobby as the federal
government prepares to decide what happens after the site's current
exemption from federal narcotics laws expires June 30. Advocates have
been staging rallies, organizing media conferences, highlighting
research findings about the benefits of the site, and publicizing
favourable letters and articles.

So far, the only public opponent speaking out has been Vancouver
Police Union president Tom Stamatakis, who has become the most vocal
critic on the local scene.

Street nurses have organized an "information picket" outside his
office for today.