BANK ROBBERS GET CAUGHT, POLICE WARN, BUT ADDICTS DON'T LISTEN

Bruce Godkin, a 52-year-old with a slew of robbery convictions under
his belt, knew first-hand that desperate drug addicts risked major
penitentiary time over pennies by staggering into a bank and saying
"give me the money."

Almost 200 addicts were nabbed doing exactly that last year, and
Vancouver police have been on a major campaign to stop such crimes by
handing out small change purses bearing the message "Bank Robbers Get
Caught."

Unfortunately, Godkin is now the poster boy for this pernicious
problem that threatens to turn our city into North America's bank
robbery capital; he is headed back to prison for nine years and two
months for a couple of classic stickups.

The first occurred on Sept. 19, 2006, when Godkin entered a bank with
a briefcase and handed a teller a note saying, "fill it up with
dough." She said "no."

The manager noticed the commotion and came to investigate. Godkin told
him to mind his own business and left the bank, kicking and shattering
the glass door before he jumped into a cab and fled.

Two days later, he entered another bank and stood in the waiting area
blowing smoke rings until an employee asked what he was doing. At that
point, Godkin went to a teller and demanded cash.

The worker who asked Godkin what he was doing saw this and turned to a
security guard to raise the alarm.

The guard tackled Godkin, who pulled a can of bear spray from his
jacket. The guard knocked it from his hand.

At his trial, Godkin pleaded guilty after listening to two days of
evidence, but appealed when the judge hammered him. Like so many
addicted recidivists, he threw himself on the mercy of the appeal court.

Godkin is a perfect example of what's wrong with our social safety net
- -- his is one more life ruined by a misspent youth and the failure to
provide him with medical and psychiatric care.

Raised in the area around 26th and Main Street, Godkin was a skinny
little kid who filled out into an angry, bitter young man with a Grade
6 education.

His record starts the day he was old enough to appear in court -- in
1971, at age 15, he was sent to Brannan Lake School for Boys for
stealing a car. The reformatory, about 10 kilometres north of Nanaimo,
closed in 1977 leaving an ugly stain on B.C.'s child-welfare system.

This was a facility where guards sexually abused the children and
corporal punishment was the order of the day.

"They were supposed to look after the kids," says Godkin. "They were
supposed to correct you, to help you, to guide you. Talk about a dream
for pedophiles. The government took the public's money and they gave
it to pedophiles, to play with it."

It scarred Godkin for life and he emerged more of a hard case than
ever. In 1980, he was given three years for robbery, in 1987 five
years, and then nine years for four robberies in 1993. Godkin was
released in 2004 and lived on a disability pension he received because
he was shot in the head in 1986.

In March 2005, Godkin was using the Insite supervised injection site
and talked about his 36-year heroin habit with the Vancouver Sun's
Frances Bula.

He said he used toilet water to fill up his syringes, shared needles
with other users, and threw his used needles on the ground. Not
surprisingly, he has hepatitis C. He was warned constantly about the
health risk of sharing needles -- and of crime.

"It's changed my practices," maintained the courtly sounding Godkin,
who said he used heroin to silence his demons. "The drugs in my life
were so that I could not feel any longer. I didn't want to feel
emotions. I didn't want memories. Heroin use to me is not a
pleasurable drug. Heroin was where I hid."

Alas, like so many, relapse was around the corner. Desperate for a
fix, Godkin turned back to crime.

Most of the time in this province, our judges extend compassion to
offenders like Godkin because of the medical complications. And they
take the heat for not sternly punishing such people. Eventually,
however, even they give up.

Appeal Court Justice Mary Saunders, endorsed by colleagues Pamela
Kirkpatrick and Edward Chiasson, rejected Godkin's pleas and said he
had run out of chances. They agreed he deserved to spend almost
another decade in prison.

Justice Saunders rightly emphasized that if Godkin hadn't changed his
MO from carrying a gun to wielding bear spray she would have endorsed
a 15- to 20-year term.

Hard to disagree, but equally hard to take any satisfaction in locking
up a tragedy exacerbated by bad public policies.