B.C. JUDGE SETS GOAL OF CRIME-FREE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Community Court System Will Integrate Health, Social Services; Aims
to Clean Up Area by 2010 Olympics

VANCOUVER -- B.C. Provincial Court Judge Thomas Gove says he hopes a
new community court system slated to open in two weeks will lead to
massive changes on the gritty, drug-infested streets of Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside before the world comes to Canada for the 2010
Olympics. Setting out the challenge by which the innovative court may
be measured, Judge Gove said yesterday that he hopes he can walk down
the roughest part of Hastings Street without seeing any crime by
February, 2010.

In a media briefing for The Globe and Mail and CTV on the new
community court, Judge Gove, 61, said he was born in Vancouver and
lived in the city most of his life. He recalled that, as a youngster
of 5 or 6, he was taken to the Woodward's department store on
Hastings Street. As a university student, he would go to pubs in the
neighbourhood.

"The area was always colourful," he said, "but not to the degree it
is now. It did not look like something out of the Third World.

"If you are here on a visit, you think this is bizarre. When this is
where you live, it is more than bizarre. It is tragic."

The community court will integrate social and health services into
the judicial system for offences such as shoplifting, theft from
autos, mischief, assault and drug possession in the downtown area.

The court could deal with as much as 80 per cent of the crime in the
area. It will be the first of its kind in Canada, although about 30
community courts are operating in the United States.

The B.C. government is under increasing pressure to improve
conditions in the Downtown Eastside, a low-income neighbourhood
dominated by open-air drug markets, back lane "shooting" galleries
where addicts inject drugs, and the mentally ill living on the street.

Premier Gordon Campbell told reporters at the Beijing Olympics that
significant improvements would be made to the Downtown Eastside
before the 2010 Games come to Vancouver. Community groups have raised
concerns that homeless people might be rounded up and temporarily
sent out of sight, similar to what happened in Beijing.

Judge Gove told reporters the court has a problem-solving approach to
crime for those who plead guilty. Those who plead not guilty will
continue in the traditional court system.

The community court responds to the reasons that offenders commit
crime, aiming to help them change their behaviour, he said.
Currently, offenders receive short sentences for the type of offences
to be dealt with in the new court.

"Then they are back at Main and Hastings with nowhere to live," he
said, referring to the central intersection in the troubled neighbourhood.

"They still are mentally ill or still have a drug addiction," Judge
Gove said, adding that some offenders are back before a judge soon
after reoffending.

The court will consider plans drawn up by health and social service
workers in co-operation with the offenders to deal with the
underlying problems, such as drug addiction, mental illness or homelessness.

Addicts would be sentenced to attend a treatment program and the
mentally ill to attend medical facilities.

Judge Gove acknowledged that even though the court opens next month,
the city does not have enough facilities or programs for all the
addicts it is expected to see, nor sufficient places for all the mentally ill.

However, he was optimistic that the B.C. government will deliver on
its promises to build more housing and increase support for drug
treatment programs over the next few years.

"I'm not saying on Day 2 [after the court opens] we're going to be
unable to fulfill our mandate. I don't know that yet," he said later.
"I don't know if we're going to be short of resources when we start.
I do know, though, in the big picture, there is a need for more resources."

He said the government recognizes the need for more housing and
facilities, and is building them. "We're coming on stream a bit ahead
of the new ones being built, but they are coming along as we get
going," he said.

No fallback scheme exists in case the facilities have not been built
to handle the increase. However, the court will still be an
improvement over the current system, Judge Gove said.

The new court will have assessments of offenders' problems, he said.
Also, people who work in the court building will know what resources
are available and how to apply for admission to facilities for
offenders, he said.

He also said some people arrested in the Downtown Eastside could be
sent out of town. The plan drawn up for some offenders from outside
the neighbourhood could entail returning to where they came from,
Judge Gove said. He said he was reluctant to have the court order
offenders to leave the neighbourhood. But persuasion could be used to
make the trip out of town part of the plan presented in the community
court, he said.