MAYOR TAKES DRUG WAR EAST

Owen Will Ask Ottawa For Money To Help Downtown Eastside

OTTAWA -- Cabinet ministers, bureaucrats and senior political aides will be
put through an emotional wringer here Thursday as part of a Vancouver push
for as much as $10 million in federal aid to deal with the horrendous drug,
social, and health problems in the city's Downtown Eastside.

The federal power-brokers will attend a screening of Fix, Nettie Wild's raw
documentary on drug abuse, human despair, and the conflict over how society
will deal with one of Canada's most graphic displays of social decay.

"I have to reach those people emotionally. My job is to take people in 92
minutes to a place where they haven't been before, just so that they listen
up and care," Wild said Tuesday.

"We've got this incredible tragedy happening in Vancouver and there's a
real sense that if it was happening in such an out [visible] way in Toronto
or Ottawa, things would have been taken care of a long time ago."

Wild and outgoing Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen, who has turned the issue
into a personal crusade, will use the screening as an emotional wedge to
pry cash out of the federal government for several initiatives.

Wild wants $150,000 to help distribute the film across Canada. Owen, in his
final official visit here, will be looking for both flexible policy on safe
injection sites and a major financial contribution from Ottawa to deal with
the Downtown Eastside's woes.

Owen said it is premature to discuss specific financial needs, but said the
"ballpark" projections for a four-year program would be up to $30 million
annually for a variety of programs relating to treatment, prevention,
harm-reduction, and enforcement.

One federal official said Ottawa has been asked so far to contribute $10
million if the provincial government commits the same amount.

One of the advocates of a major federal investment is the Vancouver 2010
Bid Corp., which fears that failure to deal with the issue will hurt its
Olympic bid.

Secretary of State Stephen Owen said while Ottawa wants to help, he doesn't
believe federal funding should be linked to the Olympics.

"I'm not comfortable linking it directly to the Olympic bid," said Owen
(Vancouver Quadra), the mayor's cousin and the lead federal minister on the
issue.

"I think it should be linked just to our responsibilities to do something
about it, and if that has a side benefit of making us more competitive for
the Olympic bid, fair enough.

"But the key issue is our responsibility to help restore some health to
that community."

Bid spokesman Sam Corea said Olympic organizers are anxious to ensure the
Olympics would help rather than hurt the inner city, although he said they
are not prepared yet to discuss publicly a specific wish-list.

Mayor Owen said the documentary screening in Ottawa will remind
decision-makers that the problem exists throughout Canada and must be
confronted.

"We've got a five-page document describing it in print and we've got a
90-minute movie showing what's going on," Owen said Tuesday.

"So, see the movie and read the document, and then tell me whether you
think we should proceed or not.

"And everybody that's gone that far has said, 'absolutely, get on with it."'

Owen is scheduled to meet with Health Minister Anne McLellan on the issue
of safe injection sites, and with Transport Minister David Collenette,
minister responsible for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., about
housing matters.

Industry Minister Allan Rock, who appears in the documentary in his former
role as minister of health, will speak to the roughly 200 people prior to
the screening. Other MPs, senators and senior bureaucrats studying drug and
social housing issues will also attend.

One of those expected to attend is Vancouver-born Supreme Court Justice
Frank Iacobucci, who grew up on McSpadden Avenue in East Vancouver,
attended Hastings elementary, Britannia high school, and UBC.