INJECTION SITES ON WEST SIDE OKAY, CLARKE SAYS

NPA's Mayoralty Candidate Says Dunbar Okay If Needed

Mayoral candidate Jennifer Clarke now says she supports safe-consumption
sites for drug addicts in areas of Vancouver outside the Downtown Eastside
- -- including neighbourhoods like Dunbar or Kerrisdale -- if they are needed.

While both of her main opponents, Larry Campbell, of the Coalition of
Progressive Electors and Valerie MacLean, of vcaTEAM, have already said
addicts should not be forced to go to the Downtown Eastside for treatment,
Clarke, of the Non-Partisan Association, reluctantly agreed with them
Thursday for the first time.

"With regard to supervised injection sites or any other facility, frankly
one of the issues is there is a need in the Downtown Eastside right now to
deal with the drug treatment issue, but it shouldn't be dealt with just
there," she said.

The three, along with Marc Emery of the Marijuana Party, appeared on Rafe
Mair's talk show on CKNW radio to discuss issues in the Nov. 16 election,
but the problem of the Downtown Eastside and drug addiction took centre
stage as it has almost everywhere else since the campaign began.

Although Clarke tried, as she has throughout the campaign, to limit her
commitment to the issue to the NPA's approval of a scientific trial of
supervised injection sites, along with several other cities, she conceded
support for neighbourhood sites in Vancouver after being pressed by Mair.

Mair asked: "On the west side?"

Clarke replied: "They would be put in where there is the necessity for
those particular sites as part of a multi-city trial. Whatever the medical
people think it should be, but if I could just add, Larry Campbell has said
he would put them in within the first 30 days on the east side, west side,
wherever."

Campbell responded: "I have never said I would in 30 days put safe
injection sites all over the city. What I did say was within 30 days
there'd be a safe consumption site, probably in the Downtown Eastside and
that if we require safe-consumption sites in other areas of the city, I
would do that."

Questioned after the show, Clarke tried to shift her answer to the need for
drug-treatment centres in other areas of the Lower Mainland, but agreed
that would also apply to neighbourhoods of Vancouver outside the Downtown
Eastside.

"You can't have all these programs located in one neighbourhood," she said.
"I think you're going to have to go with what the medical people are going
to tell you.

"I don't know if there's any determination to have them in any other
neighbourhood."

Campbell, who was involved with outgoing Mayor Philip Owen in developing
the four pillars approach to drug addiction (enforcement, treatment,
prevention and harm reduction), said Clarke and the NPA have wasted time on
waiting for the supervised drug trial.

"And we've been pausing on this thing and while she's been doing that and
her party is doing that, people are dying," he said. "Interestingly enough,
Vern Campbell, who is one of her candidates, told the Chinese community
that they would not have safe injection sites and if they would they'd have
them in different jurisdictions."

MacLean also said she supports the four pillars program, with safe
injection sites as part of its "harm reduction" component.

"It needs to be implemented as quickly as possible, as soon as this city
has a new mayor and new city council, and that includes decentralization of
services," she said. "You need to be able to access the services in your
own community.

"People shouldn't have to come to the Downtown Eastside to get services
and, furthermore, you need a regional drug strategy as well to look at and
implement this program, and all cities need to be on board."

Emery's answer is simply to legalize drugs.

"We have to get the situation under control and the only way to do that is
out and out legalize these drugs. Give it to them and you'll end the
hooking, you'll end the prostitution, the turf wars, the gang wars, the
criminality that goes on there, the social decay," he said

Mair also asked the candidates about a ward system for Vancouver elections,
which, he said, could end the east side-west side political split in the city.

Campbell, who supports wards, promised to take the question of a ward
system to voters in the next civic election (in 2005), but said he first
would commission someone, possibly a retired Supreme Court judge, to talk
to city neighbourhoods about ward boundaries and area representation.

Asked later if he had a retired judge in mind, Campbell said no, and it
didn't necessarily have to be a judge.

"I'm open to any suggestion," he said. "All I'm saying is they would have
to be independent."

Campbell added that any question put to the voters would simply ask if they
would like a ward system, yes or no, and not a confusion question that was
on the ballot in 1996, which asked voters if they were in favour of
changing from the at-large system.

Clarke and the NPA remain opposed to wards.

"People don't necessarily want to be represented by one person and have
only one person be accountable to them," she said. "People want to see
constituencies of interest, whether they're ethnic or women or disabled or
environmental issues, etc., and not just one person representing a
geographic area."

MacLean said her party, which claims it is middle-of-the-road, wants "a
mixed ward system. You'd have five from the city at large to represent the
city's interests, and you'd have five from wards."

Emery wants a ward system with twice as many councillors.

"The absurdity of the current system is evident," he said. "Has anybody
gone to an all-candidates meeting for all the people running for council --
like 54 people? How do you get them all in one room? What do they get, 10
seconds to speak and 30 seconds to answer questions?

"We should have 20 councillors, 10 wards, two people elected from each
ward, because then you'll get different competing organizations within each
ward. It's really simple, it's not a big deal."

The candidates also argued about the Woodward's squat and affordable
housing and transit, which has also come up frequently during the campaign,
but Emery expressed a novel view, saying the city should be investing in
things that make it easier for car owners to get around.

"It's like we make every kind of financial investment in systems designed
to thwart car owners, like the Lions Gate Bridge. We keep it at three lanes
when it should be four, we have fuel being belched out into the environment
because people are lined up for blocks trying to get on that bridge at rush
hours," he said. It's craziness. Cars are great, they're private, you won't
get a cold standing beside someone in your car, you get to where you want,
you can play your stereo loud, you can listen to this radio station.

'Public transit is fine if you have to use it, but I would be deferring to
people who pay their way and those are car owners."