KWAN HIT BY ATTACK ADS

Lawyers for Community Development Minister Jenny Kwan are threatening to
sue the chairman of the east-side Community Alliance for advertisements he
is sponsoring that attack Kwan.

But Richard Lee says he intends to keep running the ads.

Over the weekend, Chinese-language media began running Lee's ads, which say
that Kwan supports an addiction "contact centre" at 166 East Hastings.

The ads say the centre would give out free needles. They invite those who
oppose the concentration of services for drug addicts in the Downtown
Eastside to vote against Kwan in Wednesday's election.

Kwan's lawyers say the ads, which are running in Chinese-language
newspapers and on Chinese-language radio and TV, imply that Kwan is
personally distributing or causing the distribution of needles to drug
users in the Downtown Eastside.

Kwan official Stephen Howard said that there is a "smear campaign" being
orchestrated by an advertising company, Zone Communications, which is also
running ads for Liberal candidates Daniel Lee and Patrick Wong.

Liberal leader Gordon Campbell Monday was asked whether his staff was
behind the anti-Kwan campaign because of the ad company's links to Liberal
candidates.

Campbell denied that there is any connection, saying that allegations of a
smear campaign shows that Kwan is "nervous."

Campbell said he knows nothing about the communications company, adding:
"This has absolutely nothing to do with our campaign. Our campaign has been
absolutely positive all the way through."

The Community Alliance is a group of businesspeople and residents from
neighbourhoods surrounding the Downtown Eastside who are opposed to what
they say is a growing concentration of services for drug users in the area.

The Vancouver/Richmond health board's plans for health-services centres in
the Downtown Eastside include a drug users' 24-hour contact centre at 166
East Hastings.

The centre, in the Roosevelt Hotel across the lane from the Carnegie
Centre, will function as a combined community centre, drop-in and mini
health clinic.

On Sunday, Kwan's lawyers sent letters to Lee and five media outlets
demanding that all parties apologize and pull the ads.

Lee responded by calling a press conference Monday afternoon in front of
the Roosevelt Hotel. The event turned into a piece of moving street theatre
when Lee was heckled by a group of area residents who favour the health
board plan and the drug strategy worked out by the city, the province and
the federal government.

The hecklers, including a man dressed as the Grim Reaper carrying a bouquet
of black balloons, pursued Lee through the streets of Chinatown for four
blocks when he tried to relocate the news conference to the office of the
Chinatown Merchants' Association.

Lee told reporters he has no intention of apologizing.

He said he is paying for the ads out of his own pocket but refused to say
how much they are costing him.

"It's not cheap," he said. While he said he must declare the value of the
ads to Elections B.C. within 90 days of the election, Lee said he doesn't
want to talk about their cost now because "I think that might distract
people from focusing on what's important at this time."