NO DEFENCE FOR UGLY TACTICS IN DEBATE ON DRUGS

Bryce Rositch's resignation as spokesman for the Community Alliance in
the face of Maoist-like terrorism should outrage everyone.

I don't happen to agree with Alliance members on many issues, but I
defend their right to participate in public policy debates that affect
where they live and work.

And I used to think that was a politically correct liberal kind of
idea that my neighbours believed in, too.

Now I'm not so sure.

As far as I can see, the City of Vancouver is no longer engaged in a
dialogue to reach consensus about the Downtown Eastside's problems.

Instead, the putative discussion has become a single-tone diatribe by
ideologues who have spent two years at meetings browbeating their
opponents and painting anyone with a job as an uncompassionate
19th-century robber baron. When that didn't work, like the Red Guards,
they intimidated those who disagreed with them.

The vulgar vitriol that regularly spews from some of those demanding
more social services and treatment options for the Downtown Eastside
has been condoned for too long.

I don't care how poor you are, how abused you were as a kid or how
much dope you need to get through the day, no one has a right to
behave like this.

It is all very well and good for assorted police, social planners,
Carnegie Centre activists, Downtown Eastside Residents Association
officials, outreach workers and rabble-rousers in the Vancouver
Network of Drug Users to plead ignorance and pretend innocence. They
are not.

I say they have fostered an atmosphere where lewd-mouthed attacks,
implied violence and palpable fear are pervasive.

During a recent photo shoot for this paper, for instance, a mob of
so-called activists made threatening gestures at Rositch, forcing him
to flee for his life.

Aside from architect Rositch, I can name a half-dozen people who have
come to me in the last year and said they can no longer participate in
the public discussion because they have been physically and mentally
abused.

Some were threatened by people wielding used hypodermic needles: "I'll
stick you and you'll get AIDS if you don't shut up."

Some returned home to find someone had broken in and left drug
paraphernalia as a warning.

For some, it was insinuated threats against their family.

Others say it was rumours of plans to firebomb the vacant Woodward's
building that forced them to abandon the attempt to revive the
historic heart of the city.

No wonder the area is an economic black hole and no one in their right
mind wants to invest in the area.

In their headlong rush to play Mother Teresa to the indigent, social
planning staff have alienated many of those who run local businesses
and most middle-class homeowners.

That staff look the other way as hate-filled posters and pamphlets
filled with insult and libel are produced, hung and distributed in
civic buildings is an affront to taxpayers.

Police, in my opinion, have exacerbated the situation by ignoring
those who pay taxes in the area in favour of those who deal rock on
the corners.

While Rositch and those in the Alliance vainly sought a meeting this
fall with police, the cops were sitting down every Tuesday for coffee
and cookies with the drug dependent, health workers and city staff.

If, like me, you believed the city actually cared about fixing some of
the damage its containment policies created, you must be shaking your
head.

Mayor Philip Owen reaped positive media coverage for his warmed-over
plan to keep talking about the problems, but behind the scenes he is
being eviscerated for violating the Vancouver Agreement.

The agreement was supposed to be an umbrella framework for the three
levels of governments to work in concert. I guess Owen forgot to
invite the other two to his big press conference.

Instead, Owen has created a political dynamic in which he paints
himself as a progressive and prepares to blame senior levels of
government for not doing their job. Please.

Now Victoria and Vancouver are back distrusting each other. And Owen's
own backyard has been fouled by his attempted manipulation of the
debate and city staff's identification with the underclass.

Yet the city continues to say let's talk about solutions!

Well, look around. Who wants to draw a target on their
forehead?

Eventually there will be no one left to speak for those demanding a
set of realistic development goals and accountability for the public
money pouring into the area. Owen and his staff will then probably
claim there is agreement on a solution.

For anyone who thinks the Downtown Eastside is on the road to
recovery, I believe Rositch's resignation is a wake-up call: It
reveals the city's so-called action plan is a one-sided fraud.

From where I sit, there can be no civil solutions to social problems
as long as there is no civil society.

Until city staff and police begin giving residents and businesses the
same kind of protection, treatment and respect we get in Kitsilano and
Shaughnessy, the unrepentant Maoists are going to win.

Listen to Shelly Fahey of the Anti-Poverty Action Committee, which set
up a make-believe food bank outside Rositch's office to bug his staff
and scare his clients: "If he's intimidated, I'm glad."