CBC FOCUSES ON WELFARE WEDNESDAY

Ian Mulgrew Vancouver Sun Welfare Wednesday in Vancouver. By 9:30, the
breakfast beer was already flowing from the Cambie Hotel east to the
Hastings Street flats where cocaine dealers were doing a brisk trade
in the morning sunshine.

"Rock. Got Rock."

Around the public washrooms in front of the Carnegie Centre and along
Hastings Street, crack pipes glowed with regimental regularity.

Inside, on the third floor, a memorial service was under way for
Ernest Gladue, the latest casualty in an area infested with disease,
riven by poverty and rent by social problems.

Down the street, a CBC satellite television truck and a mini-van full
of employees were unloading. After milking APEC, in reporter Terry
Milewski's immortal words, the CBC invaded the DowntownEastside
Wednesday to milk the misery of Canada's poorest postal code.

Starting at 7 p.m., national correspondents Ian Hanom-ansing and
Alison Smith hosted a two-hour live broadcast,Downtown Drugs: A Night
on the Streets.

They might as well have titled it, Vancouver's Night
Zoo.

It must be the fall ratings week. For no matter how sincere the CBC
may be about exploring the Gordian knot of issuesthat fetter the
neighbourhood, the images of grief and sorrow are guaranteed to
predominate and skew understanding.

Of all days to broadcast from the street, theCorpse chose Wellie
Wednesday, payday for those at the bottom of the social ladder, the
one day of every month that promises the most sordid scenes, the most
retina-assaulting behaviour. The sad street spectacle is a voyeur's
delight and makes for arresting TV, but it's not the newsany more.

Every major media organization in the city (including CBC), most
across the country and several from around the globe havemore than
adequately documented the squalor.

The news now is how our politicians and social agencies are forging
policies to deal with it and the efficacy of their decisions. But
using the circus-like atmosphere of Welfare Wednesday as a gimmicky
backdrop precluded a serious discussion about the marshalling of
public resources that is under way.

City staff, the province and the feds, for instance, are setting up
inter-governmental working groups to coordinate joint action on
several fronts. City hall last week embarked on a program of measures
to tackle the most egregious problems within its jurisdiction.

A bylaw crackdown has begun on illegitimate businesses, particularly
the phoney corner stores that are dealing dope andthe make-believe
pawn shops that are fencing stolen goods.

More police officers have been deployed and $7.2 million has been
allocated by the department specifically for the Downtown Eastside.

All of these measures are important and controversial. Vancouver
citizens have passionate and conflicting views about how to solve the
urban blight. And not everyone agrees with the current antiseptic measures.

Chris Taulu, executive director of the Collingwood Community Policing
Centre, is angry about the resources going downtown because it pushes
"undesirables" into other neighbourhoods.

"Since the pilot project began in Pigeon Parka week ago, we have seen
an increase of criminal element coming from the Joyce SkyTrain," he
said.

"What manpower will be given to us? In reality, as of October, the
district is short 26 officers. The murder of drug dealers,home
invasions, residential break and enters, theft of and from auto all
occur with regularity in our area. Dial-A-Dope happens on every block
on every street!" Similarly, at Carolina and Broadway, just south of
the Downtown Eastside, residents are equally upset at all the
attention the blocks around Main and Hastings are receiving.

"We've been patrolling the streets trying to chase the prostitutes and
the dealers," lamented Tony Depasquale, who's lived in the Mount
Pleasant neighbourhood for five years. "It's just scary."

The Vancouver/Richmond health board has also waded into the fray with
proposals to open safe injections sites and to locate addiction
services across the Lower Mainland. But some municipalities have
already balked at providing even needle-exchange programs.

"Vancouver had the largest needle exchange in North America, however
they were unable to prevent what became the largest HIV epidemic in
the developed world," Dr. Stan de Vlaming, a local addiction
specialist, points out.

And the more controversial suggestions such as a prescription heroin
trial face even more volatile opposition. But those policy debates
don't happen on the street, and generally they make snoring television.

You may reach Ian Mulgrew at imulgrew@pacpress.southam.ca or at (604)
605-2195, fax 605-2323.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry