PROTESTING RESIDENTS WANT TRAFFICKERS OUT

Battle lines are being drawn along the mean streets of Vancouver's
downtown east side.

Longtime residents and even old-time drunks have had
enough.

They want the crack-dealing pushers out of the fetid alleyways, away
from the stores and out of their parks.

"I want this neighbourhood to be no different than any other
neighbourhood," Frank Gilbert of the Downtown Eastside Residents
Association said Friday, minutes before a few dozen people waving
signs got into a confrontation with drug users and dealers at the
downtrodden corner of Main and Hastings.

"These residents want their streets back. They are tired of being
locked up in their apartments, afraid to go out on the street."

Gilbert and the others who marched down Hastings in support of last
week's police crackdown on the drug dealers realize their community is
far from safe.

"This should have been done 20 years ago," said Dave Edmunds, 51, who
is disabled and a volunteer worker in the downtown east side. "We say
this is where people come to die, and it's time for some action here."

Many of the 70 suspected crack dealers targeted by police are
Honduran.

Vancouver police Insp. Gary Greer said that of those arrested, 25 were
released on condition they stay away from known drug dealing areas in
east Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster. A further 15 are still in
custody, some because of outstanding warrants.

Among those walking the streets to protest the drug trade was Dennis
Magnusson, 38, who lives in North Vancouver. His 20-year-old daughter
is a crack addict living on the streets.

"I lost my daughter down here," he said. "She lives here and is on
crack."

His pain "burns deep inside." But he still has hope. "It's never too
late. Maybe I'll find my daughter and take her home."

Said longtime skid road resident Barry Bainbridge, 52: "You see little
girls come down here and they are pretty, and a month later they have
sores all over their faces and are all gibbled up."

Said Reform MP Chuck Cadman, who has been given a petition to take to
Ottawa demanding tighter control over who comes into the country: "The
police can do all the sweeps they want but they need the support of
the Crown, the judges and the lawmakers.

"If not, we're just going to keep spinning our wheels."

Checked-by: Patrick Henry