EX-SHELTER WORKER SAYS CRACKDOWN ON DEALERS PROBLEMATIC

Unease over the way a crackdown on drug dealing is being executed
around the Fredericton Men's Shelter is the main reason behind recent
troubles at the institution, says a former employee.

Shaun Nixon, who quit on the spot when another employee was fired Jan.
27, said employees had safety and security concerns.

Nixon said concerns centred on the role of employees in the shelter's
stepped-up policing of drug dealing.

Nixon is offering his account of what led to an incident last week
that resulted in the shelter closing for an hour, forcing about 40
residents out into frigid weather.

The shelter recently installed a video surveillance system to get
tough on drug dealers lurking outside the building. Nixon said
employees were given the task of handing over tapes and giving
statements to police.

He said he grew uneasy over the practice and found himself confronted
by someone who served jail time based on information turned over to
police.

"Apparently, they read out in court that Shaun Nixon had contacted the
Fredericton Police Force and sent the tape," he said.

"I live right here in town and have to talk to these people every day
and do outreach work. To do proper outreach, I need the trust of the
people. Whether it was intentional or not, the people I'm working with
are suddenly being told that I'm turning them in, so to speak."

Nixon said the shelter's executive director, Brian Duplessis, should
have been the one filing the police statements.

"I expressed concern. I felt he, as the executive director, him being
the one calling the cops, that he should be the one to see it
through," Nixon said.

Both Duplessis and Duncan Matheson, a member of the Fredericton
Homeless Shelters Inc.'s board of directors, said this week that it
was the first they had heard about Nixon's concerns.

"Reporting criminal activity has always been the case," said
Duplessis. "We enhanced that this past year. I'm not aware of any
employee of any organization who won't report criminal activity. No
employee has brought to me any concerns of that nature."

He said all employees have participated in filing information to
police.

Matheson said the shelter, which raises a big part of its budget from
community donors and provincial funding, has been taking steps to
impede drug pushers.

Drug dealing in the area is well known and documented.

The shelter's doors are metres from those of the Victoria Health
Centre, home to the city's methadone clinic and other services for
recovering drug addicts.

Matheson and Duplessis said drug pushers loiter in the area, targeting
patients on their way to and from the methadone clinic, and residents
of the shelter.

As recently as 2007, Fredericton provincial court heard that
recovering addicts trying to free themselves from the clutches of
addiction were being approached and tempted by drug dealers in the
area between the health centre and the shelter.

The shelter has pressed the police for stepped-up enforcement in
addition to taking its own measures.

"We did get tough on drug dealing. Certain drug dealers - the more
notorious ones - were showing up at the shelter on cheque day,"
Matheson said.

A number of people qualify for social assistance by using the shelter
as their address. They pay $100 a month in rent to the shelter and are
given the remaining money.

Duplessis used the drive to curb drug dealing as a cornerstone of his
efforts to obtain $60,000 in funding from the city. He told Mayor Brad
Woodside that the cameras were contributing to increased public safety.

Nixon said employees wanted anonymous evaluations of management and
the way procedures at the shelter worked. He said he talked to another
employee about bringing the matter up with management. Nixon said he
felt responsible when that employee was fired days after requesting
the evaluations.

"I was part of the reason he suggested the anonymous evaluation,"
Nixon said.

Duplessis and Matheson won't name the fired employee, but do say that
the person terminated Jan. 27 wasn't fired for raising concerns.
Matheson has said the termination was for cause and the concerns are
only being raised after the fact.

The terminated employee said he stands by Nixon's version of
events.

Nixon said he and two other employees who have quit hope to be
reinstated.

Matheson and Duplessis say the shelter is moving forward in hiring new
employees.