FED UP WITH DRUG DEALING NEIGHBOURS

CORNWALL - She's seen it all hundreds of times before. So many times,
in fact, that she can predict the movements of the dealers and drug
addicts that scuttle around her east-end neighbourhood.

"Watch him, he'll go into that driveway there on the left. In the
window, you'll see there's a woman there who is a spotter."

Marie St-Denis seems psychic as she calls out the destinations of
child drug couriers traveling on bicycles along Carleton Street. But
she's not, it's all just routine business at 5:30 p.m. on a Tuesday.
"See that red house there, there's a (video) camera by the door so
they can keep watch."

She also points to a local business that she says is just a front for
selling drugs

She says all this at a rapid-fire pace in a thick French accent, her
eyes moving from the streets to the patches of grass where her tiny
dog kicks up dirt.

Just over a month ago, StDenis convinced city council to install a
streetlight in front of her Belmont Street home. She wants to shed
some light on the flow of cars that stop on the side of the road for
drug pickups.

"This is not the east end, it's not the Bronx, this is Cornwall," she
said sharply, suggesting that a city shouldn't be cut up and labelled
into problem areas, but should be seen as a whole.

She and her husband Mario moved to their Belmont Street home in an act
of semi-retirement two years ago.

Mario spent 25 years working for correctional services, and he has
seen a lot in his time as a parole officer.

Behind dark shades, Mario explains what it's like to live here. As he
talks, he occasionally waves at children in the neighbourhood who
recognize him from making the regular rounds with his wife and the
family dog.

He too knows the homes with web cams on their balconies, or the flip
side - those with protective steel bars in their basement windows.

"I can't stand people doing drugs," he says. "For me it's like the
plague."

The drugs of choice here are oxy contin, pot, cocaine and crack
cocaine.

The couple has established a relationship with the local police, and
they no longer want to hide it. They feel they need to act on behalf
of others in the neighbourhood who feel trapped in their homes because
of the heavy drug activity.

"That's the beauty of people monitoring the neighbourhood. They see
things we never see," said Dan Parkinson, chief of police for the
Cornwall Community Police Service. "I wish they would step forward in
larger numbers, but there's fear of reprisal."

St-Denis points out a home on a corner that she says is the primary
hub for drug activity in the neighbourhood. Police have raided the
home many times, she said, but the dealers always return. Just last
week, she saw a newborn in a young woman's arms on the property. The
lawn of the house was actually the first place local police planted a
controversial drug search warrant sign to let the neighbourhood know
law enforcement officials aren't sitting on their laurels.

"It's a coincidence and a statement," said Parkinson of the first
sign's location.

These neighbourhhods, Parkinson said, are the basest form of drug
activity that police deal with.

"These are people who are addicts themselves, selling to addicts, and
providing a safe haven to flop around once they've injected or
snorted," he said.

>From a doorway entrance near the corner home, a bleary-eyed teenaged
boy looks both ways before he hands off a black plastic bag to a man
who looks haggard from drug use. He heads over to the primary corner
house, smiles and manages a nervous "hello" as he passes by. The
St-Denis' return the greeting.

"If you see everything we know, police know also,"Mario says.

Mario, who hails from Montreal, said he's fed up with Canadian drug
laws. He wants to see a true crackdown, at least in line with the U.S.

Parkinson says he's starting to become interested in the concept of
complimenting drug enforcement with drug treatment.

"We can stay on this merry-go-round for a long time -- arresting
people, putting them in the courthouse, and putting them back out
again with really no penalties or sanctions against them, but where's
the help for that person? These people are as much trapped in a
lifestyle as anything."

A fellow neighbour is out walking and greets the St-Denis'. She says
her home was broken into the other day -- a common occurrence in the
neighbourhood. Some camping gear was stolen, and she says she has a
firm idea who did it.

"Maybe we can hope that something will be revealed," Marie
suggests.

The woman, who indicates she's a Christian, smiles and says, "Maybe
one day they'll have to reveal it themselves."

Just a few doors down from the St- Denis' home, Andre and Carmen
Lebrun sit on their porch patio drinking coffee. They've been in the
neighbourhood for 38 years, but only noticed things going downhill
within the last six to eight years.

A television blasts from their living room, the screams from an action
film occasionally penetrating the conversation.

"If it wasn't for the sister living in the basement, we would have
sold and moved," Andre said.

Things have been better since the people who lived across the street
left, the couple said. That particular neighbour showed up at their
home last year in the midst of an all-night drinking binge. He came to
the Lebruns for help after his friend lost consciousness. He didn't
have a phone to call 911, he told them.

"If the community could get together, we could eliminate this," Andre
said.

In recent months, there was a nearby town hall meeting to talk about
the community's drug problems.

"If I see anything, I would report it," Carmen said of drug activity
in the neighbourhood. "We never used to lock the doors, now we do.
Even in the daytime when we're indoors. We don't take no chances," she
added.

The Lebruns heard the unconscious man they'd learned about later died,
though it can be hard to tell in this neighbourhood what actually
happened. Rumours easily become truth on these streets.

Just more than a month ago, many in the neighbourhood say that a man
was killed by a car in a drug dispute, but police reports say the man
was later released from the hospital.

Parkinson has also been working with area landlords, who he says often
find themselves in challenging circumstances when trying to get rid of
problem tenants. It often takes a series of smaller complaints to get
the eviction ball rolling, he said.

The nearby convenience store comes up again and again by neighbour
after neighbour. Nearly everyone is afraid to go there. As each gave
their separate reasons, a cast of characters could usually be seen
lounging in front of its entranceway.

Families who may need milk or a loaf of bread, head to Food Basics on
Second Street East instead, despite the extra time it takes.

"I see people coming in and out of there, but no one seems to be
carrying any bags," said nearby neighbour Jason Legue.

Legue woke up Tuesday to find a beer bottle on his front lawn. It's
still there, as a very conspicuous blemish on his otherwise immaculate
property filled with well-manicured plants.

His three-year-old daughter ran her tricycle over her foot as her dad
talked about neighbourhood drug activity. After a little bit of ice,
and a lot of crying, the young girl seemed better. Minutes later she's
engaged in conversation with a car that stops in front of the house.

"It's OK," Legue says, indicating he knows them. "That's the way it is
around here."

Legue says his family has been happy for the five years they've lived
on Belmont, but they will likely move once their daughter gets older.
He wants to protect her from the things he's heard about the
neighbourhood, and he doesn't want to have to worry about his property
either.

"If we don't put everything away at night, when we wake up it will be
gone," he said, noting a stolen barbecue.

Legue's partner said she thinks it's nice that people like St-Denis
are keeping a watchful eye on the neighbourhood, but Legue's not
entirely convinced.

"It can be a bit much sometimes," he said. "I can see her looking."

There are others watching, too, calling the police when they see
suspicious activity.

A Carleton Street resident, who wanted to protect her identity, said
she's been witnessing more drug activity since she got a puppy.

"When I take him out at two or three in the morning, I see it. People
are coming in and out. They must not sleep."

She has two older teens, but says they're fully engaged in their own
activities, despite living so close to a flurry of drug activity.

The rear of the home adjacent to hers is boarded up and scrawled over
with blue spray paint. "It's been abandoned for years," she says.

Her judgment of the neighbourhood after living in it for seven years:
"There's a few that ruin it for the rest. They ruin the
neighbourhood."