SCAN NEEDS LOCAL SUPPORT

Editor:

I attended the community forum recently on the proposed SCAN
legislation.

This forum was very informative and was attended by both our MLAs and
a council member.

There were plenty of local residents in attendance who voiced their
concerns with Northumberland Court, or the "ghetto" as we all call it
in our area.

I won't get into the details, as we've gone over these a million times
in previous meetings, both at city council and at numerous other
community forums over the years. We all know the problems, and the
culprit who is behind them. We just need to find a lasting solution to
resolve them.

I believe that this legislation has proven to be an effective tool to
tackle problematic properties, like the one we are dealing with.

It is run by the province and is a civil recourse, and not a criminal
one. This avoids all the roadblocks of the criminal justice system,
which is too restrictive and binding with all of its legalities.

Over the past several years of my involvement trying to clean up the
crime and drug dealing in the area, I have heard a litany of excuses
about why our hands are tied by the criminal justice system.

I understand this, so the solution is to find another tool whereby we
can accomplish our objectives of returning our neighbourhoods to a
safe place for our loved ones.

Why should we allow a bunch of low-life drug dealers and their
criminal crowd to run our neighbourhoods, wreaking havoc, threatening
our children and loved one's with their poisons? Enough is enough, get
these scumballs out.

With the problems our municipality has faced...this type of
legislation would really help us out. I would like to ask mayor and
councillors to give this idea serious consideration, and to lobby the
provincial government to enact this type of legislation.

John McKenzie,

Maple Ridge