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News (Media Awareness Project) - CN BC: Joint Session
Title:CN BC: Joint Session
Published On:2010-01-27
Source:Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Fetched On:2010-01-29 00:08:37
JOINT SESSION

So if a person rolled a marijuana joint in a room full of cops, what
do you think would be the outcome?

Read on.

The scenario unfolded at the Jan. 20 meeting of the Vancouver Police
Board when "Bud the Oracle of the Unincorporated Deuteronomical
Society" rolled a joint as he sat in the back of the room.

The meeting was held at the new Mount Pleasant community centre. Bud
and the society's "registrar"--some bearded dude named Robin--showed
up to talk marijuana.

While Robin quoted the Bible and criticized Canada's drug laws,
Bud--wearing a visor that appeared to have marijuana leaves hanging
from it--sprinkled weed onto a rolling paper.

Mayor Gregor Robertson, Police Chief Jim Chu, his deputy chiefs and
several senior cops were in the room.

A cop sitting next to Bud caught the attention of Deputy Chief Bob
Rolls, who was a few seats away.

"Should we let him smoke it?" the cop quietly asked Rolls as Robin
continued to speak.

Rolls shook his head from side to side in response. Bud must have got
the picture. He failed to spark up the doobie and left.

That didn't stop him, however, from getting one of his cohorts to
later record his thoughts for a YouTube video.

"I bet you I'm the first person at a police board meeting to roll a
joint and walk out of there unmolested," he said, smiling into the
camera's lens.

Somehow, I don't think Bud would be smiling if he had tried the same
stunt in 1971 in Gastown.

PUBLIC STONING

In 1971, the VPD infamously disrupted a marijuana protest in Gastown,
where news reports from the time say police charged people on
horseback and beat the crowd with batons.

It's a day in history the VPD would rather forget. But artist Stan
Douglas thought otherwise when Woodward's developer Ian Gillespie
commissioned him to produce an art piece for the Woodward's project.

Douglas recreated a scene from the riot in a huge photograph now
installed in the atrium of the redevelopment.

So what's Police Chief Jim Chu think about the installation?

"It's a piece of art, and I don't consider it anything else than a
piece of art," he said. "Art is in the eye of the beholder and I'm
not an art critic."

But displaying a huge photograph of police beating people with batons
isn't exactly good PR for the VPD?

"Well I think a lot of people can look at what is happening
today--the reality versus what may have happened 40 years ago--and
hopefully they're not attributing things from the '60s that are the
practice or the beliefs of the VPD today."

Added Chu: "That's the past. There's things in the history of the VPD
that certainly wouldn't be something we'd cherish and move forward with today."

Mayor Gregor Robertson, who is chairperson of the Vancouver Police
Board, acknowledged the controversy tied to Douglas' piece, called
Abbot & Cordova.

"It was a moment in time and I know some people are upset about it
but it tells a story about a piece of Vancouver history," the mayor
said. "But I think we've come a long way since then. You wouldn't see
that in this day and age. So it's an interesting contrast to what's
happening in these times where there's a ton of community support
work done by the police."
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