SLOCAN MAYOR'S HUSBAND, SONS LINKED TO GROW-OP

It may be the biggest news ever to hit the small village of Slocan.

Mayor Madeleine Perriere is caught up in a pot of trouble, not of her
own making.

The mayor's husband and two sons are facing charges of running a
grow-op, but village councillors are standing by their matriarch.

"Council is behind her -- she's doing a good job," said Coun. Jean
Patterson "What her family does -- that's their business."

Still, all the out of town scrutiny isn't playing well in the
Kootenays.

"It's getting blown out of proportion," said Patterson. "It's not
easy, with all these newspapers calling us."

Of course, marijuana is a $6-billion-a-year industry in B.C., and
under the radar rural operations are a don't ask don't tell reality
for much of small-town B.C.

"We don't even have 350 people," said Patterson. "We're just
little."

The village website lists Slocan's population as "approx.
357."

Over at the Village of Slocan office, the one person on shift reported
taking "quite a few" phone calls.

No one at the Perriere residence answered the phone.

Patterson said she'd like the big-city folks to just keep their noses
out of her idyllic little village.

"There are a lot more important things going on in the world than
what's going on in Slocan," she said.