DOCTORS HONOUR FORMER MAYOR SULLIVAN FOR WORK WITH HOMELESS AND ADDICTED

Former Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan's sympathetic stance toward the
homeless, the drug-addicted and the mentally ill may have cost him
politically, but on Saturday thousands of family doctors recognized
his contributions to improving the health of those sections of society.

The 24,000-member College of Family Physicians of Canada awarded
Sullivan one of three honorary memberships for 2010. In a press
release, the College noted Sullivan's "commitment to addressing many
challenges of vital concern to the population, including quality of
life of the disabled, the needs of the homeless and inner-city
populations, programs for those battling drug and substance abuse, and
preservation of the environment."

Sullivan was the only former mayor among the college's recipients and
it added that Sullivan's skiing accident, which left him paralyzed at
19, laid the basis for his advocacy work. In an interview Friday,
Sullivan confirmed there was a link between his disability and his
continuing work in the Downtown Eastside.

"I feel very close to people with drug addictions and mental illness
because they have a disability -- in my mind -- and I have a
disability as well."

He said that several hundred years ago physical disabilities were
often treated as moral issues, but because of the work of the medical
profession, perceptions changed.

"My hope is that we will one day get to the point where mental illness
and drug addiction and these kind of things are no longer moral issues
- -- they're health issues," he said.