HEAD-SHAVING PUNISHMENT RETURNING TO DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE?

Vancouver police are investigating reports that drug dealers are
shaving the heads of female addicts in the Downtown Eastside as
punishment for not paying drug debts.

The type of assault -- meant to shame a woman and indicate to others
involved in the drug trade not to sell to her -- was thought to have
been curtailed five years ago.

But at a recent meeting, a crowd of about 100 people was told by
Staff Sgt. Joanne Boyle, of the major crimes section, that head
shavings are continuing.

Boyle was a member of the Vancouver police department's
beat-enforcement team five years ago, when it was investigating the
crime at several low-end hotels in the Downtown Eastside.

"They're still going on and we're still grappling with that -- we're
still dealing with the incidents when we can and trying to work with
the victims and the witnesses of these incidents to make them stop,"
Boyle said at an VPD-hosted meeting Oct. 8.

"It's a continuing problem."

Police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton said this week police will
not elaborate further on the crimes so as not to jeopardize their
investigations. He acknowledged finding those responsible can be
difficult, as is determining how widespread the crime could be.

"Unfortunately, like a lot of crimes down there, it's something that
may happen and our beat officers may see the victim and then that's
what prompts our investigation," Houghton said. "It may not be
something that someone phones us over."

In 2006, police had pointed to the Marie Gomez Place, a social
housing building at Princess and Alexander streets, as a notorious
place for addicted women being beaten, raped and having their heads
shaved. The violence prompted police to meet with sex-trade workers
and non-profit groups in the Downtown Eastside to warn them about the
assaults and urge victims to report crimes.

For example, in August of 2006, Alfred (Alfie) Kai Ming Fong was
sentenced to four years in jail for attacking a woman with a machete,
beating her with a steel pipe, kicking her in the head with
steel-toed boots and partly shaving her head with a dull electric
razor. The victim was jumped by Fong and two women for failing to pay
her drug debts.

"To me -- although I don't know this for a fact -- it seemed as if it
wasn't quite as prevalent after that, but it's definitely prevalent
again," said Kate Gibson, executive director of the WISH Drop-in
Centre. "It's just another form of intimidation by dealers."

Gibson said she received an e-mail recently from another women's
group concerned about the head shavings. Mona Woodward, executive
director of the Aboriginal Front Door Society, said she has seen
women who recently had their heads shaved but refuse to talk about
who did it or why it happened. "There's a lot of shame associated
with that, and then there's the fear and the intimidation," she said.