SULLIVAN OFF TO SHAKY START

Vancouver mayor-elect Sam Sullivan is in the hot seat again. Last
week he was fending off allegations that he assisted independent
candidate James Green in order to beat out Jim Green in the municipal election.

This week it's because Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham has asked
the RCMP to decide if Sullivan should be investigated for providing
addicts with money to purchase drugs.

You have to question the judgment of someone, regardless of their
motivation, who would help addicts buy drugs. However, the timing of
the Vancouver Police Department's interest in Sullivan's actions is fishy.

In September while running for mayor, Sullivan admitted he provided
an addict with money to buy crack and then let him smoke it in his van.

Sullivan said he did it to better understand addiction issues,
although most people rely on conferences, reports, and expert or
addict testimony to educate themselves rather than risk somebody
overdosing in their car.

In 2000, while he was a councillor, Sullivan told the Vancouver Sun
that he gave a sex-trade worker money to buy drugs so she wouldn't
have to sell herself to support her habit.

According to Section 21 of the Criminal Code an individual is party
to an offence if they help or encourage somebody to purchase
narcotics, but why is it only now, five years after his initial
revelations, that Sullivan's actions are coming under scrutiny by the VPD?

Why is the issue so pressing now?

Despite the fact Sullivan was a public official at the time, the VPD
didn't exercise its discretion to launch an investigation back then.

The difference is, as mayor, Sullivan is automatically chairman of
the Vancouver Police Board.

During the election, both outgoing mayor and political rival Larry
Campbell and the president of the Vancouver Police Union, Tom
Stamatakis, raised the question of Sullivan's suitability for police board.

Campbell even went so far as to write a letter expressing his
concerns about Sullivan's behaviour to the B.C. Solicitor-General.

While in office, Campbell, a former police officer, was on good terms
with the police department and voted to provide the VPD with 100 more
officers; Sullivan voted against it.

A cynic might suggest the VPD is interested in Sullivan's actions now
because it doesn't see Sullivan chairing the board in its self-interest.

While police have the right to question whether someone who might
have broken the law is suitable to sit on its board, they also have
the duty to investigate someone impartially, without bias and in a
manner that serves the public.

The time to go after Sullivan was five years ago. Now that he's
mayor, regardless of whether an investigation proceeds, relations
between Sullivan and the VPD have been sabotaged and that doesn't help anyone.