POLICE GET NOD FOR SILLY RAID, TRANSLINK RANKS AS DUMBEST

Christmas may be over, but that hasn't stopped the B.C. Civil Liberties
Association from drawing up a naughty and nice list for 2004.

Both the Vancouver Police Department and TransLink landed in the group's
bad books for a pair of controversial decisions.

Police are criticized for what the association characterizes as "their
silly public show of force in closing the Da Kine Caf, down." The
Commercial Drive business was raided for selling pot last October. Given
the department's $5 million deficit, the BCCLA called the move "a shocking
waste" of police resources.

"This raid is not going to put these sorts of operations out of business.
Marijuana is being sold under the counter all over this city and Da Kine's
Caf,'s main mistake was that they were quite public about how they were in
fact doing it," said BCCLA president John Russell. "The war on marijuana is
over and the police have lost it."

But he reserves his award for the "dumbest" call of the year for
TransLink's board of directors, which rejected a Canadian Federation of
Students' advertisement for Rock the Vote B.C. urging youth to vote in
elections.

TransLink's policy is to decline ads that could cause offence or create
controversy. An ad promoting or opposing an ideology or political
philosophy, policy or action is also prohibited. Only messages about goods,
services, public service announcements and public events are accepted.

Critics argue the policy is applied inconsistently and insist the rejected
Rock the Vote advertisement was non-partisan. According to Russell, the ad
was rejected because it refers to Rock the Vote B.C.'s website, which has
links to political parties. "From a purely practical perspective, from the
perspective of a consumer not from the perspective of a civil libertarian,
I think they're doing their riders a real disservice by narrowing the range
of information that can be displayed so severely," he said.

Russell and the association are also not fans of Vancouver-Burrard Liberal
MLA Lorne Mayencourt and the Liberal party for the Safe Streets Act
targeting aggressive panhandling. The BCCLA argues the Criminal Code
already deals with aggression and the new law makes even the "meekest"
solicitations illegal if they occur around pay phones, bank machines, bus
stops, public toilets or parking lots.

Russell said the government will have trouble figuring out penalties, given
what he said was the absurdity of handing out fines to someone who's
already begging for change.

Although Russell admitted brickbats are easier to give out than bouquets,
the association managed to hand out a handful of kudos to groups and
individuals championing civil liberties. They include Julie Berg, whose
brother Jeff Berg died while in police custody. The Vancouver Coastal
Health Authority, city council, the police department, the Portland Hotel
Society and federal and provincial governments also earned praise for the
success of InSite, the supervised injection site in the Downtown East Side.