MAYOR CAN'T DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN HIS STORY LINES AND REAL LIFE

Re: Don't like drug crime? Try the Campbell cure, Daphne Bramham, Dec. 18

Larry Campbell must be flattered to have been the inspiration for the
coroner in Da Vinci's Inquest. And how tempting it must be to apply
the literary licence of television drama to the real-life challenges
of being mayor of Vancouver. Judging by his interview with Daphne
Bramham, he employs such licence extensively in shaping the facts of
Vancouver's drug problem to fit the story line he prefers.

In Campbell's plot, an addict thief is not a thief, but a person with
a health problem, and we shouldn't treat sick people as criminals.
However, to speed the plot along, he suggests that we create isolated
work camps for addicts. He hopes that the audience at home won't
notice that prisons and isolated work camps look alike. Addict dealers
muddy the plot, so they are not mentioned. Nor are Canada's laws or
immigration rules allowed to interfere with Da Vinci's -- oops, I mean
Campbell's -- story line.

But perhaps I'm being unkind. Is it possible that when Bramham
scheduled the interview, Campbell's people thought it was to discuss
the harm-reduction episode while the columnist thought she'd be doing
the property-crime episode? With commercials and credits, it's
unreasonable to expect two separate episodes in one time slot. Even
Nicholas Campbell, star of Da Vinci's Inquest is only expected to
learn one script at a time.

Michael Edwards

Garibaldi Highlands