MLA BLOWING HOT AIR ABOUT METH

Editor, The NEWS:

Re: Meth dominates MLA's town hall (NEWS, Oct. 2).

With just eight months until the next provincial election, it's hilarious to
watch B.C. Liberal backbenchers scrambling to grab free publicity in an
effort to appear as though they have been doing something for the past three
years, when in fact they haven't. Take our own local MLA, Randy Hawes, for
example.

Since he was elected, Hawes for most of his term has been sitting on his
hands while the Fraser Health Authority gutted Mission Hospital. Hawes told
Dr. Hector Baillie (according to the Mission City Record) that "he had been
instructed by his bosses not to fight for MMH," and that, "Politicians have
no place in advocacy in healthcare."

So now Hawes is scrambling to look like he cares about this community by
taking on an issue he feels no one can argue about: the increased use of
crystal meth in the Lower Mainland, particularly by young people.

Hawes would like the public to believe that his concern for this issue came
from his attendance at a forum in Maple Ridge, when in fact it was his own
government that unveiled a provincial strategy (without funding) to combat
crystal meth addiction in mid-August of this year.

In connection with this issue, Hawes is circulating a petition to put
pressure, he says, on the provincial Attorney General, Geoff Plant, to put
corresponding pressure on the federal justice minister for stiffer
sentencing for meth producers.

So in other words, the B.C. Liberals will not advocate stiffer sentencing on
their own, because it's the right thing to do, without public pressure.

The petition also proves that Hawes has no influence, as an MLA, with the
attorney general in his own government.

It's also clear that the real reason why Hawes and company want stiffer
sentencing is to download the problem on the federal government. First and
second time offenders usually get a court sentence under two years, which is
served in a provincial institution. Sentences over two years are served in a
federal institution. Arresting more drug producers without stiffer sentences
would be problematic for the B.C. Liberals since, starting in 2001, they
have closed down seven provincial corrections facilities (not to mention
five probation offices and 24 courthouses).

They would have no place to put them.

In the Record (Aug.12), Hawes makes the colourful but nonsensical statement
that "the front lines [in this drug war] are literally drawn at your kitchen
table."

If Hawes were at all serious about this issue, and not just grabbing
publicity, he would know that the line with meth producers is not at the
kitchen table, but in Mission's industrial park, where the Hells Angels have
their clubhouse.

Everyone knows that the principal player in B.C.'s multi-billion dollar
illegal drug industry is the Hells Angels. Setting up "a community task
force" or a "drug watch program" is not going to make a single dent in
organized crime involvement in crystal meth production.

Until such time as Hawes and his government enact provincial legislation
similar to Ontario and Quebec to deal more effectively with biker gangs, and
as soon as MLA Hawes recognizes that the Hells Angels are a dark force right
here in his own constituency, then once again, he is only blowing hot air
and puffing himself up for next year's election.

Ron MacFarlane Mission