HERE'S MY PRESCRIPTION FOR CLEANING UP THE DOWNTOWN

Our daily newspaper is to be complimented for its recent extensive,
on-the-spot coverage of the continued decay of the downtown core of the
capital city of the province of B.C. Informing the public is a good first
step towards dealing effectively with a problem.

Unfortunately this problem has been around for 20 years and has been the
subject of many thousands of words of coverage and, during that time has
grown worse while the street population has increased.

The main reason for this, of course, is that Victoria has become the Mecca
for those who are street vagrants, drug addicts, panhandlers and, in general
just wish to hang out with their peers and be a public expense and a public
nuisance. They find that the weather is ideal, free food abounds, the police
are friendly, free drugs are provided by government and the courts are
understanding.

What more could any genuine street person ask for? Actually, most of us
support the idea that these people should be fed and housed if and when
necessary. Many of us support the provision of drugs when medically needed
and under controlled conditions.

What we don't want is a system that perpetuates this social disaster. What
we do want is a system that will give many of them their lives back and at
the same time cut off the continual intake of new recruits into their ranks.

First of all it will take money, it will take political courage and it will
no doubt upset the human-rights activists who don't understand that
belonging to any society demands some loss of personal freedom. This of
course is a fact not well understood by many judges, lawyers and
politicians.

Before stating my views on the action needed, I want to point out that the
final objective is to save lives. The nuisance value of a dying downtown
area, the threats to the safety and well-being of the general public and the
financial loss to downtown commerce enterprise and employment are important
and need to be dealt with.

However, the need to rescue those who can be rescued from this hopeless,
dead-end and pointless existence is also important. We have to take action
to restore family and marriage values so that young people can enjoy a
stable home life in their formative years and are not abandoned by parents
and left to the predation of TV and hanging about with their peers devoid of
adult guidance.

I have written at length on this subject and if we don't soon restore some
family traditions and permanency to marriage, and a more loving and caring
integration of all our young people into adult society, the street
population will never be short of recruits.

First of all, it must be understood that education authorities, law
enforcement (police), local and provincial politicians, judges, courts, the
legal profession and parents with growing children all have a responsibility
in this matter and pointing fingers will not resolve anything, anymore than
it did with leaky condos.

First of all, it is essential that the basic approach to being a Canadian
has been changed by the federal government who have opened the doors to
millions of immigrants and now have no idea where they are or what they are.
Being a Canadian must carry some responsibility or we will surely fail as a
nation.

Every adult person living in Canada must be identified as a Canadian
citizen, an immigrant waiting to acquire citizenship, or a visitor here by
right of a visa issued for a specified period. All persons should be issued
with a photo identification card showing status, which should be carried on
their person at all times and be available for security purposes if
required. Those identified as immigrants should be upgraded to Canadian
citizens within a specified period after meeting certain conditions and
security checks.

Now I can hear the shrieks of outrage from the voices of human rights and
invasion of personal privacy stalwarts, and the cries of Hitlerism and
militancy from all sides.

Well folks, I gotta tell ya, if you have a driving licence -- which 90 per
cent of you do have -- what's the difference? If you find that being
identified as a Canadian citizen bothers you, maybe you're in the wrong
country.

The second action, which must be taken by Victoria's Mayor and Council in
conjunction with the Minister of Municipal Affairs, is the issuance of
bylaws that prohibit people from taking up residence on the streets or any
other public property in the city at any time of the day or night.

The third action is the issuance of other bylaws that give the police
discretionary power to impose curfews requiring people to be off the street
at night if they are deemed a public danger or create a public nuisance, or
if they are homeless and without visible means of support. They may be
directed to a shelter or if necessary detained in overnight facilities built
for that purpose.

Similar bylaws would also be needed to prevent begging, panhandling and
public intimidation to extort money or cigarettes.

The next item is to change the objective of the free drug hand-out program
from one of support under controlled facilities to having an objective of
achieving a cure.

To that end, the provision of free drugs would continue but their use would
be confined to facilities provided for that purpose and under regional
health authority control. No drug equipment would be removed from this
building and the use of drugs in public would be an offence. Persons taking
advantage of free drugs would undertake to enter into a drug addiction
corrective course as recommended by the medical agencies.

The final item has to do with policing the area. I should precede these
comments by saying that in the 50 years I have been writing about and
involved in municipal affairs, I have been supportive of the police in the
majority of their difficulties -- so keep that in mind. The most significant
effect of the police in maintaining public order and safety is, without
doubt, their presence. Over the past 20 years, since I first became a
Saanich alderman, we have doubled the number of policemen/women in the
Victoria/Saanich area. Despite this fact, the sense of police presence and
their availability when on call to specific problems is now worse.

In the worst area of Victoria, which covers only a few blocks, a constant
police presence is essential.

This means police on foot -- observing and being observed. This means at
least six police in the area at all times. If special police have to be
hired so be it. My own view is that we could have more police on patrol if
we had fewer in the office pushing paper, watching computers or attending
meetings.

Finally, we will find that determined action of this kind will quickly put
an end to the problem. If we continue with our indulgent approach fostered
by human-rights activists and do-nothing politicians, the threadbare ability
of government to govern will continue to erode and anarchy will surely
follow.