PARENTS WANT 'BUBBLE ZONES' TO KEEP CRIMINALS AWAY FROM KIDS

An East Side community group is calling for "bubble zones" around
elementary schools and playgrounds across the city to keep out hookers and
drug dealers.

Under the proposal by Dickens Community Group, which operates citizen
patrols around Kingsway and Fraser Street, prostitutes and drug dealers
would be prohibited from working within six blocks of those areas.

That would stop students from coming face-to-face with flagrant criminal
activity on their way to classes, says Dennis St. Aubin, spokesman for the
group. He noted that though things are quiet at the moment, two years ago,
he was riding his bike by the corner of Windsor Street and Kingsway one
morning when he spotted a woman and her young child standing next to a
working prostitute while waiting to cross the street.

"That was the straw that broke the camel's back," he said. "[The group]
doesn't think children should have to encounter street-level prostitution
as part of the normal activities within their communities."

The zones would also help tackle the problem of needles and condoms
sometimes left in school parking lots and playgrounds.

St. Aubin, who has a son in Grade 1 at Dickens Annex and another in Grade 5
at Dickens Elementary, came up with the idea of bubble zones after reading
newspaper reports in which mayor-elect Larry Campbell suggested local
police might consider imposing similar zones around safe-injection sites to
curb dealing.

St. Aubin noted that when criminals are arrested in his neighbourhood,
judges are asked to include "no go" orders for the area in the sentences or
conditions of release. While that practice serves as a defacto bubble zone
for certain offenders, St. Aubin still sees the need for official bubble
zone designations at schools and playgrounds to make it easier for police
to arrest violators.

He was troubled by recent comments from Vancouver East MP Libby Davies, who
pointed out street prostitutes are forced out of residential communities
and into high risk, poorly lit industrial areas because soliciting is illegal.

Davies is calling for a review of federal solicitation laws, but St. Aubin
worries she's suggesting prostitutes should be allowed to work in
residential areas.

Although he empathizes with the plight of hookers, St. Aubin says he isn't
willing to sacrifice his children's safety for theirs. "You do want to do
things to help them. At the same time, you realize that if you're helping
them, what you're doing is cementing that they're going to stay in this
area and this is a risk to the women and children."

Davies said St. Aubin is misinterpreting her point, which is that a review
is needed to find solutions and keep prostitutes safe. "That doesn't mean
I'm advocating [the activities] take place in his front yard or near
schools," she said, adding there should be a forum for citizens to deal
with such problems.

School trustee Adrienne Montani questioned whether bubble zones could be
effectively enforced, noting some schools are within blocks of each other,
so restrictions could apply to a large region. "But I would want to talk to
more than one person about it."

Councillor-elect Ellen Woodsworth said bubble zones sound like a good idea,
but she would have to see the details. "I support the Dickens Community
Group's desire to have safer neighbourhoods but we also have to deal with
why women are driven into the street."