ODD SQUAD COP BACK ON HOT SEAT OVER E-MAIL

A Note To The New Vancouver Police Chief:

Once you settle into your new offices, you're going to have to get after
those cowboy cops in the Odd Squad. They're still up to their old tricks,
bad-mouthing the city's drug policy here and abroad.

There's an internal investigation into their role at last May's IDEAS drug
conference in Vancouver. That little gathering, funded in part by the
ultra-right, Florida-based Drug Free America and the deep pockets of local
religious fundamentalist Bob Bentall, was set up solely to attack Mayor
Philip Owen's "four pillar" approach to dealing with this city's chronic
drug problem.

Odd Squad cops provided logistical support, including, apparently, using an
unmarked police car to pick up conference guests at the airport. One city
cop regaled the exclusive crowd at the conference with a whole wall of
confidential criminal records he downloaded from a police computer, with
the names blacked out.

What now has police board members grinding their teeth is an intercepted
e-mail written a month ago by Odd Squad constable Al Arsenault to a doctor
in Belgium he met at the IDEAS conference. (Arsenault has so far failed to
respond to my requests for verification of the e-mail.)

In this electronic missive, Arsenault crows that things are finally going
his way. A new War on Drugs is on the horizon and dramatic changes to the
Downtown Eastside will happen after Owen leaves the scene.

He writes: "The politics are rapidly changing here, with a new chief of
police to be selected in a few days time, some new right-wing police board
members and a new mayor to follow in a few months."

Indeed, his kindred spirits in the Community Alliance have succeeded in
invading the NPA board and driving Owen from office in favour of Jennifer
Clarke. They've also been lobbying their friends in Victoria to dump the
NDP appointees on the police board and put in more, um, reasonable people.
Victoria is reviewing all police board appointees and will put its own guys
in after the civic election.

Arsenault seems to be taking a page from the next mayor as she gets rid of
the downtown "ghetto" block by block. He tells his Belgian friend that "the
steamroller of gentrification is on the move." Let me know if you need a
copy of this document. Thanks aren't necessary. I consider it a public service.

Best of luck.

Vancouver's mayor apparent Jennifer Clarke should do her homework before
she decides to chew out COPE councillor Tim Louis again.

For weeks now, Louis has had a motion making its way through the machinery
at city hall to criticize the 2010 Olympic Bid Corporation for not being
more transparent about its proposal.

Between the time Louis introduced his motion and when it came up for
debate, the Bid Corporation reversed itself and issued the bid mini-book.
This was long after other bidders posted their proposals on various web sites.

On Tuesday, Louis withdrew his motion and thanked the Bid Corporation for
delivering the goods. He added that his motion and the prospect of a public
debate helped turn the 2010 guys around.

Clarke couldn't let it pass and rose to say that, essentially, Louis was
delusional if he thought there was any relationship between his motion and
the release of the bid book. The release was going to happen anyway.

She's wrong. Bid corporation president John Furlong convinced the rest of
the committee to keep the material secret. It was only increasing public
pressure, comments in the media and the prospect of a city council debate
that convinced Furlong the bid book had to come out to avoid a public
relations disaster.

Without the heat, there would have been no light. But then the mayor
apparent would rather eat worms than admit COPE ever got it right.