PROTEST GROUP NEEDLING COPS

A protest group has defied police by opening a needle exchange on the same
site where a similar operation was recently shut down.

David Cunningham, spokesman for the Anti-Poverty Committee, said the group
opened its late-night exchange next to Carnegie Centre on Friday, a week
after the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users' Blood Alley needle exchange
was raided.

Police claimed drug dealing was going on in or near the VANDU needle
exchange tent, although no drug charges were laid; instead VANDU was issued
a bylaw infraction notice for obstructing the sidewalk.

"I'd rather get a bylaw fine than know people will die from using infected
needles," said Cunningham, who claimed police have already tried to
intimidate Anti-Poverty Committee volunteers by parking in front of the
dispensing table with their lights on for up to 45 minutes. "Police are
trying to break the corner of Main and Hastings to make it friendly to
tourists, shoppers and the Olympics bid, but it's an attack on drug users
and all poor people."

Cunningham said the Anti-Poverty Committee will challenge any bylaw tickets
because its needle exchange table takes up very little space.

"We'll keep opening every night. We'll just keep moving up and down the
alley so we can't be charged for being in the same spot."

The activist group, known for its protests against free trade and the
Campbell government, was part of a 40-strong mob of protesters that stormed
Pacific Centre Mall May 1 after a May Day parade, knocking over a
mannequin, signs and garbage bins and scuffling with security guards.

Cunningham said police have dropped mischief charges laid against four APC
members in the wake of the incident.

Judy McGuire, director of the Downtown Eastside Youth Action Society, said
mobile dispensing vans and remote needle exchanges have eliminated the need
for a needle exchange alongside Carnegie Centre. DEYAS distributes three
million needles a year to groups like VANDU, which distribute them directly
to users. Several Downtown Eastside hotels also have needle exchanges for
tenants.

"There is plenty of availability-the needles are just being handed out in a
different way," said McGuire.

Ann Livingston, spokeswoman for VANDU, said the organization is wary of the
Anti-Poverty Committee's involvement in the needle-exchange protest.

"They are so young, young enough to be my kids, and they're wet behind the
ears. They see something wrong, but I don't want them to associate with us
and put VANDU's funding at risk," said Livingston, adding VANDU volunteers
are now distributing needles by walking the area with bags.

Livingston said VANDU also wants a meeting with Insp. Ken Frail, supervisor
of the police department's district two, who they claim promised to tell
them in advance if police believed there was dealing going on near the
exchange.

Frail returned to work after a month's holiday Monday and had not been
briefed on the exchange bust by the Courier's deadline.

Insp. Kash Heed, head of the the police department's drug squad, said he
has never had any problems with VANDU's needle exchange and was not
consulted when district two police officers shut down the operation.

"I wasn't involved in the closure at all," said Heed, adding the action has
not helped resolve the drug issue in the area. "I've been there often and
from my point of view, the priority should be to go after the traffickers."