Pubdate: Fri, 25 Oct 2002
Source: Ubyssey (CN BC Edu)
Contact:  http://www.ubyssey.bc.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/706
Author: Kathleen Deering

MAYORAL CANDIDATES AT UBC

Hot Topics Were Safe Injection Sites And Public Transit

Vancouver mayoral candidates came to UBC's Faculty of Law building Tuesday 
for a forum put on by the Law Students' Social Justice Club. The candidates 
spoke to students about their platforms for the upcoming civic election.

Law Professor Margot Young introduced the potential mayors, assuring the 
crowd it was only coincidental that Non Partisan Association (NPA) 
candidate Jennifer Clarke sat on her far right, while Coalition of 
Progressive Electors (COPE) candidate Larry Campbell sat on her far left.

Describing herself as "completely apolitical," and telling the crowd that 
she chooses her seats and her fights wisely, Vancouver Civic Action TEAM 
(vcaTEAM) candidate Valerie MacLean sat in the middle.

The ever-present problems in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) surfaced 
in Tuesday's talk, with candidates expressing varied commitments to 
implementing safe-injection sites. Vancouver's current Mayor, Phillip Owen, 
has begun to develop this idea, said Campbell, as part of his Four Pillar 
Approach to Drug Problems, a plan which integrates prevention, treatment, 
enforcement and harm reduction.

Clarke described her research done in Frankfurt and Amsterdam in the summer 
of 2000, and said she wrote a report stating there were very good systems 
of safe-injection sites in both places. Amsterdam also has safe-consumption 
sites for drugs that users aren't able to inject.

"They worked very well in conjunction with a law enforcement system that 
pushed addicts into these supervised consumption sites," she said, "and 
those in turn were the first sort of contact with medical care that many of 
the addicts [had]."

Clarke said that after a seven-year period the addicts and dealers had 
decreased. "I think safe injection sites could work well here...in 
conjunction with a law enforcement strategy," she said.

McLean echoed Clarke's approach to harm-reduction strategy. "Not only is it 
important to the Four Pillar program, but we would implement it 
aggressively and quickly if I become mayor of the city of Vancouver," said 
McLean.

Campbell directed his response to Clarke's, citing objections about her 
vague timeline and her party's lack of commitment to implementing 
safe-injection sites. "The fact of the matter is, is that this is not 
optional," he said.

"Her answer demonstrates that this is not going to happen in the near 
future and while this is going on my coroners are going into those alleys 
and picking up people in [unsafe injection] sites."

"I tell you right now, right here, that there will be a safe injection site 
one way or another within one month of my election," he said. Last year's 
bus strike and the direction TransLink would take under each candidate was 
another key point in Tuesday's forum.

McLean said she herself is a transit user, and said her party would look at 
all possible solutions to avoid the gridlock across the city. "My solution 
is...more buses running, articulated buses running, buses running 24 hours 
per day, seven days per week," she said, adding that rail and water 
transportation options would be explored.

Campbell directed his answer to UBC students. "I live on 12th and Sasamat, 
so every morning I watch six B-Lines coming to UBC full," he said. "Buses 
have to go where people are and where people have to go."

Clarke, who has served as a city councilor for the last nine years, was on 
TransLink's board of directors during the four-month bus strike last year. 
She mentioned the newly-completed Millennium sky-train line as a 
achievement of the NPA and a reason to re-elect her party.

She added she also supports extending the sky-train line into the False 
Creek area, as well as the creation of a north-south rapid transit line 
linking Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport.

The forum lasted roughly one hour, although Clarke had to leave early for a 
council meeting. Votes can be cast for the Vancouver civic election on 
November 16.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom