Pubdate: Wed, 12 Oct 2005
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Pete McMartin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

ANYONE CAN WATCH DRUG DEALS FOR FREE

And If Sam Sullivan Didn't Break The Law, He Was Reckless In Treating 
Addict Like Lab Rat

For those planning to vote in Vancouver's mayoral race, this much we know:

NPA candidate Sam Sullivan enthusiastically supports at least one 
pillar of the Four Pillars drug policy. That would be the one about 
addicts' access to drugs.

How do we know this?

Well, Sam recently admitted to taking a very personal and private 
interest in this three years ago.

In an interview with Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter Frances 
Bula last week, Sam admitted having given money to an activist and 
recovering addict, Shawn Millar, who, while discussing a fundraising 
idea during a dinner with Sam, got the shakes and asked Sam for $10 
so he might buy some crack cocaine.

Wrote Bula in her story:

"Sullivan not only gave it to him, but said 'Oh, let's go' and 
insisted on driving him to the dealers' corner at Columbia and 
Hastings. Then, after Millar had smoked a couple of rocks in 
Sullivan's van, Sullivan said he hadn't actually been able to witness 
the deal and gave Millar more money to go back for another buy so he 
could see how it worked."

That straight reportorial account does not adequately convey Millar's 
vulnerability during that evening. In Bula's taped interview with 
Millar recently -- which she kindly provided me -- you get a better 
sense of it. Even now, his voice is fragile and shaky. Describing 
that dinner with Sam, Millar remembers:

"Well, it was quite an interesting evening . . . because I had just 
flipped with a relapse, and when it came time to pay the [dinner] 
bill, he, you know, pulled out some money, and I saw the money and 
right away my whole thing started going, right? The physical kind of 
craving things that happen, you have to go to the bathroom and 
everything. So I said, 'You know, Mr. Sullivan, I got to admit I'm 
compelled to try and hit you up for $10.' And he goes, 'Oh, is that 
for drugs?' And I say, ya, and he says, 'Oh, let's go!' So we got in 
his van, and we cruised around the 'hood, and I, um, scored some dope 
. . . I had to get a lighter, a pipe and everything . . . smoked it 
in the van, right? And there was a little thing where he was going to 
give me the money and then he kinda got side-tracked and didn't give 
me the money, so then he's waiting for me to go, and I'm there, um, 
'You didn't give me the money,' and he thought he had, so he was 
kinda wondering if I was pulling a fast one on him . . . and I came 
back and I smoked a couple of rocks in his van and he goes, 'Well, I 
didn't see it, I didn't see the buy!' Right? He's doing research 
basically. You know, he's sitting in his van watching me score and 
watching me get high . . . So I had to go buy some more 'cause he 
didn't see me buy it . . . And it was kinda funny 'cause we're 
circling the block, circling the block, and there's cops there, and 
[Sam] says, 'Oh, wouldn't that be great, 'Councillor Sullivan busted 
buying crack!'"

When he was asked about this breathtakingly creepy and stupid display 
of . . . what? naivete? monumental bad judgment? kind-hearted 
exploitation in the name of, dear gawd, research? . . . Sam played 
the aw-shucks card he always has, that, you know, he's just a 
well-intentioned guy who wanted to see the drug trade first-hand.

(Millar, by the way, still thinks Sullivan is a compassionate man, 
and mentioned in his interview with Bula that after the drug 
escapade, Sullivan gave him $200 for food.)

Well, ignore the fact that if Sam wanted to see the drug trade 
first-hand, he can, every day, by simply driving by it. It's right 
there, out on the street for all to see. You don't have to hire a 
crack addict to witness a drug deal: you can watch curbside, for free.

But there is another aspect of this to be examined. It is a question 
of legality.

That is, did Sam break the law?

I don't know if it's a question Vancouver police have asked 
themselves, and when I phoned them, their media relations people 
suggested I ask someone with Crown counsel.

So I phoned the Department of Justice, B.C. Region, and got Lyse 
Cantin, the department's senior communications person.

She referred the question to Bob Prior, a federal prosecutor and 
director of the federal prosecution service. He referred her to 
Section 21 of the Criminal Code, entitled "Parties To Offence." It reads:

"Every one is a party to an offence who (a) actually commits it; (b) 
does or omits to do anything for the purpose of aiding any person to 
commit it; or (c) abets any person in committing it."

Could this apply to that evening in the Downtown Eastside three years 
ago? Cantin, diplomatically, as communications people are wont to do, 
begged off on offering an opinion. After all, there would have to be 
evidence of that, she said. The question of illegality, she said, 
would have to be decided by those higher in office than her.

And by people more schooled in the law than I.

But of this I am sure:

What Sullivan did was so reckless, and so unmindful of Millar 
(treating him, at the core of things, like a lab rat) that I wonder 
if there isn't some disconnect between Sullivan's undeniable, if 
myopic, decency and the real, hard world staring back at him across 
the dinner table.

It's a vision thing, as they say. I can't help but wonder:

What on earth does Sam see?
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman