Pubdate: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2006, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Mark Hume MAYOR WON'T FACE CHARGES RCMP Concludes Probe Into Sullivan's Relationship With Two Drug Addicts VANCOUVER -- When Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan gave money to a prostitute and a crack addict to help them support their drug habits, he may have committed a criminal act. But he was relieved yesterday to learn that an RCMP investigation into his actions, which took place several years ago, will not lead to charges. In a brief statement, the RCMP confirmed that after looking into Mr. Sullivan's self-described relationship with two different addicts while he was a city councillor, the matter can be laid to rest. "Based on the information gathered, the RCMP concluded its investigation . . . and there are no criminal charges forthcoming against Mayor Sullivan," the RCMP in British Columbia said in a statement. In a conference call from Ottawa, where he is on city business, Mr. Sullivan said he was relieved by the decision. "I am glad that the cloud that has hung over me for the last many months is now left," Mr. Sullivan said. "I can also tell you that I'm in Ottawa now meeting with a number of cabinet ministers, and I was in Ottawa last month, met with the Prime Minister and a number of other cabinet ministers, and I have not found that this issue has affected my work in any way." Mr. Sullivan's problems can be traced back to 2000, when he openly discussed his unusual relationships with two different drug addicts. The issue resurfaced when he ran for mayor last fall. One of the encounters was with a 20-year-old prostitute he met in 1990, when she was working outside a store in his neighbourhood. After talking to her about her addiction, he tried to help her by giving her $40 a day -- enough money to support her drug habit without prostituting herself. "For the next three weeks, I gave her money. I loved the fact that my neighbours could go to the convenience store without harassment and that she could be free of the customers who terrified her," he said in a statement to police. He stopped giving her money, he said, when "I really noticed the effect my support was having on my bank account, and I became resentful that over 90 per cent of my money was going to support organized crime." Mr. Sullivan's second questionable encounter with a drug addict occurred a few years later when he responded to an e-mail from a man named Shawn that came to him at city hall. Mr. Sullivan said he was interested in Shawn, an admitted addict, who was trying to raise money for a cause through a cross-Canada bike tour. He met him for dinner and while driving him home afterward, gave him money to buy drugs. "I was there to learn [about the world of drug addiction]," he said in his police statement. He said Shawn got out of his vehicle near the Vancouver police station, "returned with drugs and showed me a makeshift crack pipe made from simple materials. He smoked it while seated in my passenger seat." Bob Prior, head of the federal prosecution service for the Department of Justice in B.C., said that providing someone money to buy drugs is illegal, but the lack of hard evidence meant the Crown had no case. "What we have here is a case where a person provided money in order for another person to buy drugs. . . . [But] He of course wouldn't have any personal knowledge into whether in fact the substance was a drug. It could have been anything. In the first scenario, where the woman was being provided with money so she wouldn't have to prostitute herself, we've no idea what she in fact did with the money. So it's just a pure evidentiary question . . . there is just that missing link. Part of the problem is the age of the file. The evidence isn't there any more." Asked whether what he did was wrong, Mr. Sullivan replied, "I don't believe what I did was wrong but I can tell you I wouldn't do it again." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman