Firms And Unions Negotiate Deal To Improve Safety VANCOUVER -- Workers on unionized construction sites in B.C. will be subject to mandatory drug testing under an agreement negotiated by construction companies and unions. The agreement includes mandatory testing for workers suspected of being intoxicated on the job or who are involved in any work-place accident that could have resulted from being impaired. The policy was negotiated between the Construction Labour Relations Association, representing companies, and the Bargaining Council of B.C. Building Trades Unions. [continues 392 words]
Construction Firms And Unions Reach Agreement For Mandatory Monitoring Workers on unionized construction sites in B.C. will be subject to mandatory drug testing under an agreement negotiated by construction companies and unions. The agreement includes mandatory testing for workers suspected of being intoxicated on the job or who are involved in any workplace accident that could have resulted from being impaired. The policy was negotiated between the Construction Labour Relations Association (CLRA), representing companies, and the Bargaining Council of B.C. Building Trades Unions. It is aimed at improving safety in an industry with a reputation for higher-than-average on-the-job drug use. An industry official said it will establish a standard policy in the province before several large-scale industrial construction projects get started. [continues 651 words]
Willingdon Centre Will House, Treat Those With 'Severe' Psychological Issues VICTORIA - A new mental health facility will open its doors Friday at the old Willingdon youth detention centre in Burnaby, marking a move back to institutionalized care for B.C.'s most vulnerable. "It's a significant departure," newly named Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman said Tuesday. "Some people would call it reinstitutionalization, and I don't actually argue with that," he added, saying he hasn't ruled out making changes to the Mental Health Act to allow for more powers of committal. [continues 622 words]
A new mental health facility will open its doors Friday at the old Willingdon youth detention centre in Burnaby, marking a move back to institutionalized care. "It's a significant departure," newly named Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman said yesterday. "Some people would call it reinstitutionalization, and I don't actually argue with that." Coleman said he hasn't ruled out making changes to the Mental Health Act to allow for more powers of committal. For some, a move to institutionalized care may conjure memories of abuse or mistreatment, but Coleman said it is the right approach. [continues 337 words]
It's not clear exactly when Jeremy Ward hit bottom. It could have been last October when the 20-year-old cocaine addict crammed a handful of pills down his throat, hoping the massive combination of antipsychotics and Valium would ease the pain of being dumped. One thing was certain: Ward needed help. And after about eight years mixing cocaine, marijuana and alcohol -- and with a baby boy on the way -- the veteran addict needed more than just a trip to detox to slow the speeding train of his addiction. [continues 617 words]
Set Up By A Passionate MLA, It Has Helped Former Addicts Regain Their Lives Piece By Piece, But Success Brought New Challenges It's not clear exactly when Jeremy Ward hit bottom. It could have been last October when the 20-year-old cocaine addict crammed a handful of pills down his throat, hoping the massive combination of anti-psychotics and Valium would ease the pain of being dumped. Or, it might have been after getting out of hospital after the overdose, as he knelt on the corner of Granville and Helmcken begging his pregnant, crack-addicted girlfriend to take him back. [continues 2342 words]
They'll Get Quick Access to Services If They Lay Off Crime, Solicitor-General Says The B.C. government said Friday it is testing a new way of dealing with criminals who regularly steal cars, deal drugs, commit assaults or commit other, similar crimes. Solicitor-General John Les said the idea is to offer prolific offenders -- with 24 or more convictions between the ages of 18 and 24 -- an easy way to gain access to provincial programs such as health care, addictions treatment, mental health, housing and welfare services. [continues 302 words]
Mandatory Jail Terms For Gun Crimes Heads List VICTORIA -- B.C. could see an immediate reduction in the level of gang violence if a proposed new federal crime package becomes law, federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said on Wednesday. "A lot of the gang activity, especially the young men who are involved in this, have no fear of the consequences of committing a crime with a firearm because they know under the system right now they might not even have to go to jail," Day said in an interview. [continues 512 words]
Dial-A-Dope Cocaine Trafficker Given Time In Jail Instead Of A Conditional Sentence A Campbell River man initially given a two-year conditional sentence for his role in a dial-a-dope cocaine business will now serve his time behind bars. The B.C. Court of Appeal released a judgment Wednesday overturning Phong Tran's conditional sentence and replacing it with two years in jail. "In my view, the sentence must speak to deterrence and denunciation," wrote Madam Justice Mary Saunders. "I do not consider the sentence, in the circumstances, accomplishes that goal." [continues 320 words]
More Than ,000 Addicts Have Sought Hope In A Long-Term Treatment Program That Offers Professional And Life Skills For The Years Ahead RIMINI, Italy --Where dark sunken bloodshot circles used to announce years of self-inflicted abuse, Vito Telesca now has two bright and vibrant brown eyes. His body -- the one that just five years ago had suffered so many injections it could no longer stand -- has morphed from a stench-filled rack of pasty flesh into an athletic frame that, on this day, gently tugs at the shoulder seams of a crisp white dress shirt. [continues 2204 words]
Fields Are Alive But Those Pretty Blooms Mean Bumper Crop Of Heroin The fields of southern Afghanistan are once again alive with poppies and, once again, the forces charged with keeping the controversial crop out of the ground can't seem to do a thing about it. Millions of brilliant red, white and yellow flowers bob in the gentle spring wind, promising a bumper crop of heroin - possibly Afghanistan's largest - will be ready for sale on the streets of Europe and North America by fall. [continues 1467 words]
With Afghan officials predicting a 'dark future,' many poor farmers are faced with little choice but to tend their crops of opium poppies that fuels the insurgency, writes Jonathan Fowlie in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Jonathan Fowlie The Ottawa Citizen The fields of southern Afghanistan are once again alive with poppies and, once again, the forces charged with keeping the controversial crop out of the ground can't seem to do a thing about it. Millions of brilliant red, white and yellow flowers bob in the gentle spring wind, promising a bumper crop of heroin -- possibly Afghanistan's largest -- will be ready for sale on the streets of Europe and North America by fall. [continues 1069 words]
VANCOUVER - Vancouver's drug policy coordinator has been named the winner of a national award recognizing those who promote physical and mental health by reducing harm from substance abuse. The City of Vancouver announced on Friday that Donald MacPherson has won the 2007 Kaiser Foundation Award for Excellence, which will be presented in Toronto on April 16. MacPherson wrote the policy document called A Framework for Action; A Four-Pillar Approach to Drug Problems in Vancouver, which was adopted in 2001 and launched as Canada's first comprehensive municipal drug policy initiative. [continues 96 words]
Officials expected to have a collection of dangerous chemicals cleaned up from two construction sites by the end of Friday, all without the need for an evacuation. Police and fire officials in that city had announced on Thursday they may have to evacuate as many as 200 homes and five schools because of a concern about several containers of chemicals that had been dumped at two sites in the east part of the city. The chemicals appeared to be from a clandestine lab making crystal meth, police said. [continues 263 words]
RCMP Said The Dangerous Chemicals Were Likely Used To Make The Illegal Street Drug Crystal Meth SURREY - Officials have abandoned plans for a large-scale evacuation in the east part of the city today, but are still faced with a massive cleanup after finding hundreds of litres of dangerous and volatile chemicals dumped at two separate residential construction sites. On Thursday, Surrey RCMP said the chemicals were likely dumped by people who had been making the illegal street drug crystal meth. A spokesman was warning residents of at least 200 homes -- and students at five schools -- that they might have to evacuate a large region surrounding one of the dump sites while the cleanup was underway. [continues 635 words]
QUESNEL - Mayor Nate Bello said Wednesday his community has been working hard to combat its drug problem, and that he is shocked a two-year-old boy there ingested cocaine. "I, and the whole community, am shocked that something like this could happen, that people would have their two-year-old somewhere in a place where they could get cocaine into their system," Bello said in an interview. "It's very sad." Social workers seized a two-year-old Quesnel boy this week, after he was taken to hospital suffering from cocaine intoxication. [continues 228 words]
VANCOUVER -- Two B.C. Court of Appeal rulings involving drug-addicted workers who had been dismissed will better define the role of an employer in dealing with addicted employees, and will likely require employees to take more responsibility for their recovery, a lawyer involved in both cases said Tuesday. "They are both important decisions because they go a long way to clarifying the law in this area," said Peter Gall, who represented two companies seeking to appeal arbitration decisions to reinstate dismissed employees. [continues 550 words]
Mutual Obligations Required When Dealing With Employees Who Have Drug Problems Two B.C. Court of Appeal rulings involving drug-addicted workers who had been dismissed will better define the role of an employer in dealing with addicted employees, and will likely require employees to take more responsibility for their recovery, a lawyer involved in both cases said Tuesday. "They are both important decisions because they go a long way to clarifying the law in this area," said Peter Gall, who represented two companies seeking to appeal arbitration decisions to reinstate dismissed employees. [continues 544 words]
Sullivan Says He Intends To Work Closely With Vancouver Chief Jamie Graham VANCOUVER - Mayor Sam Sullivan said Wednesday he thinks it was "appropriate" for the city's chief of police to request a review of his widely reported encounters with a drug addict. And Sullivan said he looks forward to developing a close working relationship with the chief in his own new role as chairman of the city's police board. "I think we have a very good relationship," Sullivan said of Chief Jamie Graham during a break at Wednesday's police board meeting. [continues 580 words]
A new project aimed at improving the health and safety of sex trade workers and dealing with their impact on the community should include a discussion of red-light districts, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell said Sunday. "We're going to have to come to some recognition that there is a sex trade and it's not going away," Campbell told a news conference announcing the two-year project. "It's here, it's been here forever and I simply don't think we can be playing with people's lives," said the mayor, who later told a Vancouver radio station that red light districts and legislation changes should be on the table during the coming discussions. [continues 405 words]
