Calgary Herald columnist Licia Corbella drew a firestorm of heat last week when she suggested in a column that Glee actor Cory Monteith might have lived were it not for the relaxed attitude towards drugs in Vancouver. Now I wouldn't suggest for a moment that the Insite supervised injection site had anything to do with Monteith's untimely death =AD something Corbella asserted. Indeed, in my experience these celebs have no end of adoring sycophants who will do their bidding. And I also take issue with Corbella saying heroin was not easy to obtain in other Canadian cities. It is. But as easy as it is in Vancouver? Probably not. [continues 337 words]
Seen up close during the Grey Cup festivities, Cory Monteith came across as bright, engaging and patient with demanding fans News of the death of Cory Monteith at just 31 years o f a g e was a jaw-dropper. The fact that Deputy Chief Const. Doug LePard, who is acting chief in the absence of Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu, would make the announcement personally on a Saturday evening speaks to the enormity of the news. We now know the cause of death was a fatal mix of heroin and alcohol, not surprising considering his struggle with addictions. [continues 321 words]
So, the annual gabfest at the Union of BC Municipalities resolved to work for the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana. Well, in the annals of historic futility, that motion may compete for top spot. Drug policy is federal jurisdiction and potholes and playgrounds are the purview of the elected officials and petty bureaucrats of the UBCM. But the motion did get the talking heads going. On weekend talk radio, yet another lawyer and so-called 'expert,' trotted out the usual arguments to legalize marijuana starting with: It will deal a body blow to organized crime. A specious, but often-repeated argument. [continues 314 words]
Friday's annual 4/20 day smoke-in on the grounds of the Vancouver Art Gallery, on Parliament Hill and in cities around the world had no shortage of supporters of the legalize marijuana issue or police keeping an eye on the illegal activities with no enforcement action. It has become the epitome of the hollowness of this country's drug laws. The reality is that in Canada in general, and more specifically in B.C., marijuana is effectively decriminalized as things stand today. Yes, the law is still on the books that possession of marijuana is against the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. But should it be? [continues 353 words]
I was in the lounge at the Calgary airport when I got the first call of a shooting in Mayerthorpe. Initial indications were there may have been two RCMP members shot and possibly as many as six. When I landed in Vancouver and checked my Blackberry, the full horror of the tragedy was evident. It was a massacre. Four junior members of the RCMP, with 12 years' combined experience, lay dead. The news stunned this country. I received e-mails from as far-flung places as Tennessee and Norway, from police officers expressing their sadness and trying to understand how this could have happened. [continues 390 words]
Vancouver Police Department (VPD) Insp. Doug LePard announced last week that the department will seek an additional $1.19 million in supplemental funding to continue the City Wide Enforcement Team's (CWET) drug enforcement efforts in the skids to the end of the year. A report will be presented to Vancouver council which, according to LePard, will outline the many positive results the initiative has had since its start on April 7. The COPE- dominated Vancouver council did not provide any of the dollars for VPD from the get-go and are now being asked to step up to the plate. And so they should. [continues 746 words]
Let's pick up where we left off last week. We, as a society, are not forcing those who choose to inject heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into their veins to take responsibility for their actions. Actions, which I might add, are costing me and thee very dearly. For example, every time a vehicle is broken into, ICBC estimates it costs a minimum of $500. Personally I think it's higher given the cost of adjusters' wages and the operating costs it takes to employ them. But let's, for the sake of argument, go with that number. [continues 921 words]
A multitude of press releases are issued every day. Among the ones I receive, some are written by a group you've actually heard of, but not many. Most breathlessly announce the appointment of so-and-so or the start of a new initiative to raise money for this cause or that one. And most are simply filled in that circular receptacle beside the desk. But one caught my eye on the weekend as it was heading to the waste bin. Because it had the logos of the BC Persons with Aids Society, AIDS Vancouver and YouthCO Aids Society, I was about to ignore it until I noticed the phrase "drug cops" in the headline. [continues 741 words]
Reading the Vancouver Sun on Saturday, I noticed the first sign of something insidious. The municipal election in Vancouver was all about the Downtown Eastside and cleaning up the festering wound that neighbourhood has become. Central to the issue was the so-called Four Pillars approach to the drug problem involving treatment, enforcement, harm reduction and education. All of that sounds OK to a point. The so-called harm reduction component was the stickler though. Described throughout the campaign as "safe injection" sites for heroin users, the topic generated much of the debate until finally, all the candidates jumped on the bandwagon until all were touting exactly the same thing. Damnedest thing I ever saw in an election. [continues 706 words]
The Senate committee report recommending the legalization of marijuana possession is bizarre, to say the least. It is marked by what appears to be misinformation, lack of analytical thought and a distinct parochial viewpoint. Let me begin by saying I couldn't give a fiddler's whatever if dope heads smoke their brains out on the steps of the Peace Tower. The more, the merrier. The senators would, of course, have to tiptoe carefully around the assorted tokers, nodded off after binging on some B.C. Bud. [continues 893 words]
A little over a year ago, mild-mannered insurance salesman, 41-year-old Richard Gemme, was arrested in a Lower Lonsdale apartment on the same day police in La Belle Province were taking down the illicit operations of the Quebec Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels. In late March, after a year in custody, Gemme pleaded guilty to participating in gang activity, drug trafficking and conspiracy to traffick. He got sentenced to five years in federal prison. Gemme was defended by lawyer Gilbert Frignon. In a spirited but dubious defence, Frignon tried to make much of the fact that Gemme was a career insurance salesman who merely responded to requests from boyhood friends to design the software program to track the Hells Angels' millions in drug profits. [continues 646 words]
AS the police considered whether to add five more women to the 50-strong list of missing women from the Downtown Eastside last week, it is interesting to note when they were last seen. Why? Quite simple really. The families had not reported them missing for years since they were last seen. Years. It is important to understand this to really understand why the police did not pull out all the stops back in '94 or '95, as the armchair quarterbacks like B.C. Liberal MLA Tony Bhullar would have you think they should. [continues 576 words]
The sentencing last week of two members of the Hells Angels East End chapter brought to a close a saga which started five years ago. Project Nova began in the wake of an extortion investigation into two senior Hells Angels called Project Breakpoint, which ended without prosecution, much to the frustration of police investigators angered by the decision to terminate a wiretap intercept warrant just days into the authorization. Robert Molesberry had been a doorman at the Number 5 Orange strip bar in the Downtown Eastside. That was the legitimate part of his life. He also ran a marijuana grow-op for one Hells Angel and sold cocaine for two others. [continues 845 words]
IT'S been quite a week for law enforcement in the efforts to keep a lid on the bubbling cauldron of organized crime. In a week that saw police strike a body blow to the "Mom" of all operations against the Hells Angels in Quebec, Calgary police struck at the operations of the Hells Angels in that city as well. Both operations had local angles demonstrating that things like the biker war in Quebec is not "their" problem, but truly a national problem. [continues 676 words]
A year or so ago, I was in Montreal doing some research into an organized crime story for another publication. In the course of speaking with some police officers tasked with investigating the ramifications of the war between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine, I was told the Angels had become so powerful that they dealt manno a manno with the long-established Italian Mafia families. It couldn't be, could it? Had the Angels become that powerful or had the "men of respect" become so much less a factor? [continues 373 words]
LAST Friday, Alberta Provincial Court Judge Allan Fradsham delivered a 110-page decision effectively stating the police had breached the rights of 150 or so Hells Angels who were travelling to Red Deer in July 1997 to attend the formal "patchover" of the Grim Reapers bike gang. The decision was the result of a court challenge made by the Angels, which involved numerous days of testimony from a variety of people, including the local media darling, criminology Professor Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University. Boyd, long an advocate of legalizing marijuana, was a defence witness in the case. He testified, "My opinion is that chapters in Western Canada are not involved in organized crime as chapters or as a regional entity.'' [continues 763 words]
Judging from a brief sojourn into the world of television news last week, it now seems apparent that Jenny Kwan, NDP Minister of Municipal Affairs, has decided the only way to stop junkies from keeling over in their fetid mess is to provide them with safe injection sites and free drugs. Such is the measure of enlightenment emanating from Victoria. Drugs are the poison killing them, so let's give them easier access to the drugs. Kwan was out parading around last week, fresh from her recent brush with the law, a Minister of the Crown engaging in a little trivial graffiti during yet another protest, on that occasion demanding the property of others be given to those who haven't earned it. [continues 992 words]
AS we perch on the precipice of a new century, it's important to look back at what defined the past hundred years and project ahead at what will, probably, define the coming hundred years. The 20th century was marked by three important things: the rise and fall of communism, marked by the Cold War; two bloody and deadly world wars; and an increase in technological advancement, the like of which may never again be seen by mankind. It's the latter that requires us to pay the most attention. [continues 762 words]
While on the subject of leaders who deliberately ill-inform the public, can there be a sadder case than that of Edmonton police chief John Lindsay? In the spring, two veteran detectives charged that senior members of the police department leaked information to the Hells Angels, and Lindsay did little to investigate the allegations. Lindsay, for his part, immediately filed a civil action in an attempt to limit the scope of the Mounties' investigation of corruption into his department. [continues 469 words]
Events that took place in Montreal last week and planned in Texas may have a violent effect on us, here, in British Columbia. The outlaw motorcycle gang Rock Machine, which has been engaged in a violent war for control of the lucrative drug trade in Quebec with the Hells Angels, has been officially made a "Support Club" of the Bandidos, one of the so-called "Big Four" outlaw gangs in the world. The move allows Rock Machine to wear red and yellow, the colours of the Bandidos as well as a "support Bandidos" patch on their own "colours." [continues 756 words]
