Dopes

I know a man who lives in a little cottage on Vancouver Park Board property.

His job is to look after the lawn and any amenities that may be there.

I've know this man for over 20 years now.

He told me yesterday that recently he almost lost his home, and that if he did ever lose his home, he would be...that's right, homeless.

"Why did you almost lose your home?"

"Well, I found a bunch of guys shooting up heroin in the washrooms, so I locked them out."

"You mean the Park Board almost threw you out because there were guys shooting dope in your washrooms?"

"No, not at all. They almost threw me out because I locked the doors to keep these guys out, and the Park Board wants the bathrooms open at all times."

"So why don't they provide police or surveillance or something to keep the addicts out?"

"Search me. I had to confront a violent drunk also and the Park Board was mad at me."

Lovely.

Talking to this fellow yesterday, reminded me that in the main floor bathroom at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, there is a prominently displayed container in which I am encouraged to deposit my dirty and used hypodermic needles.

A friend tells me that such handy dandy containers are to be found in washrooms all over the downtown core.

As I spend as little time as possible in the cesspool known as the Vancouver Downtown core, I wasn't aware of that. (Living in Victoria for 2 weeks in November was a similar experience. The Downtown has been abandoned to the Ugly and Stupid People. Something approximating civil life can only be found in the neighbourhoods and suburbs. Yah, I know. You're going to write me and tell me that you live at Richards and Drake and it's the most wonderful place on earth. Good luck to you.)

Talking to this fellow yesterday, also reminded me that David Eby is the new Executive Director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

One of the first things Eby did after taking office was give an award to what he feels is one of the best and most progressive and most helpful groups in town, VANDU.

VANDU is the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

Several of us have suggested over the years that this group rename itself to VANDA, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Abusers.

This so-called group is a loose collective of drug addicts, trying to behave like a labour union.

Let's recall for just a moment that, in the days of John L. Lewis, the focus of labour unions was to save nine-year-old boys from being send down mine shafts in Pennsylvania to look for lumps of coal. Forgive me for bringing something as distasteful as history into this matter. I appreciate that I am sublimely out of touch.

Mr. Eby of the BC Civil Liberties has said that VANDU - using dope fiends who argue that it is their right and entitlement to proudly use dope and that we the taxpayer should do everything we can to help them do just that - deserve recognition for their staunch (or was it stoned?) support of Insite, the so-called safe injection room.

Jean Vanier, writing in this morning's Globe, talks about the mission to create a world "where every person is seen as valuable and helped to find a fullness of life, through and in a place of belonging."

A fullness of life.

Do we value people by giving them the very thing they must escape?

Can there be a fullness of life in injecting heroin?

Is a sterile room with little shooting booths a place of belonging?

Mr. Eby, now the boss of the BC Civil Liberties Association, comes from the Portland Hotel Society, which runs Insite.

He has, in effect given himself an award for the work he has just left.

He was a curious and questionable choice for this new assignment.

BC Civil Liberties may not always have had your approval rating on some issues, but they have in the past had a deserved reputation for reasonableness and clear thinking.

Doctrinaire ideology is now at the helm.