ieyhi

WEST Vancouver-
Sunshine Coast MP

ohn Reynolds took a

alk on the wild side
last week.

For a little over nwo
hours, the Reform party’s
immigration critic accompa-

Reenied members of the

mVancouver Police and the
RCMP Immigration and
Passport section on a twirl

Bthrough the meanest streets
in this country, the

a Downtown Eastside or the
“skids” as it is more affec-

ma tionately known to those who

Btry to keep a lid on the bub-
Ebling cauldron of crime in
that area.

Reynolds was unprepared
for the stark reality of what
he saw. Junkies fixing in the
Edopen. Dope dealers and gang
bangers opehly challenging
and verbally abusing the
i police, Pathetic, sad figures

: ” stumbling down the street,

a

im bodies and minds ravaged

from years of drinking
Chinese cooking wine and
Lysol.

Stepping over unconscious
people in reeking back alleys,
oe wallowing in their own vomit

mag and urine. Not a pretty pic-

mg

ture.
__ But what really surprised
| the outspoken MP was thac

everyone his escorts checked
that night were refugees. Or
perhaps I should say refugee
j claimants, since it is highly

. B unlikely any one of them can

E be described as a bona fide

H refugee.
: ne case involved 4
Honduran teenager, only 18

& years old. He was dressed in a

trendy tracksuit and the latest
in celebrity athlete endorsed

marbox

crime and
punishment

running shoes. He looked
like an average clean-cut kid,
according to Reynolds.

But the cops saw some-
thing Reynolds’ untrained
eye did not. They grabbed
the kid’s face so he couldn't
swallow and made him spit
out the contents of his
mouth,

The nice clean-cut kid
with the expensive trainers
coughed up 17 individually
wrapped pieces of crack
cocaine. A dealer with a
refugee card for ID. His date
of entry into Canada? Only
nine days earlier.

“After only nine days in
Canada, this is what his life
has come to,” said Reynolds.
“The Honduran refugee was
questioned by the police and

‘released. Why? Because
Crown counsel, who must
approve criminal charges in
B.C., would apparently ques-
tion whether police “had suf-
ficient grounds to search the
young man.”

This is the reality of our
streets today. So-called
refugees from Latin American
countries are showing up at
Vancouver Airport and aiter a

uick trip to the bathroom to
dispose of messy things like
passports, claim protected
status from our government
before making their way
down to the “skids” to hegin

plying their trade in illicit
drugs. Oh, I forgor, right
after they get on the welfare
bandwagon.

VPD recently got into
some hot water speaking out
against the proliferation of
Latino drug dealers in the
Downtown Eastside.

Critics immediately
screamed racism. But the
police are no more or less
racist than any other cross-
section of society. Their reali-
ty is every Latino they come
across in that part of town is
a dope dealer and a refugee
claimant.

The: frustration was under-
lined when one cop wrote on
the refugee papers of onc
such individual, “This man is
a drug dealer who threatened
to killa police officer.”

The officer even signed it
in hopes of getting the atten-
tion of the Refugee Review
Board.

Unfortunately, according
to Reynolds, the admission
and review process will not
consider police intelligence
information, outstanding
charges or uncovered adverse
information from the country
of origin. Only criminal con-
victions registered since their
arrival in Canada are consid-
ered,

Whoops! Catch 22. As
iHustrated in Reynolds’
evening in hell, when the
police do catch these people,
(and they do every day) they
can’t even get the charges
laid to try to get the requisite
convictions to put before the
review board.

It’s ridiculous in the
extreme. The cops know who
the street deaiers are. They
know all about all the associ-

ated criminal activity.

It only takes an experi-
enced officer a few minutes
observations to ascertain
who's “holding.” Because the
dealers carry in their mouths
primarily, to recover ihe evi-
dence the pokce have to
sneak up on the dealer and
quickly grab them by the
throat to prevent the suspect
from swallowing the evi-
dence.

But in doing that, they
can’t fulfil the ludicrous stan-
dards set by Crown and the
courts who suggest they
should be talking to the sus-
pect to “develop” the appro-
priate grounds to conduct a
search.

Gulp! There goes the evi-
dence.

So all the police do now is
take the drugs and hurt the
dealer's wallet, identify the
subject and add to the intelli-
gence files. Meanwhile, these
guys are calling up their
triends back home and telling
them what a lark Canada is.

Reynolds saw up close and
personal what the ramifica-
tions created by the policies
of the woolly-headed ideal-
ists.

“F ask myself what the les-
son is in this nwo-hour foray
into the Main and Hastings
area. Does the procedural lib-
eralism in our immigration/
refugee system do anything
to help this Honduran
reiugec, or, is this misguided
and soft-headed approach
hurting the very people it is
meant to help?” asked
Reynolds.

Got it in one, John. Add
in the ineffectual court sys-
tem, the financially driven
charge approval system prac-

| Dear Editor:
‘Your front-page coverage of the stogic

: ‘smoking marathon (North Shore News

Jan. 23), has left me utterly fuming, no
‘pun intended.

Was the smoke so thick that it cloud-
ed your good judgment?

“After all, how can you justify giving
_Such exposure to to a mindless, excessive,

W self-serving, and potentially self-destruc-

tive act?

My initial reaction to the photo was,
a “What a fool.” I mean, can you say lung
-eancer, Mr. Rawlings? Perhaps if the
News had had the insight to include such
a caption with the photo it would have
put an entirely different (and socially-
responsible) spin on the story.

As it was though, you gave Mr.

All whee! drive

2.2L, 137 hp

ABS

Air Bags

Alloy Wheels

‘Air conditioning

80 walt AM/FM cassette
Split folding rear seat
Power windows & locks

Rawlings’ company, as well as the entire
tobacco industry, exactly what it craves:
free publicity.

To tie the story in with mention of the
upcoming national non-smoking week,
and to tell us that the smoke-a-thon was
raising funds for the Canadian Cancer
Society, only magnifies the absurdity of
the event, and its feature in this paper.

Regardless of the other smoking-relat-
ed articles, the damage was done: to the
easily impressionable, the message reads,

“smoking is cool, it's OK to be excessive

(even to the detriment of one’s health
and well-being) and that by doing so,
you'll be glorified in print.”

As a parent with young children, this
is precisely the type of image I do not
wish to sce arriving on our doorstep.

Reader smoking mad over story

\ ;

If you’re going to tell a story, reli the
whole story. Why not muse abour the
condition of Mr. Rawlings’ lungs (you
need look no further than the end of the
cigar he holds), or how many years of
healthy tiving he has smoked off his life,
or how well he could perform any type of
physical exercise (without hacking, that
1s).

As the “Voice of North and West
Vancouver,” I would expect this paper to
reflect the interests and concerns of its
intelligent readers and their families.

If someone chooses to act in such a
reckless manner from the privacy of their
own recliner, then so be it. But don’t give
them a stage on which to perform.
Patrick Thrift
West Vancouver

Wednesday, January 28, 1996 ~ North Shore News — 7

ids hits the ‘skids’ in street tour

tised by the attorney general
and the absolute frustration
experienced by the police try-
ing to do a good job, and
vou begin to understand the

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If the situation wasn’t so
serious, it might be laugh-
able.

— lkniqht@direct.ca

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