(This
column was published in the North
Shore News on
Jan. 28, 1998)
Reynolds
hits the 'skids' in street tour
By Leo Knight
WEST
Vancouver-Sunshine Coast MP John Reynolds took a walk on the
wild side last week.
For
a little over two hours, the Reform party's immigration critic
accompanied members of the Vancouver Police and the RCMP
Immigration and Passport section on a twirl through the meanest
streets in this country, the Downtown Eastside or the
"skids" as it is more affectionately known to those
who try to keep a lid on the bubbling cauldron of crime in that
area.
Reynolds
was unprepared for the stark reality of what he saw. Junkies
fixing in the open. Dope dealers and gang bangers openly
challenging and verbally abusing the police. Pathetic, sad
figures stumbling down the street, bodies and minds ravaged from
years of drinking Chinese cooking wine and Lysol.
Stepping
over unconscious people in reeking back alleys, wallowing in
their own vomit and urine. Not a pretty picture.
But
what really surprised the outspoken MP was that everyone his
escorts checked that night were refugees. Or perhaps I should
say refugee claimants, since it is highly unlikely any one of
them can be described as a bona fide refugee.
One
case involved a Honduran teenager, only 18 years old. He was
dressed in a trendy tracksuit and the latest in celebrity
athlete endorsed running shoes. He looked like an average
clean-cut kid, according to Reynolds.
But
the cops saw something 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 question whether police "had sufficient 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
after a quick 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 begin
plying their trade in illicit drugs. Oh, I forgot, 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 reality is
every Latino they come across in that part of town is a dope
dealer and a refugee claimant.
The
frustration was underlined when one cop wrote on the refugee
papers of one such individual, "This man is a drug dealer
who threatened to kill a police officer."
The
officer even signed it in hopes of getting the attention 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 convictions registered since their arrival in Canada
are considered.
Whoops!
Catch 22. As illustrated 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 dealers
are. They know all about all the associated criminal activity.
It
only takes an experienced officer a few minutes observations to
ascertain who's "holding." Because the dealers carry
in their mouths primarily, to recover the evidence the police
have to sneak up on the dealer and quickly grab them by the
throat to prevent the suspect from swallowing the evidence.
But
in doing that, they can't fulfil the ludicrous standards set by
Crown and the courts who suggest they should be talking to the
suspect to "develop" the appropriate grounds to
conduct a search.
Gulp!
There goes the evidence.
So
all the police do now is take the drugs and hurt the dealer's
wallet, identify the subject and add to the intelligence files.
Meanwhile, these guys are calling up their friends back home and
telling them what a lark Canada is.
Reynolds
saw up close and personal what the ramifications created by the
policies of the woolly-headed idealists.
"I
ask myself what the lesson is in this two-hour foray into the
Main and Hastings area. Does the procedural liberalism in our
immigration/ refugee system do anything to help this Honduran
refugee, 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 system, the
financially driven charge approval system practised by the
attorney general and the absolute frustration experienced by the
police trying to do a good job, and you begin to understand the
magnitude of the problem.
If
the situation wasn't so serious, it might be laughable.
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