According to an article in today’s Globe & Mail, one third of all calls made to the Vancouver City Police have to do with dealing with individuals who are mentally ill.

For those of you that are in the dark, we spent the last two decades emptying out our long-term mental facilities and placing people on the streets. I suppose, to some, the streets seemed just as good a place as any to dump those that require long-term care. After all, we can’t dare ask taxpayers to keep flipping the bill, can we?

While institutions are absolutely necessary, they must also be staffed by committed and compassionate professionals and not merely warehouses for the ‘insane’. The latter leads only to an atmosphere of abuse, degradation, and humiliation that serves absolutely no positive purpose. But that would require that they be reasonably funded and staffed, and that the costs of a decent mental welfare system in this Province, if not the entire nation, was viewed as something more than a nuisance to most.

Of course, our illustrious Mayor was ‘shocked’ by the report. He then claimed that new initiatives to build “supportive housing” for those that are “relatively stable” are in the works, but nothing for those that require substantial long-term care. He did suggest that Riverview be reopened, but to do so would require a massive influx of capital to render it habitable, never mind what could be termed an actual hospital.

What’s worse than suffering from a serious mental illness? How about suffering from a serious mental illness and being homeless?

They stroll the streets and alleys adorned in their bright yellow security jackets – but they’re not Police Officers, they’re members of a private security firm hired to patrol the neighbourhood. Despite their mandate from the local business association that hired them, they have absolutely no legal authority, cannot lawfully touch another person, ask them questions, ask them for identification, or ask them to ‘move along’ when on public property. But you see, around here the law might as well be written on wet toilet paper if you don’t look like the sort of person that’s contributing to the neighbourhood’s ‘new look’. That would be why private security personnel are able to walk the streets as if they’re Police Officers and enforce ‘rules’ that are in complete violation of the Charter rights of others.

Now, some of you might view this subject as mildly unimportant, but it is anything but. If, in a bad part of town that is in the midst of gentrification, the homeless and impoverished can be ‘handled’ by private security personnel, what’s next? Better yet, who’s next?

The Vancouver Police Department exists for a reason, and the outsourcing of security by local business associations is, in truth, a massively dangerous precedent. What is even more concerning is that the authorities turn a blind eye to it and, at times, even capitalize on it.

It’s been a deadly few days here in the Lower Mainland.

First, a pre-wedding party of 25 to 30 people in the valley was struck by a truck while walking down Lefeuvre Road in Abbotsford at around 11 PM, killing 6 people and injuring a further 17. The driver of the truck, a 71 year old male, was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs according to authorities. The group was walking along the shoulder of the road and was due to attend a Sikh wedding in Mission tomorrow.

In nearby Surrey, 2 people were killed and 11 others injured yesterday when a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed into an RV Park. Three of the injured people remain in serious condition in hospital.

Sympathies go out to all those affected by these tragedies.

In Other Local News

Sam Sullivan’s Yaletown condominium building was struck by poverty activists early Friday morning who dumped garbage in front of it in protest of the city’s ongoing civic strike. Sullivan, Vancouver’s Mayor, said that he wouldn’t be intimidated by the actions of poverty activists, something I find rather funny. It was just garbage, it’s not like they waiting for him to leave so that they could start hurling rocks at him.

Then again, perhaps is was Yaletown residents disguised as poverty activists pissed off at the fact that no one’s cut the grass at their local parks recently.

Personally, I think the action perfectly reasonable, especially given the impact that the strike is having on not only community services on the Lower East Side, but in Vancouver’s elderly community as well – though it should be mentioned that the city has tabled a deal for inside workers that would give them a 17.5% pay raise over a five year term, hopefully allowing community centres, children’s, and senior’s programs to be reopen by the end of the month.

Sullivan also needs to deal with the issue of the Vancouver City Police being understaffed. According to the CBC, the VPD says that it requires 100 new officers next year “just to break even”.

Vancouver’s Number 1, Or Is It?

According to Economist Magazine, Vancouver has, for the fifth year running, been ranked the best city in the world in which to live…

“Vancouver scored a livability index of 1.3 per cent, with zero indicating exceptional quality of living and 100 indicating life there is intolerable or severely restricted.”

You know, I’ll be honest, I find that completely shocking. Living where I do, I see tourists from cruise ships stroll down Water Street on a daily basis. As they wander further east, things dramatically change, transforming from a quaint little cobblestone street populated by tourist shops into one of the most poverty stricken urban areas in all of Canada. It’s sort of humourous, to be honest, seeing the expressions on the faces of those that stray a little off the beaten path and find themselves at, for example, the corner of Hastings and Carrall. You can spot them a mile away – they’re the ones heading back up Water as if the devil himself were after them, their folded maps clutched in their hands, their faces as white as paper, their kids gripped tightly.

They really should have built Canada Place somewhere else.

Of course, the gentrification of this neighbourhood is well underway, and it will most likely resemble Yaletown in the next five years, remembering, of course, that Yaletown used to be nothing more than a rundown warehouse district populated by the homeless not too long ago. In fact, I’m hypocritically sitting in an example of that sort of gentrification as I write this. And while I can’t speak for others who have moved down here into refurbished buildings, I will say that the problems in this part of Vancouver need to be addressed before places such as this, built to facilitate those who can afford Vancouver’s incredulous prices, become the norm. There are plenty of reasons for the city to look at low income housing options in this neighbourhood, something that doesn’t seem to be all that much of a priority (the old Woodwards building is a prime example). There are, of course, certainly no lack of people that would benefit from it, so one wonders why it isn’t more of a priority?

And then, like a blinding light, the image of the 2010 Olympic mascot appears, making it all too apparent why the gentrification of the Lower East Side is of import.

God forbid, given the proximity of GM Place, a neighbourhood such as this is still in the shape that it is when the world comes to visit. God forbid it’s streets are populated by the disenfranchised, the mentally ill, many of them having turned to drugs to deal with their problems. God forbid that the world should get a glimpse of that reality and the reputation of our fair city be tarnished.

Not ten blocks from where I am sitting, Vancouver’s playground of the rich is preparing for another Saturday night. Down here, on the wet pavement, in garbage infested alleys, and in condemned doorways, the poor have no clue as to the time, let alone the day of the week. No matter my living situation, it never ceases to blow my mind when I think on it. And when I do, I will admit to feeling utterly ashamed of myself.

Like many other Vancouverites, I donate to local charities and the food bank. Like some others, I have lived in both of Vancouver’s extremes. One wonders whether the people from Economist Magazine took the time to compare the two, especially given that they’re no more than a 5 minute cab ride apart.

Our Mayor, Mr. Sullivan, credited “the people living in Vancouver — and their strong social and environmental ethic” for the city’s ranking. It would seem Mr. Sullivan needs poverty activists to throw trash in front of his building more often than they have been.

Given the contradictory nature of numerous eye witness reports regarding the events that led to the shooting of Paul Boyd on the 13th of the month by Vancouver City Police, I concur with the position taken by The Pivot Legal Society’s John Richardson in response to Vancouver City Police Chief Jim Chu’s statement about the incident.

From the CBC…

“This happened in a matter of seconds, our officers are trained quite well and they took what option they had to take,” said Chu.

The Pivot Legal Society’s John Richardson said Tuesday the chief should not be commenting on the police shooting of a man before an investigation is complete.

“These investigators report to the chief. If he is already saying that the amount of force is justified, how are those investigators going to feel the freedom to find otherwise, if their boss is already telling them what the outcome is?” said Richardson.

The chief’s comments have renewed calls for the formation of an independent body to investigate police. High-profile Vancouver defence lawyer Phil Rankin said police should not be investigating police.

“I think there needs to be a special force which is independent of any provincial force, [which has] the legal right to subpoena and does an external investigation. I don’t believe the internal investigation is satisfactory,” said Rankin on Tuesday.”

One of the crucial aspects regarding this incident is that numerous witnesses have claimed they heard between six and nine shots fired at Boyd, who had, according to one witness, Christine Adkins, run out into traffic. One eye witness, that did not want to be identified, claimed that the officer that shot Boyd was composed. Interestingly, in their statement, they could not accurately identify the sex of the police officer, yet could comment on their composure.

Another aspect that has to be taken into consideration is that the officer that shot Boyd did so in an urban setting in which, given the number of alleged shots fired, could have endangered others. It has since been learned that the officer that shot Boyd has a mere three years of experience on the force.

Rod and I were talking about this last night and both of us concurred that a public inquiry should take place with regards to the conduct of the police in this matter.

There is no questioning the fact that, when in a tight spot, police officers will commonly react in a certain way when one of their fellow officers has been injured. In this case, though the officer that shot Boyd didn’t know it at the time, only one of the other officers would be taken to hospital after the fact to be treated for non life threatening injuries. That said, I still fail to see how someone can justify the use of overwhelmingly deadly force in this instance.

One detail has come to light about the incident, in which Boyd was brandishing a chain with a lock on it with which he struck two officers trying to confront him, one of whom was knocked unconscious , is that he suffered from bipolarity and, according to his family, was in the midst of a pronounced manic episode.

Boyd was a noted Vancouver animator who had been diagnosed some 20 years ago and, according to his family, was able to keep the illness under control for the most part. Unfortunately, in this instance, he was in the midst of a manic episode and, according to the pathology passed on by his family to the Vancouver Police, had in the past experienced “vivid paranoid delusions that made him fear imagined threats”. That said, it should not be overlooked that people who suffer from bipolarity, and similar mental illnesses, often go years without having their drug regimes altered. Unfortunately, over time, the body can get used to the affects of various drugs, allowing symptoms to return. Being that the individual thinks that because they’re on a regiment designed to help them there is a slim chance that the problem will become as amplified as it once was is sometimes a very real danger because the problem isn’t dealt with in a timely fashion. Of course, I have no idea if that was the case in this situation, but being someone that suffers from bipolarity himself, I can see how, after a number of years, various symptoms might become more pronounced because of the reduction in the affect of certain drugs taken to counter the illness.

All of that said, I plan to follow this story very intently.

My sympathies go out to Boyd family.