Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 27, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba B2 Winnipeg free press comment editor Gerald flood 697-7269 Winnipeg free press editorial Board members Are Bob Cox Gerald flood Catherine Mitchell Tom Oleson Dave Obrien cartoonist Dale Cummings submissions to the View from the West Are Welcome. Contact comment editor Gerald flood 204 697-7269 / six month View from the West Archive available online at View sunday August 27, 2006 fear of paedophiles Sparks overreaction the economist w Hile flying from Bangkok to los Angeles last week John Mark Karr ate a meal of Pate salad Fried King prawns steamed Rice Broccoli and chocolate cake. He drank a Beer then crushed the empty can with his hands. Americans know a lot about karrs meals ? As Well As his two marriages his phone Calls to a clinic that performs sex change operations and his reaction to the Impromptu singing of a Bee gees song ? because he has been implicated in one of the country a most notorious crimes. In 1996 the body of a six year old girl Jon Benet Ramsey was found in the basement of her Home in Colorado. She had been struck in the head Garrotte and perhaps sexually assaulted. A ran som note demanding the oddly precise sum of $118,000 was also discovered. The police and the Media have devoted countless hours to the Case but until last week nobody had been arrested. Ten years ago the tone of Media coverage implied that Jon Benet a parents had got away with murder. Karrs arrest in Thailand led to some Sharp changes in direction. Solved announced the new York daily news on aug. 17. Television reporters helpfully pointed out that Thailand is known for sex crimes and that Karr slightly resembles Tony Perkins the Star of psycho. From internet sleuths came the news that the suspect had tried to set up a website for children. A few Days later the Case seemed less Clear Cut. Although Karr had told reporters he was with Jon Benet when she died his family questioned that. It transpired that he had a deep interest in child killings and an Active fantasy life. After these revelations the tone of Media coverage changed again although Only slightly. The current consensus is that Karr is either a killer or a delusion Al paedophile and ought to be locked up in either Case. It is not surprising that suspicion should adhere so readily to someone like Karr. Americans fear nothing More than the stranger who targets children. A Gallup poll last year found that 66 per cent of respondents were very concerned about child molesters. Only 52 per cent of people worried As much about violent crime and just 36 per cent fretted about terrorism. Such fears have driven changes to the Law. At the time of Jon Benet a murder three states had restricted where convicted child molesters and other sex offenders could live. By 2004 another 11 had done so according to David single ton of the Ohio Justice and policy Center. Similar Laws Are being considered by another 12 states and by a rapidly grow ing number of towns. A typical Law approved this week by Monroe n.j., prevents some sex offend ers from living within 750 metres of any school child care Centre playground Library or place of worship ? in other words just about anywhere. The evidence that such Laws protect children is thin. Most children Are harmed by family members or acquaintances. The last time the Justice department looked in detail at the matter in the late 1990s, it found that just three per cent of child molesters were rearrested for a similar crime within three years of being released from prison. Seven Ordi nary sex convicts ? robbers burglars and the like ? were arrested for molest ing children for every one convicted child sex offender who was collared for the same offence. So much for history being destiny. Peter Battistoni / Canadian press archives brightly lit Booths provide a Safe place for Vancouver a addicts to inject drugs with Safe equipment and under Safe conditions but the facility a future is in doubt. A place to shoot up Vancouver a addicts await word on their Safe injection site t free years ago Vancouver became the first City in North America to have a Legal supervised site where addicts could inject illicit drugs. The Safe injection site opened after the Feder Al government granted it an exemption from Sec. 56 of the controlled drugs and substances act ensuring that staff and users would not be charged with offences such As the Possession of drugs like heroin and cocaine. But the trial ends sept. 12 and both Here and at the recent world aids con Ference in Toronto Stephen harpers minority conservative government has been under heavy pressure to renew that exemption. The Issue has become so highly charged that what a being neglected is that the $2-million-a?year facility has not solved the City a substantial drug problems nor was it intended to. Vancouver a drug policy coordinator Donald Macpherson has always said the Safe injection site was Only a Small piece of a comprehensive plan of harm reduction treatment enforcement and education ? the so called four pillars plan. Taken together that plan was supposed to solve Vancouver a drug addiction problems and Possi Bly provide a Model for other Canadian cities. But All the time the Safe injection site has operated the four pillars plan has teetered precariously possibly fatally on harm reduction and enforcement alone. Which is not to suggest that the Safe injection site called inside ? has been a failure. In fact it has accomplished much of what it was supposed to do. Researchers from the . Centre for Excel Lence in his aids have credited it with a significant reduction in the number of intravenous drug users injecting in Public a reduction in discarded syringes and other injection related paraphernalia and less sharing of Needles. They have yet to determine whether the provision of clean Needles through the site has reduced his and hepatitis infection rates but a separate study released Friday found that his rates had come Down in the downtown Eastside since inside opened. The researchers from the Centre for Excel Lence also found that inside has reduced the number of overdose deaths As Well As the need for victims requiring hospitalization and Para medic assistance. Other Good news if you can Call it that is that inside has to resulted in an increase in addicts which some people predicted when the City made it easier for people to safely inject their drugs. But there has been no decrease in the number of addicts either. As a recent ramp funded study said there were disappointingly few referrals to detoxification services largely because clients usually did not meet the strict conditions required to Access those Over a 12-month period that spanned most of 2004 and the first three months of 2005, 37 per cent of invites users were referred to addiction counselling. Only 3.7 per cent went into methadone maintenance treatment or longer term abstinence based housing. When Vancouver approved its four pillars plan five years ago it had overwhelming sup port. The Safe injection site however has always been controversial. A 2002, City commissioned Survey found that one in five residents opposed even considering it As an option. No official measurement of Public support has been taken since inside opened. But what has happened is when enforcement was at its Peak the open drug Market in Van Couver a downtown Eastside largely disappeared and addicts were pushed out into other parts of the City. Now the addicts and Sellers remain in those neighbourhoods even though the drug mat is once again open for business at its old location. Streets and alleys in the Down town Eastside May no longer be used As shoot ing galleries but aggressive beggars desperate for a fix Are frightening away tourists. Addicts May have a Safe place to inject drugs but Vancouver still has the third highest property crime rate in Canada after Abbotsford . And Regina. And As keen As Vancouver ites Are to regain some sense of normalcy few want any part of the solution in their neighbourhoods. More than 3,000 people wrote to City Council or signed petitions in 2004 opposing a 39-unit transition Home for mentally ill recovering addicts. Council went ahead anyway describing the facility As an essential component of the four pillars six More treatment facilities Are planned at undisclosed locations and a group called not in anyone a backyard has formed to protest construction in virtually every one of the City a residential neighbourhoods. So the question is what now even at $2 million a year inside serves Only a third of the addicts in Vancouver ? 6,000 people. To serve them All would Cost a minimum of $6 million a year. But that wont make a Dent in the problem without funds for treatment and Educa Tion. And five years ago the Price tag for the total program was estimated at $30 million annually. When he was campaigning to be prime minis Ter Harper said his government would never spend Public Money on illegal drugs. More recently he said health minister Tony Clement will evaluate inside based on the facts. What Harper and Clement must calculate is the Price of a human life ? an addicts life. Through their political prism they must bal Ance the Cost of saving lives of heroin and cocaine addicts who Arent Likely to vote for them in any event against the needs and desires of those who might vote for them ? homeowners who across the City have Homes Worth a minimum of a half million dollars seniors who need housing and Home care baby Boomers Calls for More Money for knee and hip replacements parents pleas for expanded child care services and even Vancouver olympic organizers cries for an extra $55 million. And in the end Don to bet on them choosing addicts. Daphne Bramham is a columnist for the Vancouver Sun. . Green politics sprouting roots in Alberta p set Wanna make a Quick $5? swaths of forests to the pulp Mill and inside Coal seams. Since 2002, Energy to increase the pressure underground so have a lot of potential said Manning. Next time you re having a few pumping fresh water Down into Oil Wells companies in Alberta have been drilling Energy companies can recover the final for a few weeks this year it looked As Beers with friends and the talk has More tree hugging Green party sup deep holes into the Coal to fracture the few drops of crude. Though Manning himself would put that turns to politics and the Lack of credible porters per capita than anywhere else seams to free the Gas which is then they question using fresh water in the theory into practice by entering the con choices and gee How its too bad the in Canada. Brought to the surface. Oil Sands to make steam to separate the Serva Tive leadership race to succeed Green party does to do better innocent that a a reflection in part of a in theory the process is supposed to Oil from the Sands. Klein. After mulling Over the idea How by wonder out loud which province gave younger More socially aware population be clean efficient and not allow any this in a province where Farmers in Ever he decided against running. The greens the migrating to Alberta from other parts methane to seep into nearby water some areas routinely face drought. But other candidates in the race have highest percent of Canada. However Many of the Gree tables. In practice some Farmer disco then there Are the growing questions heard his message ? and even if they age vote in the Nies live on ranches in Rural Alberta ered there was enough Gas in the water Over the environmental Impact of Oil Haven to they re getting an earful on the last Federal elec where there in to a tree to hug for Miles. Tables that when they turned on the Sand development which not Only rips Campaign Trail from concerned Farmers Tion. Not Only that Many of them used to Kitchen tap they could set the Gas water up Large tracts of land but Burns huge and ranchers two groups of albertan everybody will vote conservative. Mixture on fire. Amounts of natural Gas that spews Mil who feel left behind by the Oil Rush that say British the face of Alberta politics is Chang hundreds of Farmers have shown up Lions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into is benefiting so Many City dwellers. Columbia. Trust ing. Not a huge overnight change but at Public meetings to discuss their con the air every year. It is ironic to see the engine that is Dri me. That a when enough of a trend is developing to make Cerns with officials from Alberta envy this Issue has become so big in Alber ving Albertas Economy become an envy you look vaguely conservative politicians particularly Rosment who maintain there is no proof to that one of the provinces most Ron mental irritant that is causing Many unsure and say provincial conservatives nervous. Linking the co Albed drilling to High con respected political voices predicts envy tories to rethink their party loyalties. Wanna bet $5 on in the 2004 provincial election More cent rations of methane in the drinking Ron mental concerns will cause a political one of the priorities for the conserve it than 200,000 traditional conservative water. If there a Gas in the water it got Preston Manning ? founder natives under a new Leader will be win your friends will be so sure of them voters stayed Home rather than support there through natural fractures in the of the Reform party and son of Alber Ning Back the loyalty of those 200,000 selves they la be grabbing for their Wal the Klein government. Pundits and Polit Coal officials insist. Tas longest serving Premier ? is pre voters who stayed Home last election. Lets. Ical scientists Are still trying to figure Farmers Are incredulous. They Point dieting that the next big thing in can they do it that a when you give them the news out what happened but it seems the gov to contaminated Wells sick cattle and Alberta will be a political party that mar despite their mistakes and problems in the last Federal election the Green Ern ment lost the Confidence of a full the flame thrower in the Kitchen sink. Ries conservative values with Environ the conservatives remain the most party captured 5.3 per cent of the vote in third of its Normal Power base Over How environmentalism is becoming a mentalism. Potent political Force in Alberta. . It had bungled issues including health noticeable trend in Alberta politics ? if someone could put together a Gen at this Point i would to bet against however the greens got 6.6 per cent care education and especially in Rural and the opposition parties the liberals line commitment to conservation with them. Not even $5. Of the vote in ahem Alberta. Areas the environment. New democrats and Alberta Alliance Albertas Market based approach to eco that a right the province known for one Issue of growing concern to farm Are scrambling to Champion the cause. Nomic development and fiscal response strip mining the Oil Sands condemning ers involves co Albed methane which is a they re condemning the practice of ability if those two ideas could be married Graham Thomson is a columnist with technical term for natural Gas found pumping fresh water into old Oil Wells under something then i think that would the Edmonton journal ;