—_—

British Columbia

We need to do more
for city’s steet kids

According to reports submitted to city
council recently by the Director of Social
Planning and the Medical Health
Officer. “Vancouver has a population of
street youth, young people who live and
support themselves on city streets.” They
estimate that there are 300-400 at any
given time, suggesting that 1,000 or more
youth may be involved in the street over
a year.

Most of them come from broken fami- -

lies ... from situations where they were
abused sexually, psychologically or phys-
ically .... These children are victims,
symptoms of the failings of our changing
family and social structures.”

These street youth “are heavily
involved in drugs and alcohol. They are
often involved in criminal activities,
including being victims of crime, and
most get involved in prostitution. For
many, the criminal activities and prosti-

tution are needed to make enough:

money to support their drug and alcohol
habit.” .

Their life-style, which is “typically
characterized by alcohol and drug abuse,
gives rise to many health problems which
include the spread of sexually transmit-
ted diseases, poor nutrition, poor mental
health and poor physical health.”

The city manager reported that most

Street youths come from outside of Van-
couver. Over one-quarter (27 per cent)
come from the Lower Mainland outside
of the city of Vancouver, with about the
same number coming from the rest of the
province, and 40 per cent from outside
the province. They congregate in three
areas of the city — Downtown East-
side, downtown south (several blocks
around Seymour and Davies), and
Mount Pleasant (on Broadway on either
side of Fraser). z

The Downtown Eastside youth are
predominantly Native. A large conting-
ent of Latin American young men are
involved in street activities. Downtown
south is characterized by young male
prostitutes and some more experienced
“sophisticated” young women. The
Broadway strip is frequented by new
runaways and the younger female prosti-
tutes. Suggested steps in the reports to
improve gaps in services to these young
people included:

@ Extension of the needle exchange
program (20 per cent of whose clientele
are street youth);

e A youth detox unit;

@ The hiring of a co-ordinator and

four outreach street workers to service
the main areas where these youth con-
gregate;

@ Three additional nurses to treat VD
and AIDS cases;

e Establishment of a “‘safe house” to
help these youth get off the street;

@ A police youth squad.

Such measures are all to the good, but
they don’t tackle either the cause of the
problem or provide a solution. What
these street kids need is something much
more basic. Solutions aren’t easy but we
owe it to these youth and to society to try
something different.

First of all they need to be taken out of
the environment they are in today.
Secondly, their whole attitude to life
needs to be changed from being anti-
social, which it is today, to being respon-
sible members of society.

To start with they need education,
training and jobs. One way might be to
put them into special correction centres,
for example, where under competent
instructors they could be given the edu-
cation and training they need and put to
work at reasonable wages cutting hiking
trails, building roads through the bush,
clearing areas for camp sites and so on.

This is only one idea — there could be —

many more.

Harry

Rankin

The main thing is that street youth
should be trained, learn how to work, do
something useful, and be rewarded for
their work.

Such correction camps, to be safe and
efficient, should be government-operated.
Privatized institutions of this kind just
won't work. In privatized correction cen-
tres there is not the understanding, the
level of services, or the authority to do
the job properly. The first concern in
privatized centres is profit, not rehabili-
tation. On Vancouver Island we recently
had a tragic example where two girls ran
away and were killed. As the head of the
B.C. Government Employees Union
pointed out, that need not and should
not have happened. The government’s
obsession with privatization is to blame.

Would it be costly to do this? Well, it
wouldn’t cost any more than the services
they now get. The cost of policing Van-
couver’s streets, enforcing the law when
they get involved in crime, and putting
them through the court and prison sys-
tem, and taking care of their health needs
and so on is costing a bundle today. To
rehabilitate them certainly wouldn’t cost
any more.

Fred Weir tour dates |

The Tribune’s Moscow-based correspondent, Fred Weir, tours B.C. late this
month with stops in several centres. These are: .
@ Victoria: Monday, April 23, 7:30 p.m. at Spectrum High School, 957 West

“Burnside.

@ Port Alberni: Tuesday, April 24, 7:30 p.m. at the Tyee Village Motel, 4151

Redford.

@ Courtenay: Wednesday, April 25, 7:30 p.m. in the Craft Room, Florence Filberg

Centre (off Sth Street).

..@ Surrey: Thursday, April 26, 7:30 p.m. at 12717 - 66th Ave (residence).

wie

.»@ Vancouver: Friday, April 27, 7:30 p.m. at the Ukrainian Hall, 805 East Pender

2 « Pacific Tribune, April 23, 1990

Nanaimo abortion
referendum ‘waste
of time and money’

NANAIMO — The Nanaimo hospital
board’s decision to spend $10,000 on a local
public referendum regarding hospital abor-
tion policy is a direct result of the Social
Credit government’s avowedly anti-choice
stance, New Democrat MLA Jan Pullinger
charged last week.

“The law is clear. Three court decisions
have affirmed that women have the right to
abortion services,” the Nanaimo MLA told
Premier Bill Vander Zalm during question
period in the legislature April 10.

“The only reason this board and other
hospitals continue to frustrate women’s

rights is your sorry leadership in imposing’

your own narrow, personal and religious
views,” Pullingér said.

Vander Zalm indicated he would not
interfere with the Nanaimo hospital board’s

‘ actions, claiming the referendum was “a

process of democracy.”

Earlier this month, the Nanaimo hospital
board announced it would hold a non-
binding referendum during the November
municipal and regional elections to fulfil its
earlier promise to poll public sentiment
before reinstating an abortion ban at the
hospital.

No other hospital board in the province
has ever taken this issue to voter referen-
dum, according to the B.C. Health Associa-
tion.

“Tf they want poll results, they should just
go and look them up,” Pullinger says.
“There are many polls available that will
show them what the numbers are on this
subject. The hospital board is acting beyond

its mandate in even dealing with the mat-
tote:

The board’s decision to hold a referen-
dum on abortion has also been attacked by —
B.C. Medical Association president Dr, |
John Anderson and by the B.C. Coalition |
for Abortion Clinics. Anderson warned ear- _

lier that the referendum could set a danger-
ous precedent, suggesting it could open the
door to votes on whether or not other medi-
cal services would be available.

Local pro-choice organizers are con-
cerned the announcement of a referendum
may sap the momentum from the campaign
to sign up new members to the hospital
society in time for the summer election of
hospital board trustees.

“We're not straying one step from our
attempt to elect a choice board,” said
Nanaimo Pro-Choice co-founder Cathy
Holland. “That’s as important as ever. This
referendum doesn’t guarantee us any-
thing.”

Nanaimo hospital board chairman Basil
Hobbs, whose board banned abortions in

December but reversed the policy the fol- —

lowing month after intense public protests,
said “the board may find the results of any
referendum persuasive but not necessarily
binding.”

Holland said the cost of the referendum is
unjustifiable in light of the hospital’s fund-
ing problems which have resulted in a 2,000-
person surgery wait list.

Earlier this month, hospital officials
announced certain services may have to be
cut and staff laid off to cope with the hospi-
tal’s continuing financial difficulties.

Here's to success

By all accounts, the Pro-
Canada Network’s Campaign For
Fair Taxes — which means
scrapping the Gouge and Screw
Tax, for openers — was an
overwhelming success. More than
two million Canadians told the
Tory government exactly where
that tax could be placed.

We're looking for a success too.
We want to surpass the target of

$82,000 in this year’s Financial
Drive.

We want to continue writing
the headlines people make when
they express their opposition to
regressive things like the GST.
Help us do that by pledging to put
the drive over the top, as you’ve
done ever since B.C.’s paper of
labour, the community and the
environment was launched. We’ll
all be winners.

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