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NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT
HOUSING

DERA SR. CITIZENS CLUB
DOWNTOWN EAST NEWS

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Libby Davies and Bruce Eriksen show off the new offices of the

Downtown Eastside Residents Association at 333 Gore Ave., Van.
DERA will be open for business in its new offices July 1 with a new
phone number: 682-0931. Vancouver city council's decision to cut
DERA’s funding forced the move to the smaller headquarters, but
DERA’'s staff is doing everything it can to retain its high level of

community services.

Fred Wilson photo

Slumlords who break laws

BY ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Unsanitary, dirty, slum rooming
houses in the downtown eastside
area of the city are receiving only
minimal fines for violations of city
by-laws. The immediate respon-
sibility for this rests with city staff
for failing to prosecute such cases
effectively in court; the ultimate
responsibility rests with the mayor
and city council who are not in-
sisting that the prosecutions be
such that the punishment will fit
the crime.

One of the more recent examples
of this involved the Warren Hotel
at 116 West Hastings; the absentee
owner is registered as the General
Trust Company of Canada,
Moncton, New Brunswick.

This “hotel” was inspected 16
times beginning on June 7, 1977 by
city health inspectors. Violations of
city health by-laws included filthy
premises, ‘broken windows, dirty
mattresses, lack of refrigeration
and vermin.

This is the ‘‘hotel’’ which
received first prize in the well

publicized contest sponsored .

recently by the Downtown East-
side Residents Association
(DERA) for the worst ‘Crummy
Cockroach Haven’’ in the city. ,

Repeated‘orders by city health

inspectors to clean up the place
were ignored.

Finally, on April 4th, 1978, this
rooming house was charged with
five violations of the Lodging
Homes by-law for failing ‘“‘to
maintain said lodging house in a
thoroughly clean and wholesome
conditions,’’ occurring between
January 27 and March 3, 1978.

The law provides for a maximum
fine of $500 on each of these five
counts, or $2,500 in all.

When the trial was held the city
prosecutor, withdrew three of the
charges. The operator of the
rooming house pleaded quilty to
the remaining two.

The prosecutor told the court
that since the charges were laid the
place had been substantially
cleaned up. Health inspector Dave
Williams’ evidence was much the
same; he added that the operator
was now very cooperative.

Health inspectors have inspected
the place 16 times in the past year
and found it in violation of city by-
laws relating to health and
sanitation. The eourt was not in-
formed that orders to clean up the
place were ignored until charges
were laid. They didn’t point out
that it is the duty of a landlord in
this city who is getting thousands
of dollars in rent to keep his

B.C.’s complusory heroin program violates
liberties aud should be scrapped says CP

Bill 18, B.C.’s compulsory heroin
treatment program, introduced
into the legislature two weeks ago,
isa dangerously punitive approach
to heroin use and the program
should be scraped, the Communist
Party declared in a statement this
week.

The compulsory program offers
little possibility of effectively
reducing the incidence of ad-
diction, the CP charged, but it
would violate fundamental civil
liberties.

Bill 18 focuses the government’s
approach on the user and poses no
means by which to curb the im-

portation and sale of heroin which ,

is virtually controlled by organized
crime, the statement added.
Under the proposed program,
persons thought to be dependent on
a narcotic could be given notice by

police to appear before an
evaluation panel within 24 to 48
hours. Failure to do so could result
in conviction under the Summary
Convictions Act carrying penalties
and fines up to $500 and/or six
months’ imprisonment.

“Since police require only vague
‘reasonable grounds’ to issue such
notice,’ the CP warned, ‘“‘the
procedure could be open to
widespread abuse and would give
police a punitive weapon to use
against any person who is
suspected of being a user.

‘What is worse, once a person is
given notice, he must appear
before an “Area Co-ordinating
Centre’ where he can be held for
testing for up to 72 hours — in
complete violation of the basic
legal right that citizens can not be
held unless charges have been

laid.”’

‘The CP statement said that
compulsory treatment programs
attempted elsewhere, notably
Japan and some states in the U.S.,
had been virtually ineffective in
reducing addiction or in controlling
the lucrative heroin trade.

“Such a program might fill the

jails, but it would do little to cut

down on heroin addicts,’ the
statement said. :
“The Communist Party is very
concerned about the high rate of
addiction and the growing heroin
trade in B.C.,” the statement
continued, “‘But it sees addiction as
a serious social problem which
cannot be overcome by a program
like Bill 18. Rather a completely
new approach is needed.
“Foremost in any program to
reduce addiction must be con-

‘PEOPLE AND ISSUES

certed action by the attorney-
general’s department and police
authorities to stop the import of
heroin into this country and to
crack down on those criminal
elements who profit most by its
sale.

“That should be followed by a
voluntary treatment program,
available. through an extensive
network of treatment centres,
utlizing the wide range of treat-
ment methods developed through
addiction research.

“Above all, the program must
provide educational and em-
ployment opportunities for ad-
dicts,” the CP said, emphasizing
that ‘‘jobs and access to education
will go a long way towards
reducing the number of young
people who annually become
heroin addicts.”’

hould still get penalties

premises in a thoroughly clean and
wholesome condition at all times.

In fact what they did say tended
to give the impression that since
the operator was now complying

with the law, past infractions need

not be regarded as serious.
Their approach suggested that if
a man commits a crime, but no
longer continues to commit it after
he is charged, then his offence
should be treated lightly!
In the circumstances the judge

fined the operator only $50 each on

the two counts, or $100 in total.

It’s obvious to me that city staff
is not being properly instructed in
cases such as these. The attitude of
the mayor and city council has
been to go easy on slum landlords
who break our bylaws.

This “‘hotel’’ certainly can’t
plead inability to pay. It has drawn
thousands of dollars from tenants
in rents. It was purchased in 1941
for $40,000 and is now assessed at
$345,000. In other words it has gone
up over, $300,000 in value, not in
improvements, but just in
unearned property appreciation.

My view is that in such cases the
city should ask the maximum
penally. Good stiff fines are the
only language these slum landlords
understand. As long as they are not
charged (and this is still happening

in many cases) or as long as they

receive only minimal fines, they
will go on breaking city by-laws
because it’s more profitable than
repairs, or renovations.

CCW meeting

The annual general meeting of
the Congress of Canadian Women
will be held Sunday, June 18, 12
noon to 4 p.m. at the Trout Lake
Community Centre, 3350 Victoria
Dr., Vancouver.

The main focus of the meeting
will be on the International Year of
the Child, declared for 1979 by the
United Nations. Invitations have
been sent to over 60 organizations
to take part in the meeting with the
objective of forming a steering
committee to make plans for the
Year of the Child.

Guest speakers wili include
Hazel Wigdor of the Canadian liai-
son committee for International
Women’s Decade and Larisa Tar-
wick, co-ordinator of early child-
hood education. at North West
Community College.

heir numbers have dwindled over the years but the com-

mitment of the Veterans of the Mackenzie-Papineau
Battalion to the cause of peace has not not diminished over
the years since the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. And it was
after all, in the attempt to avert the impending disaster of
World War II that the International Brigades went to Spain
in the first place. We were reminded again of that fact when
the Mac-Paps this week addressed a letter to U.S: president
James Carter calling on him to cease production on the M-X
and Cruise missiles, the Trident submarines and the
neutron bomb.

“Canadian volunteers in the 1936-39 Spanish War were,
like our American counterparts of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade called ‘premature anti-fascists’ for electing to
assist the democratic government of Republican Spain in
its fight against fascism at that time,”’ the Mac-Paps letter
stated.

‘Failure then to take heed of the warnings by the world’s
democratic forces led to the death of 55,000,000 people by
the end of World War II.”

The veterans’ letter warned that if the $400 billion arms
race were not halted and replaced “‘by a sound and sane
policy of peace and detente, in the very near future we will
again be confronted with another holocaust.”’

Andina trenchant reference to the events of 40 years ago,
they asked: .‘‘Will those who now speak out against nuclear
madness later be classed as ‘premature’ in their con-
victions?”’ :

Helmut Schmidt of the Federal Republic of Germany and
the USSR’s Leonid Brezhnev showed the way their historic
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 16, 1978—Page 2

agreement that ‘‘military superiority’? would be ruled out
in future talks between the two countries, the Mac-Paps
noted, and told Carter: ‘‘A similar approach by your
government at this time would help open the way to an era
of peace so badly needed at this time.”

* * * * *

hen, some 28 years ago William Mackie and Hamish Mc-

Kay were deported from the United States, Mackie to
Finland and McKay to this country, it marked the begin-
ning of a battle to win the right to return that has continued
for more than a quarter of a century.

Readers may remember that both Mackie and McKay
were deported from the U.S. during the Cold War years for
their participation during the 1930’s in organizations in-
cluded on the U.S. State Department’s infamous list as
“Communist fronts.”

On May 26, in a. swearing-in ceremony in Portland,
Oregon, Mackie, who was admitted back into the U.S. in
March, 1976 was granted U.S. citizenship — something
which had been denied him for years even though he came
to the United States when he was only nine months old.

But Hamish McKay has still not won the right to return,
and the right to take out U.S. citizenship if he so desires.
He’s still pressing the issue, however, and Oregon Senator
Mark Hatfield who took up both his and Mackie’s case, is
continuing to lobby on his behalf.

But as McKay points out, it won’t be at any price: ‘I’m
not going to change my ideas to come back. I’m proud of
what I did regardless of what happened, and I’m not about

to give up my associations with people fighting for a better
world in which we can live.”

* * * * *

raser Valley Peace Committee members Rita and John

Tanche were somewhat puzzled as to why they received
it, mailed to their address, but, if nothing else, the material
from a firm calling itself ‘Component Ammo Service serves
to show the kind of mentality that has been created by the
U.S. war machine.

The company, based in Spokane, Wash., offers for sale, in
addition to ammunition boxes and dummy rounds, “‘special
offers for civil defence shelters,” including case lots of
“civil defence survival biscuits’ and advises customers t0
“stock up for the coming hard times or in case of local
disaster.”

nw IRIBUNE

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O’CONNOR

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