“The Dickensian underside of the city” as Dan Rather proclaimed it to be, was laid bare for American High Definition television viewers this week, as the renowned journalist turned his attention to Vancouver’s Downtown East side and the twin themes of safe injection sites and prostitution.
His Dan Rather reports on HDTV brought cameras to a part of the 2010 Olympics host city that will most likely never appear on any tourist maps, providing a 25 minute travelogue of the geography and social study that Vancouver’s Ground Zero of Hastings and Columbia presents.
And the portrait that Rather exposed was clearly something out of a Dickens novel, a city that features some of the most expensive real estate in Canada, is just a few dozen blocks away from what is possibly the nations most desperate space of living A true tale of two cities, where you suspect that few even know or care about what happens on the side streets off of Hastings.
Some of the statistics which Rather quoted were startling:
7000 addicts, many of them homeless live within a ten block space in the area of the Downtown Eastside
His Dan Rather reports on HDTV brought cameras to a part of the 2010 Olympics host city that will most likely never appear on any tourist maps, providing a 25 minute travelogue of the geography and social study that Vancouver’s Ground Zero of Hastings and Columbia presents.
And the portrait that Rather exposed was clearly something out of a Dickens novel, a city that features some of the most expensive real estate in Canada, is just a few dozen blocks away from what is possibly the nations most desperate space of living A true tale of two cities, where you suspect that few even know or care about what happens on the side streets off of Hastings.
Some of the statistics which Rather quoted were startling:
7000 addicts, many of them homeless live within a ten block space in the area of the Downtown Eastside
1 in three residents of the Downtown Eastside is HIV positive
70 per cent of them are infected with hepatitis C, a rate that puts Vancouver on par with the slums of poverty stricken Botswana. Making for the highest concentration of the epidemic of anywhere in the Western world.
700 daily IV drug users stop in at Insite, which struggles to bring the epidemic of drug use and infection under control, yet the scene outside in the alleys and streets of the area remain much the same as before.
In 2003, 50 percent of the people in Vancouver who died of HIV in Vancouver never had access to health care for the health care crisis prior to their demise.
67 women from the area are reported as missing, their whereabouts and fates unknown, possible victims of the dangerous prostitution trade of the area.
Rather who is guided around the area by Dean Wilson an area addict, wanders the alleys and streets, hotels and injection sites trying to get a better feel whether the prospect of safe injection is really having any kind of impact on a portion of the city that somehow falls off the radar, despite being an almost free fire zone of human misery. His reporting is a graphic depiction of the Hastings street corridor that has become synonymous with Vancouvers’ struggles
The bulk of the report revolves around the Insite safe injection centre, a controversial pilot program in Vancouver that provides a safe, clean supervised injection site for local addicts, who can receive medical care if they desire and should they show an inclination, they can take advantage of a Detox centre located on the upper floors of the site to try and change their self destructive patterns.
The theory behind the centre and the title at the top of this piece is that “Dead people don’t Detox”, which makes for an interesting mantra for those that believe that this is the best possible way to save lives and hopefully turn around the area. The idea of the centre is to keep people alive long enough, to hopefully choose to move into the Detox centre to get clean.
It is of course a theory that has no shortage of critics, who point out that since the centre has opened, it has taken a number of addicts off the streets to inject, but that there is still a large number of people who still regularly take drugs in the back alleys and front stoops of the streets of that ten block area.
From the injection site Rather moves on to the troubled and dangerous street scene of prostitution in the area, where it’s suggested at least 67 women have disappeared without a trace. He follows advocates for safer streets for prostitutes, as they try to engage the debate of a co-operative safe sex zone work site at the former Drake Hotel. Bringing forward a prospect of a city sanctioned women run brothel, which would certainly become controversial, should it be brought to the table any time soon.
Rather interviews Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who has been a champion of the Insite process so far and is hoping to introduce his own controversial program to the area. Sullivan’s plan called CAST, would have area pharmacies dispense legal pill forms of narcotics that local addicts could use, taking the dealers out of the process. But it would be another step towards the legalization of illegal drugs, a step that perhaps few in Vancouver, British Columbia or Canada are ready to make yet.
While he’s a proponent of the drug dispensing plan and of the need for Detox centres in the Downtown east side, he stepped clear of Rathers’ questioning when it came to city sanctioned brothels, realizing that one can only fight so many fights at one time.
Sullivan who is not universally acclaimed by his fellow Vancouverites may have a problem convincing electors that Vancouver is ready to take its place in the world as an Amsterdam of North America.
The Rather Report aired on HD Net on February 19th and continues on through the month for those who have access to the channel on their satellite or digital cable services. For the rest of us, there’s always the Google video version which has been posted to the net, you can view the program by clicking here. The Vancouver segment of the program starts at 16:40 in and continues on until about the 46 mark.
.700 daily IV drug users stop in at Insite, which struggles to bring the epidemic of drug use and infection under control, yet the scene outside in the alleys and streets of the area remain much the same as before.
In 2003, 50 percent of the people in Vancouver who died of HIV in Vancouver never had access to health care for the health care crisis prior to their demise.
67 women from the area are reported as missing, their whereabouts and fates unknown, possible victims of the dangerous prostitution trade of the area.
Rather who is guided around the area by Dean Wilson an area addict, wanders the alleys and streets, hotels and injection sites trying to get a better feel whether the prospect of safe injection is really having any kind of impact on a portion of the city that somehow falls off the radar, despite being an almost free fire zone of human misery. His reporting is a graphic depiction of the Hastings street corridor that has become synonymous with Vancouvers’ struggles
The bulk of the report revolves around the Insite safe injection centre, a controversial pilot program in Vancouver that provides a safe, clean supervised injection site for local addicts, who can receive medical care if they desire and should they show an inclination, they can take advantage of a Detox centre located on the upper floors of the site to try and change their self destructive patterns.
The theory behind the centre and the title at the top of this piece is that “Dead people don’t Detox”, which makes for an interesting mantra for those that believe that this is the best possible way to save lives and hopefully turn around the area. The idea of the centre is to keep people alive long enough, to hopefully choose to move into the Detox centre to get clean.
It is of course a theory that has no shortage of critics, who point out that since the centre has opened, it has taken a number of addicts off the streets to inject, but that there is still a large number of people who still regularly take drugs in the back alleys and front stoops of the streets of that ten block area.
From the injection site Rather moves on to the troubled and dangerous street scene of prostitution in the area, where it’s suggested at least 67 women have disappeared without a trace. He follows advocates for safer streets for prostitutes, as they try to engage the debate of a co-operative safe sex zone work site at the former Drake Hotel. Bringing forward a prospect of a city sanctioned women run brothel, which would certainly become controversial, should it be brought to the table any time soon.
Rather interviews Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who has been a champion of the Insite process so far and is hoping to introduce his own controversial program to the area. Sullivan’s plan called CAST, would have area pharmacies dispense legal pill forms of narcotics that local addicts could use, taking the dealers out of the process. But it would be another step towards the legalization of illegal drugs, a step that perhaps few in Vancouver, British Columbia or Canada are ready to make yet.
While he’s a proponent of the drug dispensing plan and of the need for Detox centres in the Downtown east side, he stepped clear of Rathers’ questioning when it came to city sanctioned brothels, realizing that one can only fight so many fights at one time.
Sullivan who is not universally acclaimed by his fellow Vancouverites may have a problem convincing electors that Vancouver is ready to take its place in the world as an Amsterdam of North America.
The Rather Report aired on HD Net on February 19th and continues on through the month for those who have access to the channel on their satellite or digital cable services. For the rest of us, there’s always the Google video version which has been posted to the net, you can view the program by clicking here. The Vancouver segment of the program starts at 16:40 in and continues on until about the 46 mark.
Photos: Vancouver map from ubc.ca , safe injection site from vch website
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