Hashishi

Chief's new weapon in drug war angers anti-poverty activists
2-25-`07 | The Ottawa Citizen | by Laura Drake

Police Chief Vern White's plan to report accused drug dealers to provincial welfare authorities has drawn the ire of Ottawa anti-poverty activists, but a University of Ottawa criminology professor calls it an innovative idea.

"It's probably a good idea for the police to start using all the powers that are available to them," said Michael Kempa, who studies policing.

"We should be saying to the police, 'Go for it, try innovative things like this, and we'll scrutinize what you're doing with existing oversight bodies like police services board.'"

Chief White recently turned over the names of more than 100 accused drug dealers to provincial welfare officials so the dealers can be investigated for fraud and cut off from assistance when their income from crack sales disqualifies them.

Mr. Kempa said since welfare fraud and drug dealing are both illegal activities, it makes sense for police to be concerned with both.

He pointed out that 200 years ago, this all-encompassing approach to policing wouldn't have been out of the ordinary, but today's society has a more stratified view of how social problems should be dealt with.

"When we start talking about using or leveraging welfare fraud into (policing), a lot of people would say that's not the business of the police, because that has more to do with economic regulation," Mr. Kempa said. "But if you're already dealing drugs, and therefore you've come under the attention of also welfare fraud, these are both levers the police can use to prevent people from dealing drugs."

However, some anti-poverty activists say Chief White's plan is flawed.

"If they're on welfare, they're hardly big-time criminals. They're hardly making millions out of it," said Dorothy O'Connell. "I'd like to see the police's efforts go toward finding the big guys."

Ms. O'Connell said she thinks Chief White is simply trying to deflect attention from failed police attempts to eradicate drugs from the streets.

Bob Rainer, the executive director of the National Anti-Poverty Organization, said society should be focusing on the root causes of problems like drug dealing, instead of on punishments that could make the problem worse.

"To take away whatever form of legal income they have would seem to me, intuitively, to lead to them to deal more drugs," he said.

"It would be a punitive thing to do, it would put more pressure on the drug dealers to get the income they've then lost in welfare."

Mr. Kempa said drug dealers who have their welfare payments taken away could theoretically commit more crime, but that it would likely be a relatively small amount. He admits that while the concerns of anti-poverty activists are valid, they don't constitute a reason for the police not to aid in charging drug dealers with welfare fraud.

"We're not talking about decreasing welfare across the board. As long as the police aren't taking away opportunities from the lower stratas of society broadly, then that's not really the issue," he said.

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Buzzby

Nothing in the article mentions anything about the fact that the people being singled out are not necessarily drug dealers - they've merely been accused. It's sounding like, in Canada, you can be accused by the police and everyone assumes you're guilty until proven innocent.

200 years ago we didn't have the concern for protecting people's rights that we do today. Women were chattel. Blacks were slaves. Do we really want to go back to "the good old days"?

That makes me wonder why there are always big, fancy Cadillacs parked out in front of the welfare bureau.

The root cause of drug dealing is that people want drugs and their government tells them that they can't have them. They're willing to pay extra to people willing to break the law to get the drugs to them. Poverty doesn't "cause" drug dealing. Prohibition and profit are the "cause".

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claytayler

I love how you frequently tear into these articles that are just so clearly BS if you read them carefully!