News from City Hall - May 31st, 2005

Homeless plan ignores youth

By Allen Garr, (May 31, 2005).
Vancouver Courier.

Homeless people usually aren't born that way;
they are made. If it wasn't already evident from
Vancouver's homeless action plan that went to
public hearing on Wednesday night, several
speakers raised the issue.

Their point was simple enough: in no small part
rising homelessness is caused by a failure of the
system to help children at risk. They say consider
the policies of the Ministry of Children and Family
Development.
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Principal says pimps preying on students

By Mike Howell, (May 31, 2005).
Vancouver Courier.

An East Side elementary school is being targeted by
teenage pimps attempting to lure young girls into drugs
and the sex trade.
Caroline Krause, principal of Grandview elementary,
made the startling admission at a city council committee
meeting Thursday.

"Every spring, active recruitment of our Grade 6 and 7
First Nations girls takes place," she told council's planning
and environment committee. "The activity starts on the
weekend, usually around the Britannia Teen Centre.
For weeks afterwards, groups of drug traffickers and
recruiters come on to the school grounds-and sometimes
even into the school-to try to lure the girls away."
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Mayor's main man didn't mention he was going to Italy
By Mike Howell, (May 31, 2005).
Vancouver Courier.

NPA Coun. Peter Ladner is questioning why the mayor's
executive assistant didn't reveal in a report to council
that he would be travelling to Italy on the city's dime.
Geoff Meggs returned from Italy May 21 after spending
a week with a six-member Vancouver delegation research-
ing the preparations for the 2006 Winter Olympics in
Torino, Italy.