KINGSTON AID WORKER, 74, FACES DRUG CHARGES

Defenders Say He Was In Wrong Place At The Wrong Time

KINGSTON, Ont. -- A 74-year-old Kingston humanitarian who has devoted the
past 23 years to helping poor people in Central America is facing 30 years
in jail after being arrested on drug charges in Louisiana.

Ed Shaw, a retired high school teacher who started a fund to help the poor
of Belize and who was honoured by Kingston City Council in 1997 for his
work, was charged with possession of cocaine in Louisiana last October.

The charges have shocked those who know him here. They say it is
inconceivable that he could be involved in criminal activity.

Louisiana State Police arrested him and three other men after they found
cocaine and weapons in an SUV in Covington, La. Mr. Shaw has been charged
with felony possession of cocaine over 400 grams.

Mr. Shaw is being held on $250,000 bail and has been imprisoned for the
past six months. He faces a mandatory minimum 30 years in prison if
convicted of the felony at trial, which is tentatively set to start this month.

Friends and supporters in Canada say Mr. Shaw is guilty of nothing more
than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Information about the case is sketchy and often third-hand. Mr. Shaw had
dropped in to see friends in Rio Verde, Mexico, following the funeral of
his brother in Toronto.

Mr. Shaw had helped establish several small businesses in Rio Verde, where
he also sponsored soccer teams and hoped to open a cultural museum.

Court documents show he drove from Mexico to Texas, then set out for
Florida to visit friends there. He was travelling with an Alberta man he
knew in a two-vehicle convoy.

The pair stopped in Covington and checked into a motel, where Mr. Shaw
stayed. His friend went to see two other men who were having trouble with
their truck.

The truck was having gear trouble and the three visited a wrecker to
inquire about the cost of having it towed to Florida, their eventual
destination. Told the cost was $1,000, the men offered to pay cash. Just a
month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, that made the wrecker suspicious.

He called police to report his suspicions. Police, with the help of a dog,
searched the truck and discovered the cocaine and several guns. Inside the
vehicle, they also found a note indicating the motel where Mr. Shaw was
staying with the Alberta man.

The note was Mr. Shaw's only connection to the men's vehicle and the drugs,
but based on that, Louisiana State Police arrested Mr. Shaw and charged him
along with the other three. He has been incarcerated ever since.

Relatives who flew down to visit him recently say he is in relatively good
spirits and is helping inmates with schooling and giving language lessons.
The state considers him a maximum security risk so he is shackled and wears
a distinctive red-striped prison uniform.

Supporters, of whom he has many, are starting an Ed Shaw Legal Defence
Fund, which they hope will raise enough money to fly character witnesses
down to Louisiana for his trial, which has been delayed a number of times.

They are adamant Mr. Shaw would never be involved in the activities of
which he is accused.

"No. There's no way Ed would get involved in this kind of thing," said
David Pulver, who has known Mr. Shaw for years and written about his
efforts to help impoverished Central Americans.

"He's always been a good man. He's always supported the right causes," said
Port Hope's Ken Tancock, who met Mr. Shaw more than 50 years ago at university.

"It's just not Ed at all," said retired priest Tim Coughlan of Belleville,
who has known Mr. Shaw for more than 20 years and was impressed with his
Central American efforts when he toured the area as part of his own
international humanitarian work. "I just don't believe that at all."

He suggested Mr. Shaw was a very trusting man who had been used by his
travelling companion.

"Ed is such an innocent person who would trust you right away," he said. "I
think Ed's been taken advantage of and he's paying a terrible price for it.
This has been going on since the fall."