WORLD MEDIA FOCUS ON METRO GANG VIOLENCE

Councillor Concerned About The City's Image

With under a year to go to the 2010 Winter Games, a headline like
"From heaven to hell: 18 die as drugs war rages on streets of
Vancouver" is not what politicians and tourism promoters want to see.

But the spate of murders, drive-by shootings and even random
violence, like the Gibsons care home shooting, have drawn the
inevitable attention of international media now focused on
Vancouver's looming Olympics.

"I Googled 'Vancouver gang violence' last night and it's everywhere,"
said Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs. "I hope this round of violence will
burn itself out, but I don't think it has been good for the city's
image by any means. We all know it is a dark time in the city's history."

Although the rash of murders and shootings has generated
international attention, the piece that has caused the most
discussion is an article last week in The Independent, a
well-regarded British newspaper.

Under the headline quoted above was the subtext "The Canadian city
has been named the best place in the world to live. But those halcyon
days are over."

The story accurately describes the mayhem that has been an almost
daily drama in the Lower Mainland. The visceral reporting hit a nerve.

"As it prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, what it's got now
is not cuddly, eco-friendly publicity, but blood-spattered streets
littered with shell casings and corpses," the story says. "Vancouver
is the battlefield in a war between myriad drug gangs, which include
Hells Angels, Big Circle Boys, United Nations, Red Scorpions,
Independent Soldiers and the 14K Triad."

"Oh yes, we've seen the report," sighed Const. Jana McGuinness, a
spokeswoman for the Vancouver Police Department. "I got a call from a
woman in Alberta wondering if it was safe to come here for the Olympics."

"There is a harsher take on what has been happening here," said Rick
Antonson, the president of Tourism Vancouver.

"Hopefully we will look back and see it as an intolerable time in the
city's history, but still be a city that is, in context to the rest
of the world, a relatively safer place."

Rene Fasel, the head of the International Olympic Committee's
Vancouver Coordination Commission professed not to be worried.

"Security's always a concern for the IOC. . . . We are really
confident in the Canadian security forces," Fasel said when asked
about the growing violence.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee also sought to put a positive spin
on the new drumbeat of gangland news, saying the vast majority of
coverage about Vancouver in the international media is positive.

"This article (in The Independent) is the rare exception," said Renee
Smith-Valade, a Vanoc spokeswoman.