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Issues & Experts >  Issues & Experts Archive > Week of March 31 – April 6, 2003

Week of March 31 – April 6, 2003

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Apr 04, 2003
Crackdown doesn’t equal cleanup…That’s SFU criminologist Neil Boyd’s response to the Vancouver Police Department’s desire to crack down on crime related to Vancouver’s downtown eastside drug trade. Prior to the opening of a supervised safe injection site, the department wants to reassign 60 officers to a new task force targeting drug-related crime in the area. Says Boyd, "If there is a crackdown in one particular area, history tells us that the problem will simply be displaced to another area. The demand for illegal drugs doesn’t disappear with increased enforcement. More police officers will almost certainly lead to a greater number of apprehensions and/or arrests, but this does not necessarily mean the streets will be safer."


Showdown in Quebec…There may be a war in Iraq but on the home front, Quebecers are tuning in to the battle over leadership between contenders for the premier’s job. Candidates Jean Charest, Bernard Landry and Mario Dumont met face to face in a televised debate Monday (March 31). Experts were predicting their main target would be the soft voters, those who glaze over the field and make their decision at the last minute. SFU political scientist Laurent Dobuzinskis specializes in Quebec politics and can look at the campaign progress, with voting day just two weeks away.



War hits home…The US-led war with Iraq may not be on North America’s doorstep, but its small businesses are certainly feeling the impact. A Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey shows 43 percent of respondents feel the war will hurt their businesses in some way, while another 32 percent are uncertain about the impact. SFU business and marketing expert Lindsay Meredith says they have reason to be pessimistic about a protracted war because "together with oil cutbacks in Nigeria and Venezuela, war-related oil cutbacks in Iraq set the stage for escalating energy prices. Many small businesses will eat higher inflationary costs because they can’t pass them on to their debt-ridden consumers."



Reacting to images of war…Whether we consider them informative or propaganda, the dramatic images of the war raging in Iraq affect viewers of all ages. Debra Pentecosthas studied the impact of war images on society, from the inception of the camera to the present day, and can look at how people are reacting to the events of a more accessible war. Her fascination with how people normalize abnormal experiences has led her to examine reactions to various conflicts, including those in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, research earlier undertaken for her PhD. She is currently an instructor in women’s studies at SFU. For a complete and updated list of SFU experts on the war in Iraq, check our website, http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/

    Debra Pentecost, 604.736.3156, 604.505.3156 (cell); debrap@sfu.ca


New crime law for youth takes effect…Major changes to how young people involved in crime are handled by the justice system become effective April 1. The new Youth Criminal Justice Act is aimed at reducing a growing number of under-18 year-old criminals incarcerated for non-violent crimes. SFU criminologists Robert Gordon and Raymond Corrado specialize in youth crime and can look at what the changes will mean to youths and the system.