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FOI Request - Vancouver Police Department

Kayla MacInnis

12666 72 Avenue,
Surrey, BC V3W 2M8
kayla.macinnis@email.kpu.ca
(604) 599-2100

March 3rd, 2020,

Information and Privacy Coordinator
Vancouver Police Department
3585 Graveley Street
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V5K 5J5

To whom it may concern, 

This is a request under the Freedom of Information act. I request that you provide the following information:

• police reports from the Black Lives Matter protest at the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts on June 15th, 2020
  
  

If possible, please provide the information in electronic format, either mailed to my address on a CD or emailed in any format (Excel, Word, or PDF) to me at kayla.macinnis@email.kpu.ca.

 

If any concerns arise, contact me by phone at (604) 599-2100.

 

Please notify me when the requested material is available for release. 

Warm regards, 

Kayla MacInnis

 

EXPLANATION: I am curious about the police reports from this protest because I would like to compare the number of BIPOC arrests at protests with the number of arrests of non-POC at protests. Police action is being brought into question lately, with Indigenous rights and Black Lives Matter in the media's forefront. My curiosity into the arrests at this event would potentially lead to an expose to police involvement at protests, which means I would more than likely be requesting similar information from other protests in the last year to compare. When we look at the storming on the United States Capitol and how few armed forces were involved comparatively to the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States where there were numerous armed forces and arrests, it makes you question whether or not race is a contributing factor (it obviously is). Comparatively, in Canada (especially in BC), with Indigenous Rights protests, there have been many violent arrests and mistreatment by the Vancouver Police Department. In comparison, when you look at events held by Trump supporters or anti-maskers in Vancouver, there never seems to be the same amount of police involvement. 

The VPD does not list an FOI coordinator. Instead, I was directed to this website, where a form was provided along with an email or fax number to send your requisition to.

Here are some examples of news articles that showcase police involvement at protests: 

• https://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/arrests-at-pipeline-protest-calling-vpd-action-in-to-question/
• https://bc.ctvnews.ca/overnight-rally-protesting-outrageous-jail-sentence-blocks-traffic-outside-port-of-vancouver-1.5331998
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/anti-back-racism-protest-georgia-dunsmuir-viaducts-vancouver-1.5612295
• https://bc.ctvnews.ca/blacks-indigenous-over-represented-in-vancouver-police-stops-10-years-of-data-1.3973823
• https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/02/23/VPD-Review-Own-Violent-Arrests-Indigenous-Pipeline-Protests  
• https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vpd-open-letter-anti-mask-rally
  
• https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/vancouver-news/heres-why-vancouver-police-didnt-shut-down-the-anti-mask-protest-on-nye-3235467

Should Canada Legalize Magic Mushrooms?

Photo by Daniel Parnitzke

Magic Mushrooms have been used for thousands of years. Some researchers think they can be traced back to Afro-Indigenous cultures as far back as 9000 B.C. Peyote, morning glory seeds, ayahuasca and Magic mushrooms all have naturally occurring psychotropics that can be used to alter a person's mental state. Historically, these naturally occurring psychotropics were widely used among Indigenous tribes for spiritual journeys alongside a shaman. 

How do Magic Mushrooms work? According to the Government of Canada website, the hallucinogenic properties within Magic Mushrooms are called psilocybin. Once these properties are ingested, they are broken by the liver, creating psilocin, which gets you high. 

In the 1950s, a banker and ethnomycologist from New York went to Oaxaca, Mexico, to experience Magic Mushrooms for the first time. After his experience, he proclaimed that these mushrooms would be "the catalyst for humanity's advancement in language and religion." He published "Seeking the Magic Mushroom" in Life magazine, the first introduction of the term "Magic Mushroom" to North America. 

During the 1960s, counterculture caused psychedelic drugs to increase until the Nixon administration banned them in the 1970s. But what about recently? Well, these drugs have been making a come back. 

Banned throughout North America, researchers are starting to study the benefits of using them in a controlled environment to treat medical conditions.

In the last few years, studies have been conducted using these mushrooms in therapeutic settings to treat things such as cluster headaches, depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, addiction, and cancer, and they are showing promising results. 

According to an article from The Psychadelic Society: 

On August 4, Canada’s Health Minister Patty Hajdu granted, by way of a Section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, permission for four terminally-ill Canadians to consume psychedelic drugs. The decision comes after months of careful maneuvering by TheraPsil, a Canadian non-profit seeking to treat end-of-life distress with psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.

In 2016, the NYU School of Medicine conducted a study that saw a reduction in depression and anxiety as well as "decreases in cancer-related demoralization and hopelessness, improved spiritual wellbeing, and increased quality of life." This was after just one dose. 

Magic mushrooms have been found to have few side effects, and they don't seem to cause physical dependence, like many drugs. According to the Global Drug Survey (GDS), 0.2% of those who took psilocybin reported they needed medical treatment, which was five times lower than MDMA or cocaine. 

The two most concerning side effects are dangerous actions (thinking you can fly) and psychosis, but under the guidance of a trained professional, the hope is that these things can be managed. 

On November 3rd, 2020, Oregon voted to legalize psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms) for medical use. 

But what about Canada?

TheraPsil, a non-profit based in Victoria, B.C, hopes to make Magic Mushrooms available to palliative care patients using Section 56 of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The hope is that they can treat end-of-life distress with psilocybin. On August 4th, 2020, they granted permission to four terminally ill patients.

Dr. Sean O'Sullivan, an Ontario physician and the medical director of TheraPsil, says:

“Psychedelics open the doorways of the unconscious and allow previously repressed material to emerge into consciousness. 

With the promising results of these initial studies using patient screening, preparation, and follow-up care in therapeutic settings, you can see why legalizing the clinical use of Magical Mushrooms in Canada can prove to be beneficial. 

SEO - Using Google Trends, I typed out many different phrases in relation to "magic mushrooms." In that research, I found that the majority of the topics that are searched in relation to Magic Mushrooms include the word "legalize" and "psilocybin" if you search the terms "Canada Mushrooms," there are quite a lot of results, but narrowing it down to "Canada Magic Mushrooms" the results are still quite decent. I decided to stray from using the word "psilocybin" because even though it's the active ingredient in Magic Mushrooms (what gets you high), the majority of the population is unaware of that.