Vancouvers drug capital of Canada starts CONAIR

The Vancouver Board of Trade is urging residents to donate frequent- flier miles so that people who are accused of crimes outside British Columbia can be returned to those provinces.
Vancouver has about 2,500 fugitives who are wanted on low- priority arrest warrants for crimes ranging from fraud to assault that were committed in other regions, police say. The suspects' jurisdictions aren't willing to spend the estimated C$2,500 ($2,480) it would take to fly them back.
``We're sending a message that fleeing to Vancouver is no longer a low-risk endeavor,'' said Bernie Magnan, an assistant managing director of the Vancouver Board of Trade who is responsible for the ``Con Air'' Appeal.
Vancouver is a magnet for suspects on the run because winters are mild in Canada's third-most-populous metropolitan area and it is a hub of drug abuse, said Mariana Valverde, a professor of criminology at the University of Toronto.
``Vancouver is the drug capital of Canada,'' she said, with the city's Downtown Eastside district known for illicit drug use, prostitution and violence.
Vancouver Police support the project and are eager to get more people to justice, said Constable Tim Fanning, a spokesman.
A better solution would be to speed up the court process and bring more suspects to trial, Valverde said. She predicted that businesses will pressure the city to clean up the Downtown Eastside before the Winter Olympics in 2010.
The Board of Trade kicked off the appeal for donations from the public last month by pledging more than 1 million of its directors' own reward miles.
So far, no point-paid flights have got off the ground. Airline miles programs aren't endorsing the campaign nor agreeing to cash in points to move fugitives.
``It's a novel concept, but it's really a public policy issue that needs to be resolved by provincial and federal governments, as well as local authorities,'' said Mitchell Merowitz, a spokesman for Toronto-based Air Miles, a loyalty rewards program used by about 9 million Canadian households.
Michele Meier, a spokeswoman for Air Canada's Aeroplan program, said she doubts that the Vancouver appeal for points would qualify under the airline's policy on points donations.
``Sending back suspects is not a charitable cause,'' she said. Montreal-based Air Canada is the country's biggest airline.

Magnan said the group is in talks with several loyalty programs that are considering accepting donated miles to fly suspects home.
``The wheels of progress can turn slowly,'' he said.

Ultimately, Vancouver hopes to spearhead a cross-country suspect-exchange system that might charter entire planes, Fanning said. For now, police would be happy to defray the cost of flying a suspect to another province by returning with someone wanted for crimes in Vancouver, he said.
``What we're trying to do is bring people to justice whether they end up staying here or going back to where they came from,'' Fanning said. ``It's about victims having their day in court.''