New bumper sticker idea: One tweet can ruin a political partys whole day.
I came up with that zinger after listening to and reading the criticism leveled at the NPA for a tweet the party sent out last week regarding a new housing project for teenage girls in the Downtown Eastside.
The outrage was triggered by this tweet from the NPAs official Twitter account: Neighbourhood of pimps, dealers, needles and violencewould you want your daughter here?
The tweet was linked to a column by colleague Mark Hasiuk, who wrote an opinion piece about the project at 120 Jackson St. In case you missed it, Hasiuk quoted a former cop about his concerns of plunking the project in a neighbourhood that has its share of pimps, dealers and violence.
Somebody at the NPA read it and dispatched the tweet.
Then Vision piled on, so did David Eby of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
Its extremely disappointing to see the latest NPA negative attack directed at some of our most vulnerable citizens, said Visions press release. Whats even more disturbing is the contempt Suzanne Anton and the NPA have for people who work and live in the Downtown Eastside.
Eby, writing on his blog, offered this:
Its always easiest to pick on the weakest, poorest kid on the block, and today's tweet from the NPA hardly sets them aside from schoolyard bullies.
So what was the NPAs response?
I tuned in to CKNW last Thursday afternoon to hear Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs and NPA council hopeful Mike Klassen go at it. Heres some of the back-and-forth.
The actual tweet itself that created this consternation was a direct quote from the article that was in the Vancouver Courier which had raised some very serious concerns about the project, Klassen told radio host Simi Sara.
(For the record, the tweet was not a direct quote from the article. Sara didnt know this but continued to press Klassen to explain the tweet.)
If it makes everybody happy, well take the person who posted the tweet without the quotes on it and take him around behind the wood shed, Klassen said.
So it was a mistake? Sara asked.
Theres a mistake in the tweet, for sure. There should have been quote marks around the actual quotation from the piece.
Again, not accurate.
Meggs chimed in, describing the project as a positive one for women in crisis in the Downtown Eastside. At some point during the debate, Klassen mentioned the project would be built partly with shipping containers.
Meggs said that wasnt the case.
So Klassen was wrong again?
Not exactly, according to Meggs who called me shortly after his radio appearance to explain the city report on the housing project mentions shipping containers. He didnt catch it until he was off air.
Turns out, theres actually one line saying therell be four container conversions out back but the project is a heritage building restoration, Meggs said.
When I hung up with Meggs, NPA council hopeful Sean Bickerton called. He didnt hear the debate between Meggs and Klassen, but had this to say about the tweet.
That was just way over the top and we should not have issued that, Bickerton said. That was a mistake and shouldnt have happened, and I think everyone would agree with that.
Added Bickerton: Its distracting from the underlying issue which is the safety and well-being of these young women that need to rebuild their lives and wheres the best place for them to do that.
So where is that, Mr. Bickerton?
In a location that is safe and where theyre not as vulnerable to those violent influences that are running some of the streets there.
Twitter: @Howellings
