Philip Owen, former Vancouver mayor who championed harm reduction, dies 'peacefully'
Former mayor of Vancouver Philip Walter Owen died Thursday night at the age of 88.
Owen was mayor for three terms, having served from 1993 to 2002 as a member of the right-of-centre Non-Partisan Association.
In a statement, Owen’s family said he had been living at Point Grey Private Hospital in Vancouver for three years and passed away peacefully from complications related to Parkinson’s disease.
Under Owen’s leadership, the city began to favour less-punitive methods of managing drug use, choosing to see it as more of a public health issue than a criminal one. After hearing the calls of activists, drug users, and researchers, Owen championed the Four Pillars Drug Strategy, an approach to drug use and addiction that emphasizes prevention, treatment, enforcement, and harm reduction.
Owen’s approach to drug users was at odds with many of his colleagues and his political party. In 2002, the NPA selected a different person to run as mayoral candidate in the city’s municipal election. That candidate, Jennifer Clarke, lost to COPE’s Larry Campbell, ending 16 years of NPA control of the mayor’s office.
The policies passed under Owen enabled the creation of Insite, North America’s first legal safe injection site for intravenous drug users, which opened in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 2003.
In a statement on Owen’s passing, current Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart spoke to Owen’s collaborative approach.
“Though a challenging idea at the time, Mayor Owen learned from talking with those living with addiction that harm reduction was the only way to address the overdose crisis of the mid-1990s and early 2000s,” Stewart said.
“(Owen) worked side-by-side with grassroots Downtown Eastside leaders to push for change,” he said.
In January 2021, the Philip Owen Professorship in Addiction Medicine at the University of British Columbia was established to honour his legacy.
Owen is survived by his wife of 63 years, Brita, their children, Lise Owen Struthers, Christian Owen, Andrea Owen, and his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The family says that funeral and memorial details will follow in the days ahead.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.