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
Ottawa public school board, 3 Toronto-area school boards launch lawsuit against social media giants
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and three school boards in the Toronto-area have launched legal action against social media giants, accusing them of "disrupting students' fundamental right to education."
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Statistics Canada reports real GDP up 0.6% in January as Quebec strikes end
Statistics Canada says real gross domestic product grew 0.6 per cent in January, helped by the end of public sector strikes in Quebec in November and December.
Tipping is off the table at this Toronto restaurant
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 mm among weather alerts in effect for 7 provinces
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres, air quality advisories and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
Gangs netting up to US$3 trillion a year as Southeast Asia human trafficking becomes a global crisis, Interpol says
Human trafficking-fuelled fraud is exploding in Southeast Asia with organized crime rings raking in close to US$3 trillion in illicit revenue annually, the head of Interpol has said in comments that reveal the huge profits being earned by cartels.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
Ukrainian child asylum seekers in St. John’s get class of their own
Roughly 50 children will gathered in a St. John’s classroom for the first time on Saturday for unique lessons on Ukrainian language, culture and history.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.