A new documentary by political activist and former BC Liberal leadership candidate Aaron Gunn hopes to raise awareness about Vancouver’s growing struggle with violent crime, drug addiction and homelessness.
The one-hour-long film, which can be viewed in full on YouTube, has already been seen nearly 130,000 times by the time of this article’s publication.
Gunn, who premiered the documentary at Simon Fraser University’s Fletcher Challenge Theatre last week, calls the movie an honest portrayal of the problems plaguing the city.
“One of the most important points in this documentary is that it’s not just one perspective. It’s speaking to police officers, addicts and former residents of the Downtown Eastside, crime analysts, victims of violent crime,” Gunn told True North.
“So we talked to people throughout the system who all have their own unique vantage point. But it seems quite clear that the system and the policies that we’ve been undertaking over the past 20 years have not been working, have been failing, it’s time for a dramatically different approach.”
Gunn claims that standing in the way of positive change are politicians pushing an ideological agenda.
“One of the things preventing that is the current crop of politicians – really at all levels of government – beholden not to evidence based solutions but to ideological solutions,” said Gunn.
According to Gunn, he had to have a police escort to film in the area over fears of theft and physical assault.
“The Vancouver Police Department agreed to provide an escort for us while we’re looking through,” said Gunn. “There’s zero chance I would have felt safe or comfortable doing it with our video camera without the police there. It was a nervy experience. I want to compare it to riding a rollercoaster.”
The deterioration of Vancouver has been a hot topic in the municipal election and it made a prominent appearance at a mayoral candidates town hall last week.
In fact, several candidates attended the documentary’s first showing according to premiere moderator and the film’s executive producer Angelo Isidorou.
They include Non-Partisan Alliance (NPA) candidates, Arezo Zarrabian, Elaine Allan and incumbent city councillor Melissa DeGenova. Progress Vancouver candidate Mauro Francis and independent candidate Mark Bowen were also in attendance. Far-left candidate Sean Orr also protested the event.
“We had a couple of protesters,” explained Gunn. Individuals that were accosting, I guess they tried to enter in. And I mean, that’s expected because you know when you run out of ideas and talking points, trying to defend your perspective you resort trying to silence,” Gunn told True North.
According to Isidorou, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart isn’t being honest to constituents when he claims that the city is safe for residents.
“Vancouverites are fed up of being gaslit by Mayor Kennedy Stewart, who continues to state the city is safe,” said Isidorou. “Our movie sought to expose the reality of what happens when we allow leftists to run cities with unhinged and lawless policies. What we discovered was far worse than we thought.”
