Norm Boucher - Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip

Peter M. German, Q.C., Ph.D. Deputy Commissioner (retd.), Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Life and death on the streets of Vancouver parallel what occurs in every large city within North America as a result of the scourge of hard drugs, be they heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, other opioids, or any combination or permutation thereof. Norm Boucher devoted his policing career to working as a drug cop. He witnessed the ongoing drug crisis from a vantage point that few, other than the victims themselves and a cadre of dedicated social workers, ever see up close and personal.

Norm Boucher was a Mountie, a member of Canadas federal police force, the fabled Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But his task was not to ride horses while wearing a scarlet tunic, to drive sled dogs across the frozen tundra, or to drive code three to 911 calls. His chosen occupation within the Force and the reason he joined, was to work drugs, as both an undercover operator and a member of the drug section.

The RCMP first began policing the drug dens and drug houses of downtown Vancouver one hundred years ago, when it was renamed from the Royal North West Mounted Police and became Canadas national police force, responsible for federal statute enforcement, including the opium legislation of the day. In Vancouver, the drug section grew over time to become a large division, composed of multiple units that pursued heroin, cocaine, and marijuana investigations, and engaged in cross-border operations. Specialized units sprouted up to better investigate these crimes. Among those was an undercover unit, composed of select members, each given a unique number, and allowed to undertake oftentimes dangerous assignments.

As an undercover operator, Boucher was highly trained to integrate within a milieu, in which addicts and traffickers live much of their adult lives. Criminality is like wallpaper in this world. It is everywhere. There is no road map for undercover officers. Developing a fine-tuned sense of survival, Boucher worked a particularly difficult beat in downtown Vancouver, a city once believed to house more heroin addicts per square mile than any other in North America. With supplies entering the country by land and ship, his job was to combat the deadly trade using his intellect, his senses, and a keen awareness of his surroundings.

Horseplay describes a moment in time in the history of Vancouver. The redevelopment of a wide swath of old tenements, hotels, and factories in preparation for Expo 86 had not begun. Vancouver had yet to be discovered by the world. In similar fashion, society was closer in time to the past than to the future. The downtown Granville Street Strip had fallen from its earlier neon heights to becoming a sleazy den of stripper bars, adult film stores, and bars. The early 1980s were heady times in downtown Vancouver and even more so in the drug scene. Hard and soft drugs were flowing through corridors of the city. Hardened police units worked the Strip in plainclothes, throttling suspected users and traffickers carrying packets of heroin in their mouths. The legalization of drugs was the furthest thing from the minds of most persons. Furthermore, as Boucher notes, going after the money generated by drug sales was an approach still in its infancy. Parliament did not outlaw money laundering until years after he worked the Granville Strip. In Bouchers time, it was all about the drugs and getting it and the traffickers off the streets.

Horseplay represents eight months in the life of a microcosm of society who spend their lives in or near a strip of seedy, rundown bars waiting for their next fix of heroin. Most had experienced run-ins with the law and were hypervigilant to the presence of cops from the drug squad as well as undercover operators. The author was already an experienced operator before taking on this assignment, which finds him starting from scratch to ingratiate himself with the addict milieu. He has no other police officers or agents to assist him, and his cover team remains at a discreet distance.

Careful not to divulge the tactics of a police officer turned hype, Boucher does provide insights into the life of an undercover officer. His role was particularly complicated during the eight months of Horseplay because he was dropping in and out of two worlds. Unlike deep cover officers who live away from family for a prolonged period, Boucher lived with his wife in the suburbs of Vancouver, at least on those days or weekends when he could escape the job. He also dropped in on his cover team of officers at their safe house and completed his notes and expense forms, before returning to his adopted life.

Observing that all undercover operators transition from feeling like an outsider in their undercover role, to accepting it as their new reality, Boucher acknowledges that the highs and lows of the heroin scene became his new persona and one in which he felt comfortable. He likens it to a bar. Everyone is either an outsider or a local. He made that transition at the Blackstone Hotel bar and in the drug trade operating in and around its environs. The author describes the ravages of hard drugs on a civilian population, heavily addicted and desperate for the next fix. As a police officer, his role was to arrest the traffickers and hope thereby to reduce or stem the illicit trade. It would be easy to throw ones hands in the air and ask why. It almost seems like a never-ending task, and in some ways it is. That is the life of a police officer. As one senior sergeant told me when I began my career, your first day will mimic your last. In many ways it is a thankless job in a world composed of humans, with all the frailties that we know so well.

Boucher was not immune to what was occurring around him. In fact, from the time that he first enters the Blackstone Hotel bar, it is obvious that he sees real people and not police targets. He develops a rapport with street people, hookers, addicts, those with mental health issues, and traffickers. He must duck and cover like a boxer and sometimes even take the first jab. Not only does he see real people, but he sees humans stuck in a rut fuelled by drugs. Despite this, it was his job to develop criminal cases against them and get them off the streets for at least a short while and hopefully have them undergo treatment programs.

Looking back on his career, in particular, the eight months of Horseplay, Boucher does not provide glib solutions to seemingly intractable problems. Instead he carefully analyzes the various approaches to the drug problem, and recognizes that enforcement is just one aspect of a much larger societal response required to stem the daily deaths.

The RCMP has remained Canadas national police force for one hundred years, precisely because of members like Norm Boucher, who were prepared to make great personal sacrifices, risking their health and home life, in the hopes of making a difference. Working on a drug unit is not easy. It has its highs and lows and you deal with persons in every walk of life, but mostly with those who are addicted or who feed off addicts. It is dirty work. It often appears that you will never make a difference. All of these facts and sentiments are magnified in an undercover role. Very few police officers ever make this commitment and of those who do, only a few can continue in the work for long without burning out in one fashion or another.

Vancouver and its drug scene have changed dramatically through the years. Today, it is estimated that over 1,000 addicts die on Vancouvers streets every year due to overdoses, with no end in sight, a shocking indictment of a society in which the average standard of living is among the highest in the world.