One of my objectives on returning to Vancouver was to meet with Gil Puder. On my last trip, I was surprised to learn that he had had cancer, but the prognosis was supposedly optimistic.

It really is hard to imagine how anyone could have looked healthier than he did when I met him at the Drug Policy Foundation conference in Washington, last May. He was a natural athlete, who took pride in staying fit. He was a very impressive individual.
See
The 12th Annual Drug Policy Foundation Conference
– A Headless Movement or Horizontal Organization? Analysis By Richard Cowan

Consequently, the word of his death at the age of 40 was all the more stunning.

His paper’s title, Recovering Our Honour: Why Policing Must Reject the War on Drugs, indicates both why the chief wanted to silence him, and why his death is such a great loss for Canadian policing. Puder really understood what was going on in Canadian drugs law enforcement. Will there be anyone else with the courage to challenge the party line?
See
"Why is it that SWAT teams are being used on a daily basis,
sometimes several times a day for drug raids for marijuana?"
and
Constable Says "gateway theory has been repeatedly refuted by scientific research,
and is simply an unethical scare tactic."
A mutual friend was standing in the back of an auditorium where Puder was speaking There were several Vancouver narks also in the back making snide comments about how Puder was a traitor to the police, and were generally acting like ill-mannered children. Gil was hardly going to be intimidated by superannuated class bullies, but it will not be so easy for others.

I understand that God needs more angels, but I hope that He will at least keep Gil on the beat here in Vancouver, especially reaching out for the souls of his fellow constables.