Pubdate: Fri, 13 Oct 2006
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Bruce Owen
Note: * Increase jail time for marijuana growers, including mandatory
minimum sentences where the evidence demonstrates a "significant
commercial-level" operation.

TREAT GANGS LIKE TERRORISTS?

Province Pushing Hard-Core Crackdown

MANITOBA wants to take the lead in cracking down on organized crime 
in Canada by treating gang members more like terrorists than mere 
drug-dealing hoods.

New provincial Justice Minister Dave Chomiak made these and other 
proposals yesterday in Newfoundland where he's meeting with other 
provincial and federal law enforcement officials.

If approved, a gang-world killing would automatically see a 
first-degree murder charge laid and a drive-by shooting would be a 
separate offence in the Criminal Code even when the shooter misses 
the intended victim -- not mischief or careless use of a firearm.

The most controversial proposal is the listing of gangs like the 
Hells Angels as recognized organized crime groups, essentially 
treating them same as Canada treats terrorists groups like al-Qaida 
and Hezbollah.

This change would make it far easier for prosecutors to go after gang 
members under Canada's anti-gangsterism laws instead of having to 
prove in each case a gang like the Hells Angels is a criminal organization.

"It makes absolutely no sense to show the Hells Angels are a criminal 
organization every time one of them is charged," former Manitoba 
deputy attorney general Bruce MacFarlane said yesterday. These and 
other proposals put forward by Chomiak this week -- he was 
unavailable for comment --- are part of a package put together by 
MacFarlane over the past year.

"No other province has tried this before," MacFarlane, now a 
University of Manitoba law professor, said.

MacFarlane said the proposed changes to federal laws are needed to 
stop the violence associated with organized crime and to take away 
their money, mostly made from the sale of drugs. Those profits were 
made glaringly obvious by RCMP yesterday when they put on display 40 
kilograms of high-grade cocaine and 200,000 ecstasy tablets seized 
last week in Headingley.

Mounties estimate the value of the drug haul at $2 million to $5 million.

"The money incentive is so huge," MacFarlane said. "The temptation to 
become involved in organized crime is so great.

"What they don't realize is the extent to which people are destroyed 
as human beings by drugs. It's unimaginable."

RCMP said they don't know if the drugs were destined for Winnipeg 
streets or just passing through to somewhere in Eastern Canada. The 
40 bricks of cocaine and ecstasy tablets were found in the false roof 
lining of a Kenworth truck from British Columbia that had been pulled 
over for speeding. A 46-year-old Vancouver man remains in custody 
charged with drug trafficking.

Sgt. Marc Samson said the seizure -- police have seized a total of 56 
kilos of cocaine in the past six weeks -- is an indication of how 
widespread the drug is in Canada. MacFarlane said another proposal is 
designed to make it less appealing for criminals to grow marijuana.

"Large grow ops are out of control in Canada," he said. "One of the 
reasons is because the penalties are so small."

He said the Doer government has recommended the maximum penalty in 
the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for growing commercial pot 
should be raised to 14 years from seven.

That would show the courts that all previous sentences for pot 
growers -- in many cases a conditional sentence -- are out the 
window, and that offenders must do jail time.

MacFarlane said in the most serious cases, where there is a large 
number of plants being grown and a clear connection to organized 
crime, convicted growers must get a mandatory minimum jail sentence.

He would not specify what such a sentence would be, saying that 
should be left up to lawmakers.

MacFarlane added his proposals were earlier shared with federal 
Justice Minister Vic Toews and have found support in British 
Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

He also said the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police supports 
the proposals.

CACP president and Winnipeg police Chief Jack Ewatski said yesterday 
the CACP supports the proposals but he declined to comment until 
hearing from Chomiak. In a Sept. 28 speech in Sydney, N.S., Ewatski 
said under current laws, police are unable to adequately address the 
serious threat by organized crime to Canada's economy and society.

MacFarlane also said Manitoba wants to revamp Canada's dangerous 
offender legislation to include career gang members.

New Plan of Attack

Here are some of the proposals tabled in Newfoundland by Justice 
Minister Dave Chomiak to get tough on gangsters:

* Make gang killings an automatic first-degree murder charge where 
the accused was an active gang member and where the murder was part 
of the gang's activities.

* Create a new "drive-by shooting" offence, with increased penalties, 
including a minimum term of imprisonment, where the shooter was an 
active participant in a criminal gang.

* Establish "gang-free zones" throughout Canada so that places where 
kids gather (schools, playgrounds and parks) will be free of gang 
activity. Criminal penalties should be increased where offences occur 
within a gang-free zone, including mandatory jail terms in certain situations.

* Make it illegal to recruit for gang membership.

* Expand the dangerous offender provisions to include hard-core gangsters.

* Review whether random searches of offenders on parole and 
conditional sentences involving house detention are feasible in Canada.

* Toughen bail where a gun was used or possessed during the 
commission of an offence.

* Increase jail time for marijuana growers, including mandatory 
minimum sentences where the evidence demonstrates a "significant 
commercial-level" operation.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine