Pubdate: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2006, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Shannon Kari Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers) BIKER LAUNCHES LAWSUIT Hell's Angel Says He Is Harassed VANCOUVER -- The president of the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels says he has been harassed by police, shunned at his local supermarket and unfairly searched at an airport since an Ontario judge found the group to be a criminal organization. Rickey Ciarniello says his security and liberty interests under the Charter of Rights have been violated and he is asking a B.C. Supreme Court judge to find the anti-gang provisions of the Criminal Code unconstitutional. A hearing in B.C. Supreme Court to determine whether he can challenge the provisions began yesterday before Mr. Justice William Ehrcke. "The effect of the Ontario judgment is to declare me a member of a criminal organization, notwithstanding that I have never engaged in the promotion of criminal conduct," Mr. Ciarniello says in an affidavit filed in court. Ontario Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst ruled in June, 2005, that the Hells Angels fit the definition of a criminal organization under the Criminal Code, in an extortion trial involving the sale of satellite television programming cards. It was the first case in Canada to determine the constitutionality of organized-crime laws that came into effect in 2001. The provisions carry stiffer penalties and define a criminal organization as a group of three or more persons, "however organized," that has the commission of serious offences as one of its main purposes. In B.C., the Hells Angels were subject to a multimillion-dollar RCMP investigation that led to criminal charges being filed last year against six alleged full-patch members and 12 alleged associates. Mr. Ciarniello is not facing any charges and his only criminal conviction was in 1971 for a minor weapons offence. But he alleges that since the Ontario ruling was released, he has been stopped regularly by police in the Lower Mainland. "I have asked why I have been stopped and have been advised in each and every instance it was because of my membership in the Hells Angels," the affidavit says. People at the grocery store where Mr. Ciarniello has shopped for 20 years are no longer friendly and the attitude is the same at his local gas station. The long-time B.C. spokesman for the Hells Angels says he has declined media requests for comment as a result of the Ontario ruling. "I am much more guarded because of my concern that I may be charged with participating in the activities of a criminal organization." Lawyers for the attorneys-general of Canada and British Columbia both argued yesterday in court that Mr. Ciarniello has no legal right to challenge anti-gang provisions because he is not facing criminal charges. "There is no government or state action that engages Mr. Ciarniello's constitutionally protected rights," Justice Department lawyer Paul Riley said. The federal prosecutor suggested that Mr. Ciarniello's complaints are part of the "war of public opinion" involving the Hells Angels, but not an issue for the criminal justice system. Mr. Ciarniello is not prevented from "wearing his colours in public or continuing his association with the Hells Angels," provincial Crown Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten said. Any discomfort he may encounter as a member of the Hells Angels is not a violation of his Charter rights, she said. Mr. Ciarniello has retained prominent Toronto defence lawyer Alan Gold, who is to begin his arguments today. Judge Fuerst's ruling has been appealed, and the federal Justice Department is appealing a B.C. court decision that struck down a section of the criminal organization laws because it was too broad. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman