Pubdate: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Jack Aubry, CanWest News Service CANADIANS CONDONE LAWBREAKING BY UNDERCOVER POLICE, POLL FINDS OTTAWA -- Canadians want a crackdown on organized crime and overwhelmingly support officers breaking the law to infiltrate gangs, a new federal government poll indicates. The national survey, conducted for the Department of Public Safety, also reveals that seven out of 10 Canadians want improvements in the federal government's current level of effort to combat 'organized crime.' 48 per cent of Canadians responded that organized crime had an impact on them personally and identified drug trafficking as the crime with the highest level of correlation to the criminal activity. More than half (54 per cent) say that members of motorcycle gangs should be prosecuted based on participation, regardless of whether they have committed a crime. "The majority of respondents believe that undercover police officers should be permitted to commit certain crimes in order to infiltrate gangs -- 40 per cent strongly agree and 35 per cent somewhat agree," said the survey's executive summary. But Alan Borovoy, the general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, wondered if the Conservative government was in the process of preparing legislation giving police greater powers and was using the survey to create the need for new laws. He warned that the issue is not as black and white as presented by the survey and that police already have sweeping powers to battle crime. Conducted between March 15 and 29, involving 1,337 telephone interviews with adults aged 18 and over, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. It cost taxpayers $47,650. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart