Pubdate: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2007 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Jack Aubry, CanWest News Service Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police) LAW-BREAKING BY POLICE OK TO FIGHT CRIME: POLL Majority Believe Officers Need This Power to Infiltrate Gangs, but Civil Rights Group Is Not So Sure 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 a majority of Canadians believe organized crime is "as serious" a threat to Canada as terrorism, with seven of 10 wanting improvements in the federal government's current level of effort to combat it. A remarkable 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. And more than half (54 per cent) agree that members of motorcycle gangs should be prosecuted based on participation alone, 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 were in the process of preparing legislation giving police greater powers and was using the survey to create the need for new laws. He said the association's position on the issue is nuanced, and it acknowledges that there are "extreme" situations in which the case can be made to allow police to break the law. "In the past, they've argued for these powers at a time when you were reading in the newspapers about police conducting busts here and busts there, and busting up that ring and this ring, and you start to wonder, if they are doing so well with all these powers, where is the argument for anything new," said Borovoy. "So they may want to legislate and they have a survey now that demands that they legislate. This is a marvellous way to run a country." The executive summary put out by Public Safety Canada with the poll said it was conducted to "examine public perceptions of the prevalence of organized crime, the perceived risk of victimization and how Canadians view efforts to combat organized crime in Canada." 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. The RCMP authorized undercover agents to break the law with immunity from criminal charges 11 times in 2005-06, during investigations into drug trafficking, counterfeiting, alleged corruption of public officials and tobacco smuggling. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake