Pubdate: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2007 Calgary Herald Contact: http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Author: Jack Aubry, CanWest News Service Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police) LET POLICE BREAK LAW TO FIGHT GANGS, SAYS CANADIAN POLL 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 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 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. Borovoy warned that the issue is not as black and white as presented by the survey and that police have sweeping powers to battle crime. 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. It cost taxpayers $47,650. The RCMP, which is required by law to disclose annually its lawbreaking activities, 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 and tobacco smuggling. The number of cases was up from seven in 2004-05 and six in 2003-04. All the cases last year were carried out by civilian agents, who are typically undercover informants, rather than the police themselves. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake