Pubdate: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB) Copyright: 2009 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.winnipegsun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503 Author: Ross Romaniuk, Staff Writer CLAIM MADE FOR HOMES Gov't Targets Alleged Grow Op Properties After seven years of trying, Manitoba authorities are finally sending a message that crime doesn't pay. The provincial government is making a claim in court for three properties in south Winnipeg -- homes police suspect had been used as marijuana grow operations by their Vancouver-area owners. And if Manitoba's first effort under the seven-year-old Criminal Property Forfeiture Act is successful, money recovered from a sale of the homes and possibly items on the premises -- perhaps about $1.2 million -- will be handed to victims of the crimes or used to help cops curb illegal activity. "This is our first foray into it," Gord Schumacher, provincial director of criminal property forfeiture, said yesterday of the use of Manitoba's proceeds-of-crime legislation. "There's a longstanding principle in the Canadian legal system that says people shouldn't benefit from unlawful activity." Delay rapped The government has filed statements of claim to try to acquire homes at 4 Beaudry Bay, 94 Beaudry Bay and 31 Northport Bay. The owners have 40 days to file statements of defence, after which a trial would be held. But Conservative justice critic Kelvin Goertzen said it shouldn't have taken the province seven years, since the law was implemented by the governing NDP, to begin working. "We know it's working in other provinces," Goertzen said of the Manitoba law, which is similar to legislation in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. "There's no reason that we shouldn't have had our legislation working a long time ago." Schumacher said the delay has been due to a problem with the law initially "front-loaded on the police," forcing cops to shoulder the burden of initiating the court process. The law has been reworked to give the province the lead role, he said. "The money that we realize from those properties goes ... back to victims or to the police or to remedy the effects of the unlawful activity," Schumacher said. "So it's a really good thing." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr