Pubdate: Wed, 29 Jan 2014
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Sunny Dhillon

CASH BACK: SEIZURE OF RARE COINS PUTS CIVIL FORFEITURE ON
TRIAL

Bill Pundick is proud of his currency collection. The pensioner has
been acquiring rare coins and bills since the mid-1950s.

The collection, worth $9,251, was seized as part of an action against
a grow-op, though Mr. Pundick was never charged with a crime and did
not own the land the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office confiscated. It took
18 months, and a ruling from the B.C. Supreme Court, before he got his
collection back.

"They took a lot of loot off me, eh? I was glad to get it back. I was
wondering if it was going to happen," Mr. Pundick said in an interview.

Mr. Pundick's case highlights the growing controversy around the
practice of civil forfeiture, a process governments in Canada are
increasingly turning to in an effort to recover the proceeds of
alleged crimes. But as these offices grow around the country, critics
are claiming due process is getting short shrift.

B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Office was created in 2006 to fight organized
crime, but a months-long Globe and Mail investigation has found it now
has a wider reach and is facing questions about fairness, public
interest and transparency. British Columbia has been among the most
aggressive of the provinces in pursuing property and cash in this way.
Although it launched three years after Ontario, B.C. has hauled in
$2-million more: $41-million to Ontario's $39-million.

Unlike Ontario, British Columbia issues its office budget targets,
which have gone up over the past two years. And B.C. was the first
province to introduce a process known as administrative forfeiture,
which makes it quicker and easier to seize property worth less than
$75,000. Alberta and Manitoba have since introduced similar programs.

Modern civil-forfeiture laws evolved in the United States in the 1970s
and were first aimed at denying drug lords the proceeds of their
crimes. Ontario was the first in Canada to enact such a law, in 2003.
Today, eight provinces have civil-forfeiture offices.

The Globe spoke with defendants and lawyers and combed through court
files to learn that the office often proceeds against people who
police decided not to charge criminally. One case involves a man who
is in danger of losing his house after an unlawful search. Another
involves landlords who are threatened with losing their properties
after unwittingly renting to a tenant who grew marijuana.

Wally Oppal, a former judge and once B.C.'s attorney-general, has said
he would support a review of the province's legislation and the
opposition has said it plans to raise the issue in the coming session
of the legislature.

Mr. Pundick's money collection was seized in February, 2012, in the
south eastern B.C. community of Appledale. It was found on a property
on which marijuana plants had also been discovered. Mr. Pundick did
not own the property, nor live in the main house, which was also
seized. He lived in a separate cabin.

Court documents show the office argued the collection was the product
of unlawful activity, and that approximately 150 grams of marijuana
were also found inside the cabin.

Mr. Pundick, 72, was arrested after the police bust, but never
charged. He said he was living in the cabin, having worked out an
agreement to provide labour in lieu of rent. The money, he argued, was
clearly part of a lawful collection and pointed to catalogues he'd
kept to evaluate the value of his coins and bills.

"I was so frustrated that I was just ready to give up," he
said.

But he fought on, and in June, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline
Dorgan ruled in Mr. Pundick's favour, though the case against the
homeowner is ongoing.

The judge said this was "not a case where wads of tens or twenties or
fifties are rolled up and bound by elastic bands."

Mr. Pundick's lawyer in the case is Blair Suffredine, a former member
of the B.C. Liberal government.

Mr. Suffredine said recently the office's conduct in the few
civil-forfeiture cases he's handled amounts to "bullying." He said the
office tries to stretch out a case and make it so expensive, the
defendant has to settle.

Premier Christy Clark earlier this week said she's proud of the work
the office has done.

The constitutionality of the B.C. law is currently being challenged by
the Hells Angels, who have hired prominent B.C. constitutional lawyer
Joe Arvay.

"If it takes the Hells Angels to demonstrate that the government has
acted unconstitutionally, well then good for the Hells Angels," he
said.
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