Pubdate: Mon, 03 Feb 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

AS SEIZURES MULTIPLY, CONCERN MOUNTS OVER POLICE DISCRETION

Major police forces throughout British Columbia say they have no set 
procedures for deciding when to recommend that the province's Civil 
Forfeiture Office move to seize property, even as the number of cases swell.

Police say they can choose any case they believe to involve illegal 
activity to send on to B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Office, although that 
belief is often never tested in court, and only significant cases are 
forwarded.

Interviews with representatives of several police forces show that 
while the Civil Forfeiture Office has publicly available grounds it 
must consider before accepting a referral, there are no equivalent 
criteria for police.

Sergeant Lindsey Houghton, a spokesperson for B.C.'s Combined Forces 
Special Enforcement Unit, the province's anti-gang task force, said 
there is no defined policy on what makes a case fit for forfeiture. 
Sgt. Houghton said his department only forwards cases with links to 
drugs or organized crime, since investigating such people is its 
mandate. "Each case is independent of any other case. There's an 
infinite number of variables," he said in an interview.

Even defence lawyers who represent people who've had property seized 
say it can be difficult to tell why police refer a particular case. 
"In terms of what criteria they use, it's really very difficult to 
know," said Jay Solomon, a Vancouver lawyer who has worked on 
civil-forfeiture cases. "... It seems to me ad hoc because I come 
across some cases where I'm surprised that the police have not 
referred the case to civil forfeiture, and vice versa."

An information-sharing agreement between the office and B.C.'s 
various police departments, released through freedom of information 
requests, lays out any number of details on the minutiae of the 
process, including security procedures, but it is silent on what it 
is that makes a file suitable for referral, noting that the 
civil-forfeiture director has the authority to pursue any proceeds or 
instruments of unlawful activity. Justice Minister Suzanne Anton has 
said the term "unlawful activity" covers a wide range of offences.

The Civil Forfeiture Office cannot investigate cases on its own and 
instead relies on referrals from law enforcement. Policy documents 
released through freedom of information show the office's director 
must assess a file on four grounds before accepting: public interest, 
strength and adequacy of evidence, fiscal considerations, and 
interests of justice. Exactly what makes a case of public interest, 
or how strong the evidence has to be, is not made clear.

The 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 questions have been raised about fairness, public interest 
and transparency.

Eight of 10 provinces have civil-forfeiture programs, but B.C. has 
been among the most aggressive in pursuing property and cash. 
Although it launched three years after Ontario, the B.C. office has 
collected $2-million more: $41million to Ontario's $39-million.

Unlike Ontario, B.C. 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 also introduced administrative 
forfeiture programs. The referral process can be especially important 
in administrative forfeiture cases since the evidence is less likely 
to be tested in court.

In B.C., about 99 per cent of the people the office targets settle on 
terms favourable to the office; in Ontario, the equivalent proportion 
is 47 per cent.

Of the approximately 1,900 files that have been referred to the B.C. 
office since its inception, the Ministry of Justice said 1,220 have 
come from the RCMP. An RCMP spokesman at the Lower Mainland's "E" 
Division headquarters declined to answer questions about the 
civil-forfeiture referral process.

Separately, RCMP Inspector Richard Konarski, who stressed he could 
only speak for his Mission, B.C., detachment, said officers don't set 
out to open civil-forfeiture cases and criteria for what makes one 
suitable can vary.

"Really, for me, all I know is if it's a legal tool that I can use 
then I'd be foolish not to make use of it," Insp. Konarski said. "[I] 
don't wake up in the morning, rub my hands and say, 'Hey, civil 
forfeiture, who should we take stuff from today?'"

The ministry said CFSEU, the anti-gang task force, has forwarded 21 
files to the Civil Forfeiture Office since the office's inception. 
The Vancouver Police Department has referred 85 cases and its 
spokesman, Sergeant Randy Fincham, also said the criteria can vary, 
and there is not a specific checklist that needs to be met.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom