Pubdate: Fri, 21 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
Page: S3

FORFEITURE OFFICE IS A CASH COW: HEED

Former solicitor-general says program has cast too wide a net, is used
to pay for programs the province doesn't want to fund

B.C.'s former solicitor-general says the province's Civil Forfeiture
Office was started with the best of intentions but has cast too wide a
net and become a cash cow tasked with funding crime-prevention
programs the government doesn't want to pay for through other means.

"I'm the first person that will tell you these criminal organizations,
these gangsters who are profiting a fair amount, let's go after them
and I think the public will agree. But you don't cast the net and say
too bad if we catch a few dolphins. It's not right," said Kash Heed,
who as a police officer led Vancouver's fight against gangs. He went
on to become police chief in West Vancouver before entering politics.

Mr. Heed, who was appointed to cabinet in 2009 but has since left
political life, said he did raise concerns about fairness and due
process with the Civil Forfeiture Office's then-director. But he said
the government appeared "hell-bent" on moving forward.

"They went too far at the end of the day. And the reason why they went
too far is they saw it was a profitable approach to dealing with
issues. There were ways that they could, under civil forfeiture, fund
some crime-prevention programs =C2=85 versus it coming out of general
revenue or out of the Solicitor-General's budget," Mr. Heed said.

British Columbia'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 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: $41 million to Ontario's $39-million.

Unlike Ontario, B.C. issues its office budget targets, which have gone
up over the past two years. 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.

Three B.C. Liberal caucus members, the province's Official Opposition
and a former Liberal attorney-general have suggested the Civil
Forfeiture Act should be reviewed. Justice Minister Suzanne Anton,
however, has said a review is unnecessary. (The positions of
attorney-general and solicitor-general were merged in 2012, under the
title of justice minister.)

Of the $41-million the office has brought in, approximately
$11-million has been paid out in grants to community associations and
police. The Justice Ministry could not say how much of the grant money
had gone to community associations and how much to police, but said
about 10 per cent of the funding typically goes to police forces.

For instance, it said in fiscal year 2011-12 approximately $4.5
million went to community associations and $500,000 to police.

Phil Tawtel, the Civil Forfeiture Office's director, wrote in a
briefing note to the Justice Minister last year that crime-prevention
grants are critical for three reasons. Chief among them, he said, is
the fact grants "generate positive feedback from the police and
community associations which see the immediate benefit to both their
community and to their departments."

The value of the grants, particularly those handed out to community
associations, is not in dispute. A spokesman for MOSAIC, a non-profit
organization that assists immigrants and refugees, earlier told The
Globe the group would not have been able to release a pamphlet aimed
at vulnerable temporary foreign workers without such a grant.

Some civil forfeiture opponents have suggested giving grants to police
amounts to for-profit policing.

A Justice Ministry spokesman noted proceeds from one police
department's investigation cannot go back to that jurisdiction.

The B.C. Court of Appeal is expected to rule on a civil forfeiture
case Friday. It involves David Lloydsmith, a Mission resident whose
home was subjected to a warrantless RCMP search in 2007. Mounties
discovered marijuana plants in Mr. Lloydsmith's basement. The Civil
Forfeiture Office is attempting to seize the home, despite the fact a
judge earlier ruled the police search violated Mr. Lloydsmith's
Charter rights.
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