Pubdate: Wed, 09 Mar 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Page: A4

FAILING GRADE LATEST BLOT ON CONTROVERSIAL FORFEITURE LAW

Other priorities: Questions remain whether enough proceeds from 
seized ill-gotten gains go to victims of crimes

Critics can cuss all they want about B.C.'s civil forfeiture law, but 
for the government it continues to be a cash cow. Faced with another 
report slamming the transparency and the fairness of the legislation, 
Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Morris boasts it 
allowed Victoria to rake in $63.2 million in 10 years - and give some 
to good causes.

"B.C. created the hugely successful Civil Forfeiture Act to ensure 
offenders cannot profit from unlawful activity, by taking away the 
tools and proceeds of crime," the former Mountie enthused, riding 
roughshod over the fact you don't have to be an "offender" or even 
charged to face the loss of your property.

And even a miser, in my opinion, might think not enough of the money 
is going to victims.

The Alberta-based Canadian Constitution Foundation, a nonprofit lobby 
group, and the Institute for Liberal Studies gave the province an "F" 
for its aggressive use of the law in the recent report.

Ontario, the first province to adopt civil forfeiture in 2001, and 
Manitoba also got Fs.

A slight document, the survey of jurisdictions using such laws in 
Canada does little more than reiterate the concerns of civil 
libertarians and some judges about this U.S. approach to reducing 
government policing and crime costs. The tactic is controversial 
because it uses the civil law to create a double jeopardy - the 
criminal code already allows judges to confiscate the proceeds of crime.

The B.C. law, too, can force citizens who may never have been charged 
or implicated into expensive litigation pitted against the resources 
of government - an unfair and overwhelming power imbalance. And it is 
applied capriciously. What bugs me is these laws were sold as tools 
for robbing rich masterminds of ill-gotten gains while providing 
support for victims of crime.

Really? Those particular goals seem to have taken a back seat to 
other priorities.

In fact, it wasn't until 2012 when criticism erupted over an 
embarrassing case that the government actually began channelling much 
money at all toward victims.

In that case, the B.C. Court of Appeal scolded Victoria for being 
abusive - seizing a 51-year-old man's $52,000 Dodge Ram over an 
insignificant amount of marijuana.

Justice Mary Newbury worried the law did not even require the 
province to persuade a judge that forfeiture will serve all or even 
some of its statutory objectives - only that the property is tainted 
by "unlawful activity."

Consider the numbers over the years for yourself.

Legal costs and grants represent about one-third of all disbursements 
made, according to the ministry.

For the first six years of the regime, 2006-2012, Victoria collected 
$23.5 million, awarding $8.8 million in grants to police and other 
organizational players.

Legal costs were $7.4 million. Victims received $527,000 in total for 
the first six years. The office itself cost about $665,000 annually 
for salaries and overhead.

Since 2012, the province has raked in roughly another $40 million. Of 
that, $13.2 million has gone for crime-prevention and victim programs 
- - what most of us would call policing and victim services.

Since 2011, as well, the province has redirected $1.7 million "to 
address" human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

And $1.5 million recovered in specific fraud cases over the last 
decade also was returned to the victims, the minister noted.

The Civil Forfeiture Office employs lawyers from both the Legal 
Services Branch of the Ministry of Justice and from private firms.

Lawyers from the Legal Services Branch are paid on an hourly basis 
and lawyers from private firms are typically compensated at an hourly 
rate. However, in a minority of cases these lawyers have been paid on 
a contingency basis.

Much of this cash being collected is replacing money the government 
should already be budgeting for items such as funding the Missing 
Women Commission of Inquiry recommendations and police training and 
equipment. Keep in mind, though, that Morris maintains: "Overall in 
B.C., more than $70 million annually has been targeted for services 
that assist victims of crime and women and children impacted by violence."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom