ROUGH RIDE FOR JUSTICE

HIGH COST OF FIGHTING GANGS

WINNIPEG -- Fighting gangs isn't cheap.

It cost $5.4 million in legal fees and $3.5 million for a new courthouse to
take on the Manitoba Warriors.

The trial also sparked calls to streamline anti-gang law procedures and
widen the Criminal Code's net to catch gangsters.

"But to say all this is too expensive and not worth the trouble is to miss
the point entirely. Organized crime affects the quality of life of every
citizen," said RCMP Cpl. Gil Lafreniere, an outlaw biker expert.

"Your taxes go up when you have to pay for the care of a child that has OD'd
on outlaw biker drugs," he said. "Your taxes go up when they have to build
prisons to keep bikers segregated.

"And your taxes go up when you have pay for the intensive investigation and
prosecution to convict organized criminals," he said.

"The more people become aware of this, the less they will be willing to put
up with it."

Legal proceedings against the Warriors began after the November 1998 arrests
of 35 aboriginal members in Operation Northern Snow. The plan was to try the
accused jointly as a test of the 1997 anti-gang legislation, but the case
was mired in pre-trial wranglings as the ranks of defendants thinned with
guilty pleas.

The main players among the Warriors pleading guilty to conspiring to traffic
in cocaine in exchange for the Crown dropping charges of participating in a
criminal organization.

Despite that, authorities say the trial was a success as 19 of the accused
were convicted on the most serious offences and more than 150 years in
prison time was handed down.

"But we did find C-95 cumbersome and difficult to work with," said Rob
Finlayson, Manitoba's assistant deputy attorney general. "Parts seemed
needlessly time-consuming and expensive. It needs a little bit of
streamlining. There must be a better way to do this without knocking down
the rights of the accused."

Manitoba Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh said the province "has officially
gone to Ottawa to help forge the wording of a new anti-gang law. Our
prosecutors gained a lot of experience in the Warrior trial and we expect
that it will be used to help design the new law."

The Code needs to add or amend laws on recruitment, the promotion and
maintenance of a criminal organization, the use of intimidation and proceeds
of crime, said Mackintosh.

"If anyone says there is one answer to fighting organized crime, they are
not giving the straight goods," he said. "An effective attack must be
comprehensive and multi-faceted."