SQUEALING ON THE DEALERS

Chief's New Drug Strategy 'Two-Faced,' Critic Says

Ottawa police Chief Vern White says drug dealers should not receive
government welfare and should be charged with fraud if they fail to
report income from their crack sales.

"Our drug dealers are not in need of social assistance," Chief White
told the Citizen in an interview yesterday.

His comments follow his decision to turn over more than 100 names of
accused drug dealers -- arrested during two large undercover
operations -- to provincial welfare officials.

The chief wants dealers investigated for fraud and cut off from
assistance when their incomes disqualify them.

But the president of an association of Ottawa defence lawyers called
the chief's strategy "two-faced," and accuses the department of
turning a "blind eye" to welfare fraud committed by their own drug
informants.

"If the police are acting like it is some sort of noble act on their
part, it's nonsense," said Mark Ertel, president of the Defence
Counsel Association of Ottawa.

Mr. Ertel believes police now will use the threat of reporting accused
drug dealers to welfare officials as leverage to force them to co-operate.

"You have a choice now. You can either become an informant for the
Ottawa police or you can be reported for committing welfare fraud,"
said Mr. Ertel.

"It's disgraceful because there is a double standard there." Chief
White called Mr. Ertel's allegations "ridiculous." "It's absolutely
wrong," he said.

"Our focus here, first of all, is to stop people from dealing drugs,
but secondly to ensure social assistance is provided to people for the
right reasons and not for those people who continue to sell drugs and
lie about their income," said Chief White.

"Regardless of how we recruit informants, we will not allow drug
dealers to act with impunity (if they're) working with us as well." In
the past, Ottawa police would occasionally informally report
individuals to welfare officials when necessary.

Chief White said he adopted the new strategy, however, after
participating in a drug arrest with the street crime team where the
accused admitted to officers he was on social assistance and dealing
drugs.

The more than 100 people referred to provincial officials were
arrested and charged with drug trafficking and other offenses during a
pair of sweeps targeting street-level drug dealers. In total, 112
people were charged following the operations by the Ottawa police
street crime unit.

Chief White could not say how many of the people referred to social
assistance officials were actually receiving welfare or how many are
now under investigation.

The Ministry of Community and Social Services, which oversees social
assistance in Ontario, would not comment on the Ottawa cases yesterday.

However, ministry spokeswoman Anne Machowski said in an e-mailed
statement that all fraud allegations are referred to the appropriate
Ontario Works office for assessment and investigation.

An eligibility review officer from the office will then verify if any
new information received is relevant to eligibility, she said.
Ultimately, police decide if it is appropriate to lay charges, and the
Crown attorney's office decides whether to prosecute.

The number of people convicted for social assistance fraud in Ontario
is very low, however. According to Ms. Machowski, only 65 people were
criminally convicted for welfare fraud between 2006 and 2007.

There were no statistics on how many people were removed from social
assistance, but not criminally prosecuted.

The Ottawa police strategy draws from the playbook that the U.S.
federal government used in prosecuting notorious Chicago gangster Al
Capone, who was jailed for tax evasion for failing to report income
from his criminal enterprises.

Chief White said he thinks the government should, similarly, consider
prosecuting drug dealers for failing to declare their drug incomes
under federal tax laws.

Chief White estimates many street-level dealers can earn at least a
couple of hundred dollars a day from their drug trafficking.

"A number of them will buy drugs in a larger quantity and then chop
it. You can buy $200 from a larger dealer that you can sell for $450
to $500," said Chief White.

But Mr. Ertel contended that many of the street-level drug dealers the
chief plans to target are also drug users.

Prosecuting them for fraud and cutting off their welfare will only
make the drug dealing worse, he said.

"The less money that these people have available to them to support
their habit, the more crimes they are going to commit," said Mr.
Ertel. "Their habit doesn't go away because they don't have money.
That's why most of them are selling crack in the first place." Mr.
Ertel said trying to have low-level drug dealers removed from social
assistance "just doesn't seem constructive." "They are going to break
into your car, instead of using welfare, and they are going to use
what they got breaking into your car to buy crack," he said.

Chief White said drug dealers are committing crimes
already.

"Stay on social assistance, we won't bug you. Sell crack cocaine, make
money and collect social assistance, we'll bug you," he said.

"Anybody who suggests that our job is not to combat every crime and
combat every criminal involved in every crime, then they are idiots,"
said Chief White. "We pursue these folks in every possible way using
every tool we have, and this is one of those tools."