CHINESE MIGRANTS' CHARGES DROPPED

Workers Didn't Realize Crop Was Marijuana

Manitoba justice officials have dropped charges against nearly two
dozen Chinese migrants found working in a massive marijuana grow operation.

The decision not to proceed comes after a judge ruled last fall that
five co-accused were innocent dupes manipulated into the criminal
enterprise and should not be held responsible for the illegal
activity they participated in.

Queen's Bench Justice Deborah McCawley found them not guilty on
multiple drug offences in a decision that prompted the Crown to
re-examine the rest of its case.

Federal prosecutor Paul Jensen said Monday they were unlikely to
secure convictions given McCawley's ruling, which was not appealed.

"We took that as a basis for not proceeding," he said.

The case made national headlines following an extensive undercover
RCMP investigation that yielded $19 million worth of pot in the fall of 2005.

Police found 25 men and three women sleeping side-by-side and
head-to-toe in every room of a tiny, 700-square-foot house in
Sundown, Man., which is about 140 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

More than 10,000 mature pot plants were thriving in four sprawling
greenhouses sitting on the same rural farm property, which was hidden
from the public by a thick curtain of trees.

"They became the unwitting dupes of unscrupulous advantage-takers,"
McCawley said in handing down what would become a precedent-setting decision.

"Contrary to the Crown's implicit argument that their actions were
motivated by greed, opportunism and a willingness to ignore or break
the law, their actions were borne of ignorance, unearned trust and a
desire to better their lives."

The suspects had all been recruited in Toronto's Chinatown district
and offered up to $300 a day to work on the "fall harvest," court was told.

The five on trial testified in their own defence and told court they
didn't realize the crop they were working on was marijuana. Some
believed it was a fruit or vegetable, while one man thought it was
"Chinese medicinal herbs."

Defence lawyer Mike Cook said none of his clients had ever seen a pot
plant before.

Crown attorney Anne Turner had argued the accused must have realized
what they were doing was illegal and that the financial offers were
"too good to be true." She said allowing them to walk free would send
the wrong message.

"These accused are here asking to be held to a standard lower than
any other Canadian citizen," Turner said during her closing arguments.

McCawley said she couldn't ignore the obvious cultural issues in this case.

"To make such a finding (that they knew what they were getting into)
would be to impose a cultural understanding on these individuals
which is not within their life experience and which in some instances
is beyond their comprehension," she said.

"Unworldly, vulnerable and living near or below the poverty line, it
is not difficult to understand how each of them could be easily
enticed by the possibility of making more money."

Only three of the original 28 accused now remain before the courts.
They are accused of playing a more prominent role in the operation
and didn't have their charges stayed.

Khyong Wong, the alleged mastermind behind the grow operation, has
avoided prosecution by somehow slipping out of Canada while the
subject of an undercover police investigation.

He is being sought on a Canada-wide warrant. His most recent address
was in Burnaby, B.C., but justice sources say he has likely returned
to his native Hong Kong.

Wong, 43, has lived in various provinces including B.C., Manitoba and
Ontario, but would probably not face extradition even if caught
because he is a Chinese national.