WHEN STREET GOES TO POT

MPP Wants Law To Shut Criminal Dens

It's hard to love thy neighbour when you live next door to a crack house.

There are no fences high enough to block the noise, garbage and
danger of a drug hangout, brothel or gambling den.

When a house or apartment becomes a home for criminal activities, it
can take months for a team of police officers, city staff and
politicians to shut down the enterprise.

It can be back in business the next day--in the same location or a
block away--and the whole process begins anew.

Toronto Police Det. Sgt. Howie Page said these illicit operations are
more than a nuisance. T hey pose health, fire and safety threats,
attract prostitution and petty crime, destroy property and victimize
other tenants and owners.

"There are crack houses throughout Toronto from Etobicoke to
Scarborough," Page said. "Here in 51 Division, it's a daily if not
hourly concern for us."

As housing prices soar, more drug dealers opt to move their
operations into apartments, where they can ply their trade away from
police eyes. The criminals scare the neighbouring tenants into
silence, or worse.

SENIORS INTIMIDATED

"They will take advantage of senior citizens," Page said. "They
somehow get into their apartment. They intimidate the senior ... they
take over the apartment to deal their drugs from."

The senior is a hostage in the home, never left alone to call the
police until the operation moves on, leaving a ruined apartment
behind, he said.

Sometimes the landlords are willing participants in the activities,
but often times may be unaware, afraid or frustrated by a system that
they feel favours the bad tenant.

Other neighbours may be too frightened of reprisals to come forward to police.

An Ottawa Centre MPP believes there's an easier way to deal with
problem properties.

Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi will be out this summer seeking input and
support for a private member's bill he plans to introduce this fall
to bring SCAN legislation to Ontario.

Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) legislation is already at
work in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Yukon and Saskatchewan.

"The evidence from other provinces is that this type of legislation
is extremely effective," Naqvi said. "We're not targeting
individuals; we're targeting properties."

Naqvi said the enforcement begins with an official letter and ends
with the strongest penalty available under the legislation, a 90-day
order to shut down the property.

Experience in other provinces has shown that the first letter solves
the problem in more than 90% of the cases.

Naqvi has already garnered support from Ottawa, Hamilton, Kingston
and Peterborough and from community groups and the Ottawa Police.

SCAN legislation sets up an enforcement arm that reacts to complaints
about a property. An investigator determines if there is a persistent
problem that endangers or disrupts neighbours and then attempts to
solve it with a warning letter.

The official is available to testify at an eviction hearing for a
tenant, if necessary.

If all else fails, an order can be issued to vacate the property for
up to 90 days.

The complainant need never be identified or testify.

All the attention tends to move the process along pretty quickly, but
a key component of the legislation is that it applies a lower burden
of proof -- civil rather than the more onerous criminal standard that
police must meet.

Naqvi said he will introduce "made in Ontario" legislation and is
still consulting on the details, including which level of government
would be responsible for implementation and whether it would apply to
all properties including public housing.

A spokesman for Attorney General Chris Bentley said he has discussed
the bill with Naqvi and is looking forward to its introduction in the fall.

If the private member's bill were to become a government bill, it
would be more likely to become the law of the land.

Vince Breschia, president of the Federation of Rental Housing
Providers of Ontario, said landlords support SCAN legislation because
they find it a challenge to address these types of problems through
existing legislation in Ontario.

"Sometimes landlords live in fear of the tenants," he said.

Small landlords, in particular, have not always met with success
while trying to evict difficult tenants through the Landlord and
Tenants tribunal, he said.

Breschia said SCAN legislation would provide an independent, official
third party to handle the situation.

SCAN also works when the landlord is part of the problem, as was the
situation in a case in Manitoba where the madam of a brothel also
owned the house, he said.

The legislation is not without detractors, who fear the impact on
vulnerable tenants and civil liberties.

Dan McIntyre, program co-ordinator of the federation of Metro
Tenants' Associations, said they would oppose any "vigilante"
approach that would evict tenants without due process.

"We would be more enthusiastic if there was legislation being brought
forward to license landlords," McIntyre said. "We are now paying the
price for years of neglect of enforcing existing (property standard) laws."

Councillor Paula Fletcher, who represents the Riverdale area, said
any tool that helps the city deal with problem properties is worth a look.

Fletcher said she'll ask city staff to review SCAN legislation to see
if it will work on crack houses in Toronto.

LENGTHY, COSTLY

"The amount of time and effort it takes to close it down is really
quite gruelling," she said. "I know they spent months and months in
my ward on one location and then bang, it opened up down the street."

Proceeds of crime legislation has been used to shut down a crack
house in Hamilton, but the process is lengthy and expensive.

Naqvi said the focus of criminal law remedies is organized crime, not
your garden variety crack house.

The MPP said the law wouldn't be used to deal with the "one-off rowdy
party;" it would apply when a property has become a hub for criminal behaviour.