LET POLICE BREAK LAW TO FIGHT GANGS, SAYS CANADIAN POLL

Canadians want a crackdown on organized crime and overwhelmingly
support officers breaking the law to infiltrate gangs, a new federal
government poll indicates.

The national survey, conducted for the Department of Public Safety,
also reveals that a majority of Canadians believe organized crime is
"as serious" a threat to Canada as terrorism, with seven of 10 wanting
improvements in the federal government's level of effort to combat
it.

A remarkable 48 per cent of Canadians responded that organized crime
had an impact on them personally and identified drug trafficking as
the crime with the highest level of correlation to the criminal
activity. And more than half (54 per cent) agree that members of
motorcycle gangs should be prosecuted based on participation alone,
regardless of whether they have committed a crime.

"The majority of respondents believe that undercover police officers
should be permitted to commit certain crimes to infiltrate gangs -- 40
per cent strongly agree and 35 per cent somewhat agree," said the
survey's executive summary.

But Alan Borovoy, the general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties
Association, wondered if the Conservative government was in the
process of preparing legislation giving police greater powers and was
using the survey to create the need for new laws.

Borovoy warned that the issue is not as black and white as presented
by the survey and that police have sweeping powers to battle crime.

He said the association's position on the issue is nuanced, and it
acknowledges that there are "extreme" situations in which the case can
be made to allow police to break the law.

"In the past, they've argued for these powers at a time when you were
reading in the newspapers about police conducting busts here and busts
there, and busting up that ring and this ring, and you start to
wonder, if they are doing so well with all these powers, where is the
argument for anything new," said Borovoy.

"So they may want to legislate and they have a survey now that demands
that they legislate. This is a marvellous way to run a country."

The executive summary put out by Public Safety Canada with the poll
said it was conducted to "examine public perceptions of the prevalence
of organized crime, the perceived risk of victimization and how
Canadians view efforts to combat organized crime in Canada."

Conducted between March 15 and 29, involving 1,337 telephone
interviews with adults aged 18 and over, the poll has a margin of
error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. It
cost taxpayers $47,650.

The RCMP, which is required by law to disclose annually its
lawbreaking activities, authorized undercover agents to break the law
with immunity from criminal charges 11 times in 2005-06, during
investigations into drug trafficking, counterfeiting, alleged
corruption and tobacco smuggling. The number of cases was up from
seven in 2004-05 and six in 2003-04. All the cases last year were
carried out by civilian agents, who are typically undercover
informants, rather than the police themselves.