NEW POLICE TASK FORCE TO BATTLE INDO-CANADIAN GANG VIOLENCE

RCMP-Led Team To Target Gangs And Probe Unsolved Killings

A new integrated police task force to tackle Indo-Canadian gang
violence and investigate dozens of unsolved murders will be formed
over the next month, Solicitor-General Rich Coleman said Thursday.

Coleman told The Vancouver Sun the task force will maintain all the
files from unsolved Lower Mainland homicides linked to Indo-Canadian
gang violence. It will have designated resources and be under the
control of the RCMP, he said.

"I would think in the next month we would have the identification of
the person who was going to be the liaison to the task force," Coleman
said.

More than 70 young Indo-Canadian men have been murdered since 1990 in
a spree of violence believed to be related to the lucrative illegal
drug trade and other organized crime ventures. Most of the cases
remain unsolved and police have often complained of a lack of
cooperation from within the Indo-Canadian community.

A regional Indo-Canadian Gang Violence Task Force, consisting of
investigators from the RCMP and several municipal forces was in
operation from late 2002 until early 2004, but was disbanded after
investigative leads dried up, Coleman said.

Dozens of outstanding cases remained under investigation by the
Integrated Homicide Investigations Team or individual municipal police
forces which retained jurisdiction.

But the killings continued even after the task force was dissolved,
leading to continuing criticism from Indo-Canadian community leaders
who believed a Lower Mainland-wide task force needed to be
reinstituted.

Coleman said he agreed with the community leaders when he met with
them last June, but that it has taken time to work out details of the
task force.

"That's been the goal all along. The challenge is to do it with police
and have them structure it in a way that will be the most efficient,"
Coleman said. "Our goal is to solve murders."

Coleman said the new task force will have someone coordinating all the
files from across the region.

"At the same time, as you see the tentacles of investigations go out,
you need local police force, you need local major crime units to do
some investigating. That's what we found on Project Even-Handed, which
was the missing women's task force," he said, referring to the massive
investigation involving the disappearance of 68 women from Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside. Murder charges have been laid against Robert Picton
in 15 of those cases.

Coleman said it is unfortunate that there has been such a
disproportionate number of violent gang-related deaths in the
Indo-Canadian community in recent years.

"I wish the community was a bit more forthcoming with information," he
said.

Police forces received word about the new task force on
Thursday.

RCMP Sgt. John Ward said details about the structure of the new task
force will have to be worked out in the coming weeks.

"It is his prerogative to set priorities for us," Ward said of
Coleman. "But what we have to do now is look at what that is going to
look like . . . . There is going to have to be a lot of discussion
that needs to take place."

Ward said the RCMP will talk to the other municipal police forces who
were involved in the Indo-Canadian gang task force before.

He also said that intelligence-sharing between police forces on the
Indo-Canadian gang violence has continued throughout the period that
the task force was disbanded.

In the meantime, the Vancouver Police Department formed its own
Indo-Canadian Gang Task Force last May.

VPD media liaison officer, Const. Sarah Bloor, said it is too soon to
know the shape and form of the new regional task force.

"We are not sure at this point what the make-up of the team will look
like, what the investigation team will look like. But we are
supportive to be involved and hopefully solve the homicides as well as
reduce the violence in the community," she said.

"Anything to help solve the homicides of over 50 people is productive.
I think this is also about building relationships and trying to find
proactive measures to resolve some issues that exist within the community."

Indo-Canadian community groups, who lobbied for the regional task
force, were pleased over the sudden development.

Amar Randhawa, with the anti-violence youth group UNITED, said a
coalition called the Sikhs Societies of the Lower Mainland had been
lobbying for months to get the commitment.

"We think it is a very important tool in combatting this plague of
violence that is rocking our community," said Randhawa. "We've been
working hard to push the government to enact this task force."

Ross Street Sikh temple president Jarnail Singh Bhandal said the move
is good news. "We really appreciate that and we will work closely with
the task force," Bhandal said. "I will request the community to
cooperate with the task force so we can stop this kind of violence."