SASK. GANGS MORE VIOLENT

Street gangs are increasingly becoming more violent and while most of that
violence is directed between rival gang members, innocent bystanders have
been caught in the middle, said Bob Bazin, director of Criminal
Intelligence Service Saskatchewan.

"The cost of organized crime on the economy and the social, economic and
health costs associated with the illicit drug trade is a huge drain on
society," said Bazin, calling on Saskatchewan residents to take a
pro-active role in the agency's efforts to stymie gang and organized
criminal activity in the province.

"Street gangs have been around Saskatchewan for about 10 years. The problem
on the Prairies is somewhat unique because most of our street gangs are
primarily aboriginal youth, although we are seeing a mixture of both --
street gangs and criminal organizations (Hells Angels and Asian-based
organizations) here," Bazin said.

"We are no different than some of the larger cities like Montreal and
Toronto where we are seeing a growth in the street gang populations and
some of their activities," he said.

In Saskatchewan, the primary aboriginal-based gangs are the Native
Syndicate in Regina and the Indian Posse in Saskatoon, but gang activity
has also been seen in Prince Albert, North Battleford and Yorkton, as well
as in some of the smaller urban centres and on reserves, Bazin said.

The Hells Angels have also moved into Saskatchewan, which is cause for
concern, he said.

Nationally, Bazin said, the Criminal Intelligence Service is seeing a trend
where organized crime gangs, such as the Hells Angels, are using aboriginal
street gangs and younger gang members as their workforce to collect debts
and act as enforcers, threatening and intimidating the competition in the
drug trade and anyone who might come forth and testify against the
organization or its members, he said.

"If you look at the crime trends there is a lot of violence going on right
now, especially with street gangs. They are not afraid to use violence to
support their means. What we are really seeing a lot of in Saskatchewan,
especially with street gangs, is the intimidation of witnesses to reduce
the number of people willing to step forward to testify against them or
file complaints against them," Bazin said.

Efforts to fight street gangs and organized criminal activity must start at
the ground level through public education for our young people about the
pitfalls of joining a gang, and to ensure parents, schools, social agencies
and the communities work pro-actively with police enforcement agents to
detect, reduce and prevent organized and serious crime in Canada, Bazin said.

Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) Vice-Chief Lawrence Joseph
said the federation has adopted a number of pro-active strategies and
programs to discourage young people from joining gangs in response to their
own study that found gang activity was a strong and emerging problem on
reserves and in our cities.

"Our focus was not on busting up the gangs, but on gang-proofing our young
people and communities. We wanted to offer young people healthy
alternatives to gang activity and to teach parents what signs to look out
for if they suspected their child might be involved in gang activity," he said.

While there is no hard evidence to prove the program is working, it was
well received, Joseph said. "If we were able to save one youngster from
joining a gang then the program was a success," he said.