THE TENTACLES OF CRIME

Politicians were naive if they thought none of the drug money washing
through B.C. would land on their doorstep

The only evident "crime" so far in the investigation that led RCMP to
search two offices in the B.C. legislature is politicians' naivete.

It's no secret that billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs are
grown and sold in British Columbia each year. Forbes magazine
estimates the marijuana crop alone is worth between $4 billion and $7
billion US. Add cocaine, heroin, crystal methamphetamine, ecstasy and
others, and it may be closer to $10 billion.

The B.C. Organized Crime Agency estimates the B.C. marijuana industry
employs as many as 100,000 people, more than work in logging, mining,
and oil and gas combined.

That an illegal crop is such an important part of the provincial
economy is a political failure of huge proportions. It speaks to a
breakdown in the rule of law -- a tenet of democracy on which Canada
has prided itself internationally for upholding and promoting. Yet
here people are. They are growing rich breaking the law, while
politicians refuse to provide either money for enforcement or
enforceable laws.

None of the politicians seems to have thought that with all that drug
money cycling through the B.C. economy, some of it might wash up on
their doorsteps -- with or without their knowledge.

It doesn't seem to have crossed their minds that some day the big
players in one of the province's biggest industries might even try to
exercise some influence.

With politicians musing about decriminalizing or even legalizing
marijuana, it could substantially affect some drug lords' business
plans. Politicians would expect to hear from corporate bosses if
substantial policy changes were made in any other industry.

Clearly, nobody gave much thought to any of this. Had they, the RCMP
might not have been able to get search warrants for the offices of two
ministerial assistants in the legislature, a lobbying firm and a
fundraiser with strong ties to both the federal and provincial
Liberals or had reason to search the home office of the deputy
premier's husband, Mark Marissen, the federal Liberal's campaign
readiness chairman.

The only evidence that politicians have given much attention to B.C.'s
drug problem is Vancouver's four-pillars program. But it primarily
deals with victims rather than victimizers.

Opening North America's first safe injection site in the Downtown
Eastside garnered lots of publicity for politicians last fall. But the
other three pillars remain largely unsupported. There has been no
substantial increase in the number of detoxification and
rehabilitation beds. When police increased enforcement last fall,
politicians mostly ran for cover.

What was everybody thinking? That if we just gave addicts a safe place
to shoot up, the bad guys would go away too?

In the past five years, violent crimes in Canada have increased even
though Ottawa has spent $1 billion forcing honest people to register
their firearms. In Vancouver, there have been more than 20
gang-related murders in five years. Six people -- including innocent
bystanders -- were gunned down in Gastown last summer.

The only possible excuse for B.C. politicians not knowing about
organized crime, drugs and violence is that, safe in the legislature
bubble, they read only the selection of political news that is clipped
and put on their desks every morning.

But that doesn't explain why Gordon Hogg was at the funeral of a
former Hells Angels member, Mervyn Mayes. Hogg's ministry of children
and family development deals first-hand, daily, with the fallout from
drugs, prostitution and violence. It was without irony that Hogg went
on to say Mayes "touched so many lives." Hogg, it seems, didn't
realize how far their paths should have diverged since they played
Little League together.

That many of Canada's gangsters are homegrown should have heightened,
not lessened, the attention politicians pay to the line of people
wanting to immigrate here. Yet, a number of high-profile gangsters and
their families have legally entered Canada because politicians didn't
provide sufficient resources for immigration and police officers to do
extensive background checks.

Those mistakes have been compounded by Ottawa's refusal to conduct a
full inquiry into alleged corruption in the Hong Kong High Commission
or follow up with criminal charges after firing a Syrian employee at
the Canadian embassy in Damascus who tried to get a Canadian visa for
a man suspected of crimes against humanity.

But it's not just the politicians who are naive. Who hasn't wondered
how a stagnant provincial economy can churn out so many people who can
afford fast cars and luxury homes without ever appearing to work? We
are like Mark Twain's innocents abroad except that we are innocents at
home, believing the tour-book descriptions and refusing to see what's
there in front of us.