OTTAWA TO USE CAUTION ON BIKER LAWS

STE-FOY, Que. (CP) -- The federal government would proceed cautiously
before toughening legislation to deal with criminal biker gangs,
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said yesterday.

"We must not rush things in a way that would be counter-productive because
of a knee-jerk reaction," Dion said.

The Quebec and Ontario governments have called for stricter laws since the
shooting Wednesday of Montreal crime reporter Michel Auger, an expert on
biker gangs. The Journal de Montreal reporter's expose on a rash of
killings in the criminal underworld appeared the day before he was shot
five times in the back by an unknown assailant in the newspaper's parking
lot. He was slated to leave a Montreal hospital's intensive care today.

Quebec Public Security Minister Serge Menard has said police and
prosecutors need wider powers to stop a bloody biker war over control of
the drug trade. Menard has suggested that such powers should include
invoking the Constitution's notwithstanding clause to make it illegal to
belong to criminal groups. Bikers and their associates would be subjected
to property seizures and prison sentences.

However, Dion said the federal government would prefer to find another
solution.

"The notwithstanding clause is a last resort to be used only in the most
extreme cases," he told reporters at a gathering of the Liberal party's
youth wing in Ste-Foy, a Quebec city suburb. "We will look at other
scenarios before we arrive there."

Dion said Justice Minister Anne McLellan is examining the provinces' demands.

The battle between the Hells Angels and Rock Machine gangs is blamed for
about 150 deaths in Quebec since 1994. Some have been innocent victims,
including 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers who was hit by shrapnel from a car
bomb five years ago.