FIGHT AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME

MPs Meet In Secret In Vancouver

MPs on a federal committee holding top-secret hearings into organized crime
in Vancouver have been ordered to clam up after one of them disclosed that
some committee members asked for police protection for their families.

The committee is so secret it will not reveal even the whereabouts of its
hearings or the names of its members. It was revealed Friday the committee
had already begun its hearings, with meetings in Vancouver, before the
Commons resumes on Monday.

At least one MP on the committee also told the Toronto Sun newspaper
details about extra security measures in place for hearings.

The apparent gangland shooting of a Montreal crime reporter this week
spurred Quebec MPs, already under RCMP protection themselves at the
committee hearings, into asking that security measures be extended to their
families, one of the MPs was reported as saying.

"We're under a gag order," B.C. Canadian Alliance MP Germant Grewal, a
member of the committee, said Friday in explaining why he could not comment
on security measures, testimony at the hearings or the witnesses.

Grewal said, however, he intends to openly discuss the topic of organized
crime despite a request from the Liberal MP chairing the committee, Paul
DeVillers, that members cease speaking to the media.

"I'm a Member of Parliament, I represent my constituents and I have to talk
about organized crime if I deem it necessary.

"As far as the security issue is concerned, it's not the journalists, it's
not the Members of Parliament or the members of the committee whose
security is at stake, it's every single Canadian whose security is at stake."

Alliance immigration critic Leon Benoit told The Vancouver Sun that he was
asked to sit on the committee but decided not to be a representative.

"I do not think anyone working for their constituents should be under a gag
order," Benoit said. "It's not right to do things in secret meetings."

The sub-committee of the Commons justice committee was struck after the
passage of a Bloc Quebecois motion in the House last October calling for a
review of federal laws on organized crime. The Bloc proposed the motion
after one of its MPs, Yvan Loubier, sought police protection while
campaigning against the underground marijuana trade in his riding.

DeVillers refused Friday to discuss the hearings and would not say which
MPs were taking part in the Vancouver session. Clearly angry at the breach
of secrecy, DeVillers said he planned to speak to committee members to
remind them of the sensitive nature of the hearings.

"I wasn't pleased to read some of the stuff. We're supposed to be not
speaking to the press. Our agenda is not supposed to be published. The
members of our committee are supposed to be able to come and work in camera
and we're not supposed to be talking about security measures, whether we
have or don't have them. The first rule in security is you don't say what
you're doing, because then you're showing your hand."

While names of MPs on the committee were published in the Hansard record of
Parliament last June, the membership has since changed. Grewal replaced
Alliance MP Jim Abbott on the panel, while Bloc MP Pierrette Venne, who
confirmed her membership Friday, is also an addition.

In the aftermath of the gang-style shooting of Montreal journalist Michel
Auger, the Bloc Quebecois plans to table a motion in the Commons Monday
demanding the government pass new legislation against criminal gangs by
Oct. 6. More than 150 people have been killed in Montreal over the last
five years in the violent war between two motorcycle gangs, the Hell's
Angels and the Rock Machine, over control of the lucrative drug trade.