BENCH BLIND ON ORGANIZED CRIME

LAST Friday, Alberta Provincial Court Judge Allan Fradsham delivered a
110-page decision effectively stating the police had breached the rights of
150 or so Hells Angels who were travelling to Red Deer in July 1997 to
attend the formal "patchover" of the Grim Reapers bike gang.

The decision was the result of a court challenge made by the Angels, which
involved numerous days of testimony from a variety of people, including the
local media darling, criminology Professor Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser
University. Boyd, long an advocate of legalizing marijuana, was a defence
witness in the case. He testified, "My opinion is that chapters in Western
Canada are not involved in organized crime as chapters or as a regional
entity.''

Boyd's testimony came from his vast experience and interviewing "32 members
and visiting various clubhouses in the past couple of months."

So let me get this straight. The professor interviews the bikers and accepts
their largesse and parties with them at the clubhouses and from this he
determines they are not involved in organized crime. And he's passed off as
some kind of expert in a court of law?

What did he do for his research? Ask the bikers if they were involved in
organized crime? And when they said, "No sir!"... alrighty then, case
closed! Let's go to the clubhouse and have a few pops.

In my view, whatever credibility Boyd might have had is now permanently,
irretrievably destroyed. Three years ago, Professor Rob Gordon, who runs the
SFU criminology department, wrote a report on gang activity, which referred
to the Hells Angels as a criminal business organization. Evidently Boyd's
level of research doesn't even require he talk to his colleagues at SFU, let
alone the cops who investigate organized crime.

Evidently, neither do judges.

Judge Fradsham ruled on three points of law. Essentially, he said the police
breached the bikers' rights in detaining them for several hours on the
roadside while they identified and photographed everyone for intelligence
purposes. But, he also said there was no breach on the Angels' freedom of
association or freedom of mobility.

Now, it should be said that I don't inherently have a problem with the
ruling itself. It is to be expected from those who worship at the altar of
the Charter and park their common sense elsewhere. My concerns come about
from some of the comments made by the judge in his written conclusions.

When he concluded the police did not breach the Angels' right to freedom of
mobility and association, he stated the police were operating on the basis
of "unsupported conclusions." He also termed the bikers as "unsavory
characters." But, he refused to recognize that the Hells Angels are an
organized crime group. This is unbelievable.

Never mind examples like the ongoing war over drug turf in Quebec with the
Rock Machine and the 150 plus associated deaths or the host of documented
evidence presented annually and publicly by Criminal Intelligence Services
Canada to Parliament.

Consider, if you will, the comments of Alberta Judge B.R. Fraser, a
colleague of Fradsham, in a case involving a former Hells Angel, Anthony
Leonard Vaughan, who pleaded guilty last year to 13 criminal charges
including possession of a bomb, a 2.2-kilogram tube of dynamite.

In the decision in that case, Judge Fraser made this statement: "The accused
has a lengthy, serious and unenviable record. That should be expected given
he was a member of the Hells Angels."

So what does this judge know, that everyone else in the justice system also
knows, that somehow Fradsham can't seem to grasp?

The case against Vaughan was much talked about in the halls of justice in
Alberta. Vaughan you see had a problem. He owed a considerable sum of money
in a drug debt to another member. To repay the debt, he was ordered to bomb
some homes including one of a Calgary alderman.

Vaughan got himself jammed up by the police in an unrelated criminal matter
and offered to testify against the Angel who ordered the bombings. He
consented to wiretaps and electronic surveillance to gather evidence against
the biker. That case is still before the courts so I will not go into it.
The result was the deal Vaughan made with the Crown on his outstanding
charges which Fraser was dealing with.

Further on in his reasons for judgement, Judge Fraser said, "The accused has
agreed to give evidence against the person charged with these serious
criminal charges arising from the information supplied by him. He will be a
key material witness for the Crown. His evidence will probably determine
whether a conviction is registered against the Hells Angel member accused.

"The consequences to the accused for doing so are grave. He will most likely
never be able to live the same life again. He will most certainly need
protection from a notorious group of people known as the Hells Angels until
he testifies and long after. I am advised that at this moment, there is a
half million dollar contract out on his life, offered by the Hells Angels,"
concluded Fradsham's brother Judge Fraser.

Amazing how, according to Fradsham, the police were acting on "unsupported
conclusions" about these "unsavory characters."