TREAT GANGS LIKE TERRORISTS?

Province Pushing Hard-Core Crackdown

MANITOBA wants to take the lead in cracking down on organized crime
in Canada by treating gang members more like terrorists than mere
drug-dealing hoods.

New provincial Justice Minister Dave Chomiak made these and other
proposals yesterday in Newfoundland where he's meeting with other
provincial and federal law enforcement officials.

If approved, a gang-world killing would automatically see a
first-degree murder charge laid and a drive-by shooting would be a
separate offence in the Criminal Code even when the shooter misses
the intended victim -- not mischief or careless use of a firearm.

The most controversial proposal is the listing of gangs like the
Hells Angels as recognized organized crime groups, essentially
treating them same as Canada treats terrorists groups like al-Qaida
and Hezbollah.

This change would make it far easier for prosecutors to go after gang
members under Canada's anti-gangsterism laws instead of having to
prove in each case a gang like the Hells Angels is a criminal organization.

"It makes absolutely no sense to show the Hells Angels are a criminal
organization every time one of them is charged," former Manitoba
deputy attorney general Bruce MacFarlane said yesterday. These and
other proposals put forward by Chomiak this week -- he was
unavailable for comment --- are part of a package put together by
MacFarlane over the past year.

"No other province has tried this before," MacFarlane, now a
University of Manitoba law professor, said.

MacFarlane said the proposed changes to federal laws are needed to
stop the violence associated with organized crime and to take away
their money, mostly made from the sale of drugs. Those profits were
made glaringly obvious by RCMP yesterday when they put on display 40
kilograms of high-grade cocaine and 200,000 ecstasy tablets seized
last week in Headingley.

Mounties estimate the value of the drug haul at $2 million to $5 million.

"The money incentive is so huge," MacFarlane said. "The temptation to
become involved in organized crime is so great.

"What they don't realize is the extent to which people are destroyed
as human beings by drugs. It's unimaginable."

RCMP said they don't know if the drugs were destined for Winnipeg
streets or just passing through to somewhere in Eastern Canada. The
40 bricks of cocaine and ecstasy tablets were found in the false roof
lining of a Kenworth truck from British Columbia that had been pulled
over for speeding. A 46-year-old Vancouver man remains in custody
charged with drug trafficking.

Sgt. Marc Samson said the seizure -- police have seized a total of 56
kilos of cocaine in the past six weeks -- is an indication of how
widespread the drug is in Canada. MacFarlane said another proposal is
designed to make it less appealing for criminals to grow marijuana.

"Large grow ops are out of control in Canada," he said. "One of the
reasons is because the penalties are so small."

He said the Doer government has recommended the maximum penalty in
the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for growing commercial pot
should be raised to 14 years from seven.

That would show the courts that all previous sentences for pot
growers -- in many cases a conditional sentence -- are out the
window, and that offenders must do jail time.

MacFarlane said in the most serious cases, where there is a large
number of plants being grown and a clear connection to organized
crime, convicted growers must get a mandatory minimum jail sentence.

He would not specify what such a sentence would be, saying that
should be left up to lawmakers.

MacFarlane added his proposals were earlier shared with federal
Justice Minister Vic Toews and have found support in British
Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

He also said the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police supports
the proposals.

CACP president and Winnipeg police Chief Jack Ewatski said yesterday
the CACP supports the proposals but he declined to comment until
hearing from Chomiak. In a Sept. 28 speech in Sydney, N.S., Ewatski
said under current laws, police are unable to adequately address the
serious threat by organized crime to Canada's economy and society.

MacFarlane also said Manitoba wants to revamp Canada's dangerous
offender legislation to include career gang members.

New Plan of Attack

Here are some of the proposals tabled in Newfoundland by Justice
Minister Dave Chomiak to get tough on gangsters:

* Make gang killings an automatic first-degree murder charge where
the accused was an active gang member and where the murder was part
of the gang's activities.

* Create a new "drive-by shooting" offence, with increased penalties,
including a minimum term of imprisonment, where the shooter was an
active participant in a criminal gang.

* Establish "gang-free zones" throughout Canada so that places where
kids gather (schools, playgrounds and parks) will be free of gang
activity. Criminal penalties should be increased where offences occur
within a gang-free zone, including mandatory jail terms in certain situations.

* Make it illegal to recruit for gang membership.

* Expand the dangerous offender provisions to include hard-core gangsters.

* Review whether random searches of offenders on parole and
conditional sentences involving house detention are feasible in Canada.

* Toughen bail where a gun was used or possessed during the
commission of an offence.

* Increase jail time for marijuana growers, including mandatory
minimum sentences where the evidence demonstrates a "significant
commercial-level" operation.