ONTARIO SEEKS TOUGHER ORGANIZED CRIME LAWS

Mandatory Sentencing Recommended

The Ontario government wants Canada to arm itself with new federal and
provincial laws - modelled on the U.S. experience - to fight organized crime.

Speaking at the Ontario government's international summit on organized
crime yesterday, Solicitor-General David Tsubouchi said he'll be asking the
federal government to create a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence for
anyone facing organized crime related charges.

Attorney-General Jim Flaherty used the conference as a platform to push for
a new provincial anti-racketeering law. After gleaning tips from the
organized-crime experts, Flaherty plans to draft an anti-racketeering bill
to be introduced in the Legislature this fall. He said he hoped other
provinces would follow suit.

Such a bill would enable police to aggressively pursue organized criminals:
"to freeze their assets, seize their bank accounts, take away their luxury
cars, sell off the homes they bought under other people's names.

"By tracking and seizing the proceeds of illicit activity at the highest
levels, and in some cases using pre-judgment remedies, we can take the
profit out of corrupt organizations," Flaherty said.

Outlaw biker gangs are among those being targeted. Tsubouchi said he's
prepared to "up the ante in the battle" against biker gangs.

"The battle has spread to Ontario as the Hells Angels try to establish
chapters here," Tsubouchi said. "There are 11 illegal motorcycle gangs here
with more than 600 members."

Canada's weak laws make it "the hub of international drug trafficking,
organized fraud and corresponding money laundering operations by many crime
syndicates," said Antonio Nicaso, an international expert, who was recently
appointed criminal issues adviser for the Geneva-based Alliance Against
Contraband that monitors trends in organized crime.

Nicaso recommends mandatory sentencing for criminals and creating
multi-force police units across Canada modelled after the Newmarket-based
combined forces special enforcement unit to avoid jurisdictional conflicts.

Mandatory sentencing was a big deterrent to U.S. mobsters, said Gerald
McDowell, chief of assets forfeiture and money laundering section, U.S.
Department of Justice.

If Canada had an anti-racketeering law such as the U.S. RICO law "it would
drive criminals away from North America," McDowell said.

In the U.S., $610 million (U.S.) was seized from organized criminal
enterprises last year, McDowell said. In Canada, forfeitures from organized
crime profits amounted to $9,176,897 and $33,566,682 in seizures (some of
which is still before the courts).