ONLY 9 OF 57 DRUG SUSPECTS KEPT IN JAIL PENDING TRIALS

Police Voice Disappointment But Are Pleased Some Have Been Given Area
Restrictions

Of 57 alleged drug dealers arrested in a Vancouver police crackdown
this month, only nine have been held in custody pending their trial,
police said Wednesday.

Vancouver police spokeswoman Constable Anne Drennan said that although
police are disappointed so few are in custody, they are encouraged
that 35 of those released were given "area restrictions" that prevent
them from returning to areas of the Downtown Eastside or certain
SkyTrain stations.

Five suspects were released without area restrictions and five were
released with no restrictions at all, Drennan said. Two are still
awaiting a bail hearing and one has pleaded guilty.

But while 35 suspects are forbidden from entering certain areas,
Drennan knew of only one who was banned from all SkyTrain stations.
Most were only told to stay away from Broadway station.

In the past, police have blamed limited-area restrictions for simply
moving the region's drug problem from one station to the next. After
New Westminster city police cracked down on drug-dealing earlier this
year, and successfully sought area restrictions, Burnaby noticed
increased dealing at Metrotown.

Inspector Chris Beach told a meeting of the Vancouver police board
Wednesday that undercover officers observed two-thirds of the suspects
using SkyTrain as their primary means of transportation.

Drennan agreed that area restrictions that prohibit dealers from being
near one station "tends to move them to another location." She said
police would like to see area restrictions that cover the entire
SkyTrain route.

"For us it would be . . . an excellent condition," she
said.

This month's arrests are part of Project Focus, a crackdown on
drug-dealing carried out by police in Vancouver, Burnaby and New
Westminster. The undercover operation, which focused on both SkyTrain
and the Downtown Eastside, began in mid-December. In total, police are
seeking 157 suspects across the Lower Mainland -- 63 of whom are
refugee claimants, primarily from Honduras.

Beach said Hondurans had been in Canada for periods ranging from six
days to four years, but that more than 70 per cent had been in
Vancouver for less than six months.

Like Canadian dealers, most Honduran refugee claimants have been
released by the courts. And while some refugee claimants have been
detained by immigration authorities, most have not.

Leon Benoit, the federal Reform party's immigration critic, said his
party believes all refugee claimants who arrive in Canada illegally
should be detained while they await a decision from the Immigration
and Refugee Board on their status.

After most of the Chinese migrants who arrived on the first boat this
summer disappeared, Immigration Canada successfully sought the
continued detention of almost all migrants from the other ships. The
department must argue for detention in front of independent IRB
adjudicators.

Rob Johnston, manager of immigration enforcement for Vancouver, said
the case for detention is more difficult to make for the Hondurans.

Under the Immigration Act, claimants can only be detained if they are
unlikely to appear for their hearing or pose a danger to the public.

The "vast majority" of Honduran refugee claimants here make their
claims at the immigration offices in downtown Vancouver after already
entering the country, Johnston said. Because they have come forward to
make claims, unlike the Chinese migrants who were caught, it is much
more difficult to argue that they are not committed to the refugee
process, he said.

As well, when the provincial court releases an alleged drug dealer,
deciding the suspect does not pose a risk to the public, it is more
difficult for immigration authorities to argue before the IRB that the
claimant is dangerous, he said.