LOW FUNDING CAUSED U.S. DRUG ACTION, B.C. SAYS

Blacklist considered, ruled out for now

Toronto -- B.C. Attorney-General Ujjal Dosanjh says lack of federal funding
to combat drug trafficking on Canada's West coast is to blame for a U.S.
decision to consider placing Canada on its annual drug blacklist.

Meanwhile, a veteran RCMP drug agent said yesterday that Canada deserves to
join the likes of Colombia, Panama and Mexico on the U.S. "Majors" list of
countries considered too soft on the war on illicit drugs.

"It's embarrassing and unfortunate that we have to get this wake-up call
from the U.S. that we have a serious problem but yes, we definitely deserve
to be on the list," Constable Scott Rintoul, a 19-year veteran of the RCMP,
said in an interview from Vancouver.

Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Valerie Noftle confirmed yesterday that the U.S.
State Department took the unprecedented step of considering placing Canada
on the narcotics blacklist, which now includes 28 countries, but said
Washington has ruled that possibility out for now.

"They were considering putting us on the list. The idea was to consider
putting Canada on the Majors list."

She said that the United States should stop finger-pointing. She added that
it should start working more closely with Canada through international
bodies to fight the global war on drugs. "The drug problem is best dealt
with in an international capacity, not unilaterally. It's best to tackle
this issue together and not by pointing the finger at one another."

Washington's move didn't surprise B.C.'s chief law officer. "British
Columbia is a conduit now for heroin and cocaine from other parts of the
world into the United States and other parts of Canada," Mr. Dosanjh said in
an interview yesterday.

Mr. Dosanjh blamed Ottawa for abandoning a commitment to provide more money
to combat organized crime and for failing to put into place a comprehensive
strategy to combat the drug trade. "The federal government did indicate two
years ago that they were going to pour some money into [fighting] organized
crime and the fact is that that money hasn't come."

Apart from posting some additional police officers at Vancouver airport, he
said, Ottawa hasn't "done very much" to assist B.C. in trying to curb the
mushrooming drug-trafficking problem.

Recently, the RCMP reported that more marijuana is grown in B.C. than
parsley. The RCMP says 800 tonnes of marijuana was grown domestically last
year.

Constable Rintoul, who is the media relations officer for B.C.'s drug
enforcement program, said organized crime groups now view Canada as the
route of choice into the United States for heroin, cocaine and marijuana. He
conceded that British Columbia has become a haven for drug traffickers doing
business in B.C.'s $3-billion-a-year marijuana industry. "Organized crime
groups laugh at us in Canada. We are an easy mark."

An easy mark, he said, because of Canada's porous border with the United
States and weak sentences for those convicted of drug offences. "We've known
for several years that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI have
been quite concerned about the flow of drugs from Canada into the United
States."

After reading a report in Saturday's Globe and Mail about the U.S.
blacklist, Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy told the paper he was
"shocked," especially considering the close co-operation between the two
countries.

Ms. Noftle said diplomats first learned Canada could be placed on the drug
blacklist in the spring, and that senior Canadian diplomats in Washington
and Ottawa were quickly enlisted to resolve the matter.

"We were informed that the matter had been settled in early June and our
embassy in Washington was given that assurance that's where it sits now,"
she said.

A source has told The Globe that Washington's considerations prompted
Foreign Affairs to prepare a briefing note for the cabinet in early June.
However, it is unclear if the matter was raised at a Liberal cabinet
meeting.

Ms. Noftle dismissed American suggestions that Canada has not done enough to
combat the war on illicit drugs. In May, U.S. officials fired off a litany
of complaints over Canada's handling of the illicit drug trade from light
sentences for drug offences to cutbacks in anti-drug RCMP forces. "We have
been very involved in the war on drugs," she said. "In terms of Canada and
the Western Hemisphere, we have taken the lead in establishing dialogue on
drugs."

For his part, U.S. ambassador Gordon Giffin says he, too, was surprised to
read that the State Department had been considering placing Canada on the
Majors list.

"I frankly don't have any earthly view of what the basis of the article was.
I was quite surprised to see it," Mr. Giffin said in an interview. "Canada
has never been on the list, and I have no reason to believe Canada will be
on the list."

On the contrary, Canada and the United States work closely together to deal
with the international drug trade, he said.

Mr. Axworthy said some low-level bureaucrats in the federal department of
the Solicitor-General had picked up some casual speculation from U.S.
counterparts earlier this year about Canada being targeted for the
blacklist. Officials in his department checked it out at the official level
and were told "there's nothing to it."

Mr. Axworthy said the suggestion by anonymous U.S. sources that Canada might
be blacklisted could be a reaction among low-level U.S. bureaucrats to
Canada's opposition to the U.S. policy of publishing a list of countries
believed to be a drug problem. "It [the list] has caused some serious
reaction by a lot of states in the Americas and that's why we are taking a
more co-operating, collegial approach."

Mr. Axworthy said Canada is trying to promote a co-ordinated approach to
enforcement among all the countries in the Western Hemisphere through the
Organization of American States. A co-ordinated plan could be ready for
signing next year when Prime Minister Jean Chr‚tien is host of a summit of
the Americas, he said.