BIKER LAW BACKFIRES

THE Crown Attorney's office has stayed charges against six bikers
charged with wearing their Hells Angels club jackets and insignia --
"colours" -- in a licenced establishment. They had stopped at a
Winnipeg restaurant to eat on their trip to a national gathering in
British Columbia. The decision of the Crown is another victory for
bikers in this province.

Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh should recognize that the ban on
biker fashion he put into law has no useful place in law enforcement here.

The Crown attorney who stayed the charges laid in 2003 under Liquor
Control Act changes brought in by Mr. MacIntosh in 2002, said his
office wanted to focus its "resources" on more serious charges
against bikers laid under the Criminal Code section dealing with
organized crime.

In truth, the Liquor Control Act charges did not proceed to trial
because they have slim, if any, chance of surviving a constitutional challenge.

The Crown's office opted to drop this test for fear a loss on a weak
case might impair the chances of defending the organized crime
charges against a similar Charter challenge.

It is not against the law in Canada to belong to a club, whether it
was formed to play bridge or to sell drugs to kids. Mr. Mackintosh
has had a hard time accepting the fact that Hells Angels and their
associates can gather publicly and brandish their leather jackets and
accoutrement, parading their powers under his nose. He also had
little luck convincing his counterparts in Ottawa to pass laws making
that illegal.

So in 2002 he wrote his own laws to do just that, in effect.

The Liquor Control Act amendment made it illegal for anyone to wear
gang stripes and symbols or biker insignia in bars and other licenced places.

Further, the Civil Remedies Against Organized Crime Act permits a
judge to shut down a business if an owner or manager permits it to be
used "to advance unlawful activity." This proscribes the right to
gather, to associate or express freely in public places, all of which
are fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Canadian Constitution.

To the credit of Manitoba's Crown attorneys, the evident and
unjustified impairment of Charter rights was recognized. To the
bikers who had their meals disrupted in 2003 and, until this week,
had to prepare for a date with a judge, it is purely and simply
harassment. It might have given police officers real pleasure to slap
the cuffs on the wrists of the bikers as media watched in 2003. But
the fragile basis in law for the arrests became an unnecessary
headache, and expense, to a prosecutions branch tasked with making them stick.

Mr. Mackintosh now must see the futility in his continuing search for
simplistic tools to combat motorcycle gangs.

The Criminal Code contains ample laws to do battle against their
pernicious activities. Mr. Mackintosh should strike his statutory remedies.

There should be no law against a person's clothing.

Bar owners should not be forced to decode the social activities of
patrons in order to satisfy the justice minister's suspicions that
bikers are plotting always, everywhere.