CRIME BILL EXEMPTION RAISES FEARS OF NATIVE EXPLOITATION

EDMONTON -- When told about the Liberal-dominated Senate's revisions
to the government's latest tough-on-crime bill, the former drug
dealer howled with laughter.

"They wanna WHAT?" he said incredulously. "It's like they're
encouraging grow-ops on reserves. It's so crazy; it's almost like a setup."

The Harper Tories are furious with the Senate's changes to Bill C-15,
which they say weakens it to the point of uselessness.

But some members of Alberta's Native communities fear the revisions
will allow organized crime to exploit impoverished, desperate people
living on reserves, by paying them to grow weed.

"It will be like the Taliban and the opium trade in Afghanistan,"
said the former dealer.

Bill C-15 was supposed to impose mandatory minimum sentences on
people who grow marijuana.

The Tories wanted everyone convicted of growing more than five pot
plants to get at least six months.

But this week, the Liberal-dominated Senate amended the bill, raising
the threshold to 200 plants and adding several exceptions. Among
those exempted from mandatory minimum sentences are aboriginal people.

"That would really open the door for people to come up here and take
advantage of us. It's crazy," said Dwight Gladue, a leader among the
Lubicon Cree in Little Buffalo, 300 km northwest of Edmonton.

Little Buffalo is a tiny, secluded community just off a major highway.

"We don't have a problem with grow-ops now, but this could really
make us vulnerable," he said.

Len Untereiner agreed.

The head of the Edmonton-based Spirit Keeper Youth Society said,
"This is just opening it up to create more victims. And many of our
communities have suffered enough already."

Under the Liberal amendments, there's nothing preventing a judge from
imposing harsh sentences on native pot farmers, but, Untereiner said,
their underlying message is disturbing.

"As a First Nations person, I'm insulted by this. The law should
apply to everybody, regardless of race, creed or colour."

Untereiner said that if the Liberal senators are worried about
disproportionate numbers of natives in jail, they should be pushing
for more social programs to keep them from getting into trouble with
the law in the first place.

Edmonton police Sgt. Tony Simioni, who's on the board of the Canadian
Police Association, called the suggestion that groups of people
should be treated differently under the law "very paternalistic. I
just don't like it on principle."

Alberta Tory MP Brent Rathgeber, who sits on the government's justice
committee, said the Liberal amendments "not only diminish the
effectiveness (of Bill C-15), they create a whole array of
unanticipated problems.

"It's going to encourage the development of this industry among First
Nations communities." He doubts such provisions are acceptable under
the Constitution.

The bill will come back to the Commons when it resumes sitting in
January. From there, it will either be passed, or sent back for more revisions.