CIVIL FORFEITURE: A NEW STEP TOWARDS FIGHTING CRIME

A number of legitimate questions have been raised by New Brunswickers
throughout our province about the Civil Forfeiture Act and how its
implementation works within the framework of the Charter rights we all value.

As Attorney General for New Brunswick, let me first explain the public good
we're trying to achieve with this new law. Police and community leaders
have long noted situations where they feel helpless watching a
neighbourhood be hurt by an ongoing crime, but can't protect people under
existing laws.

It is sadly common in many poor neighbourhoods that an absentee landlord
will rent out a house that winds up being used to make and sell drugs. No
one lives there and a dozen people have access to it, so no one person can
be proven to own the equipment or to be selling the drugs.

When I knocked on doors in parts of my riding over the past number of
months, people told me they felt abandoned by government when they see
needles and drug paraphernalia strewn around where their kids play.

They feel that no one can stop it. They are even angrier at landlords who
are happy to pocket the money and not ask what's happening in their
properties, because they don't have to live there.

Just as awful are times when police know computer and video equipment is
being used to make and sell child pornography, but so many people have
access to the computer that no one person can be convicted.

The Civil Forfeiture Act we have introduced allows for courts to stop
ongoing harm, if it can be proven that the item is being used in an ongoing
way to commit a crime.

For those concerned about individual rights, I hope the following is helpful.

Under this new Act:

- - Police can't simply seize items. It must be proven, in court, that the
item is being used for an ongoing criminal activity.

- - The Crown must prove the use and can only gather evidence in keeping with
Charter limits on search and seizure.

- - Property owners have a right to notice of the charge and to raise a
defence, and clauses protect owners who could not have known of the illegal
activity.

- - If authorities, including the attorney general, do not act in good faith
in using this law, they lose their immunity from lawsuits. The language of
the law doesn't allow for seizure of every property where crime happens.
You can't lose your car for speeding. The Crown must prove the property is
instrumental in an ongoing criminal activity.

- - Section 7 of the Charter still ensures that courts cannot approve a
seizure where the property taken is disproportionate to the seriousness of
the crime.

- - The standard of proof - the balance of probabilities - is the same one
used in determining property issues in civil cases, which can also be
enforced through seizure of property.

- - The Supreme Court has already ruled that forfeiture laws within these
parameters are consistent with the Charter.

In other provinces with these laws, the amount of property seized (adjusted
to New Brunswick's population) has been under $1 million per year - hardly
a rash of seizures, but one that can restore a sense of safety to a
neighbourhood. The use of the new law should be rare, but it may make
absentee landlords care about the neighbourhoods where they make profits.

Safe neighbourhoods for all kids is part of reducing poverty.

I want people to know that questions about civil liberties are welcome and
healthy in a democracy.

I asked these same questions myself before I agreed to sponsor this law and
I will keep an open mind through the study of the bill in the Legislature
if there are ways to improve it.

Charter freedoms are important to our government. So is the right of every
child to live in a neighbourhood free of crime and free from the message
that crime goes unpunished.

I see no reason that we can't protect both freedoms through reasoned debate
and sensible laws.

Kelly Lamrock is the Minister of Justice and Consumer Affairs, and the
Attorney General. He is the MLA for Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak.