CHANGE TO CRIMINAL CODE GIVES LAW ENFORCERS MORE POWER

Targets Organized Crime Police, Prosecutors Welcome New Rules, But Critics
Warn Measures Are Overkill

Prosecutors and police will have enhanced powers to tackle
prostitution, illegal gambling and drug trafficking by organized crime
under new measures announced yesterday by the Conservative government.

The new rules expand the list of what constitutes a serious crime in
the Criminal Code - meaning offences punishable by five or more years
in prison - to such activities as keeping a common bawdy house,
keeping a gaming or betting house, and exporting, importing or
producing illegal drugs.

Although police organizations welcomed the new rules, opposition MPs
said the government should have subjected the proposed changes to
parliamentary scrutiny.

Defence lawyers described them as overkill, and said the government
should carefully monitor their implementation.

" They are using a very blunt object, painting with a very broad
brush," said David Anber, a criminal lawyer in Ottawa, arguing that a
lot of nickel-and-dime crooks with no links to organized crime could
wind up being branded as serious offenders.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who unveiled the changes at a news
conference in Montreal, said the crimes being targeted are often
"signature activities" of organized crime rings.

The new rules, quietly approved by cabinet last month, will allow
police and prosecutors to use tools like wiretaps more easily while
investigating those crimes, the Justice Department said in a
statement. They will also be able to seek stiffer sentences, block
bail and parole eligibility and seize assets that are the proceeds of
crime, it said.

The Criminal Code defines "criminal organization" as three or more
people acting together in criminal ventures.

The federal government estimates 750 organized crime groups are
operating across the country.

James Morton, a criminal lawyer in Toronto, said the new rules spread
the net "way too wide" and their implementation must be closely
monitored. "This is a case of overkill," he said.

Morton said, for example, three prostitutes living and receiving their
clients in a shared apartment or three or more people playing poker
for money could, if convicted, be branded "serious offenders" and
sentenced to five years in prison.

New Democratic MP Joe Comartin, the party's justice critic, said he
also fears the new rules will be applied too broadly, turning
low-level criminals into serious offenders while failing to snag the
top guns in crime groups.

"It does mean the government, Justice Department and Public Safety are
going to have to be monitoring its use," he said, "because if it
starts being used excessively, we're going to have to go back in and
tailor it more specifically so it's used only against organized crime."

Liberal MP Mark Holland, the party's public safety critic, slammed the
government's go-it-alone approach to writing new regulations.

"It's legislation by talking points," he said in an interview.