NEW CRIME RULES 'A CASE OF OVERKILL'

Critics Condemn Tories For Taking End-Run Around Parliament

Prosecutors and police will have enhanced powers to tackle
prostitution, illegal gambling and drug trafficking activities by
organized crime under new measures announced Wednesday 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 activities such as keeping a common bawdy house,
keeping a gaming or betting house and exporting, importing or
producing illegal drugs.

Although the new rules were welcomed by police organizations,
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 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 more easily use tools such as wire taps
while investigating those crimes, the Justice Department said in a
statement.

They also will 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, and 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.

He 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 as "serious offenders" and
sentenced to five years in prison.

New Democrat 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
organized 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 that it's only used against organized
crime."

Liberal MP Mark Holland slammed the government's go-it-alone approach
to writing new regulations. "It's legislation by talking points," he
said in an interview, referring to Nicholson's announcement.

Holland, the party's public safety critic, said it was a mistake to
bypass Parliament, which could have held public hearings on the
subject to get input from experts and other interested parties.

"When you exclude experts and you exclude Parliament from the process,
it's inevitably going to be flawed and inevitably there is going to be
confusion about what you are doing."