WHAT NEXT?

Informative Justice Forum Still Leaves More Questions Than Answers

Frustration, anger and disbelief played across faces of people packed
into Abbotsford's Matsqui Centennial Auditorium Tuesday night for a
town hall meeting about the ongoing investigation into the Surrey Six slayings.

Steve Brown, brother-in-law of murdered gas fireplace repairman Ed
Schellenberg, organized the event to draw attention to the fact that
Tuesday marked the three-year anniversary of the notorious mass
murders, and there was still no trial date set.

Schellenberg, 55, and Chris Mohan, 22, were both innocent bystanders
executed on Oct. 19, 2007 along with known gang associates Edward
Narong, 22, Corey Lal, 21, Lal's 26-year-old brother Michael, and
19-year-old Ryan Bartolomeo in a Surrey highrise.

Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich spoke at the forum as a member of
the three-man panel, which also included Brown and retired provincial
court judge Wallace Craig.

Each spoke about the criminal justice system in British Columbia,
sentencing issues, escalating gang violence in the province, and
answered questions from many visibly upset audience members.

Six men have been charged in the Surrey murders, including
Abbotsford's Jamie Bacon, and the case brought the Fraser Valley's
organized-crime issues to the forefront of the news in the province.

And while arrests to the Red Scorpion gang's hierarchy, in the form
of Jamie, Jonathon and Jarrod Bacon, broke that gang's hold on drugs
in Abbotsford, the vacuum left has been filled by a resurgent gang
known as the Duhre brothers.

The Duhres are a trio of brothers known to have run with murdered
Indo-Canadian gangster Bindy Johal, who was shot to death while
dancing at a Vancouver nightclub in December 1998.

Citing the lucrative business of marijuana growing as the backbone of
gang finances, Rich said one average-sized grow operation in the
Fraser Valley can net a gang between $500,000 and $1 million a year.

"[Growers] would likely get, on a first offence if they went to
court, a fine in the area of $1,500 to $2,000," Rich said.

"That's not going to work as a financial or economic disincentive for
grow operations, so that's a problem for policing."

Judge Craig said any ideas of legalizing marijuana as a way to stem
the tide of money to gangs was ludicrous, and cited the horrific
burden on Canadians from alcohol consumption.

"Alcohol is already a madness on society," Craig said.

Sentencing not only for drugs, but for violent crimes as well, came
under heavy criticism from the panel. Many audience members asked
when the provincial government and judges were going to get tough on crime.

"If you're a criminal you ought to be treated as such, and after a
fair trial you have to pay a price for it," Craig said.

Craig said the concept of rehabilitation has replaced the idea of
penal consequence when it comes to sentencing, and described it as an
abstract process where judges try to transform evil into docility and
tractability.

"Each time a judge fails to grasp the enormity of a violent act and
chooses rehabilitation rather than punishment," Craig said, "the
victim becomes the proverbial lamb being sacrificed on the altar of
rehabilitation."

Brown thinks people should stop supporting an administration that
enables criminals and called the province's restorative justice
program a failure.

Schellenberg might still be alive today, Brown said, if two of his
accused killers hadn't had previous second-degree murder charges for
the beating death of a 15-year-old boy in Port Coquitlam pleaded down
to manslaughter with 18 months behind bars.

Advocates of restorative justice and the political system that put it
place failed his brother-in-law and Chris Mohan, Brown said.

"By putting all the emphasis on restoring the offender, as if it is
some sort of constitutional right . . . advocates of restorative
justice upset the delicate balance of rights of the accused to a fair
hearing," Brown said.

"[And] the rights of the victim and the victim's family, and the
rights of society to public safety and security in their communities."