OTTAWA WOMAN RECOUNTS TALE OF PROPERTY RUINED BY GROW-OP

RCMP Launch Nationwide Plan to Battle Marijuana Drug
Operations

An Ottawa woman grieving the death of her husband says she was dealt a
second blow when she found out a rental property she owned was
destroyed by a marijuana grow operation.

The drug operation run by her tenants was dismantled in 2008, when
police responded to a call for a break in. It was three months after
her husband died of cancer.

"It was difficult because right away I thought, ' How am I going to
pay the mortgage?' " Vincenza Corda said Wednesday after an RCMP news
conference to announce an anti-grow operation initiative. "It was
really frightening because I knew what it takes to maintain both
properties, and it was going to be a burden."

Her story was the centrepiece of the RCMP announcement about a
nationwide initiative to battle the grow-op epidemic.

The RCMP will deploy police officers more effectively to investigate
marijuana grow operations, Commissioner William Elliott said.

They will also will post the addresses of all marijuana grow
operations and clandestine labs police dismantle online to help inform
potential home buyers.

The addresses will remain on the RCMP website for a year, Elliott
said.

The new initiative will also help educate the public about the hazards
associated with grow operations.

"Wherever there is a marijuana grow-op, the surrounding community is
at greater risk of fires, explosions and increased criminal activity,"
Elliott said, adding that grow operations usually resulted in
environmental damage plus an increase presence of guns, toxic mould
and harmful chemicals.

Corda's son, Anthony, said he wasn't sure how effective the website
would be.

"If you wait a year, you can put quilts on the walls to hide the mould
and no one is going to know the difference," he said.