TOEWS OPEN TO 'LESSONS'

How Has Europe Handled Gangs?

LONDON, Ont. -- Canada must look to other countries that have curbed
organized crime in order to battle the gun and drug trade that's
fuelling an apparent surge in gang violence here, the federal justice
minister said yesterday.

"We need to take a lesson, not simply from the Americans, but from
Europeans and others including the British who have taken some pretty
important steps -- constitutionally sound steps, but important steps
- -- in dealing with organized crime," Vic Toews said after speaking at
the University of Western Ontario, a short drive from where eight
bikers were recently found slain.

Toews wouldn't comment on the investigation that led to the arrest of
five suspects, including a well-known member of the Bandidos, but
said the notion that motorcycle gangs are harmless fraternities is ludicrous.

"It's naive to believe that these are simply social clubs simply
because they enjoy a particular activity," he said.

"Guns, gangs and drugs go very closely together, and so we need to
put forward initiatives that address specifically guns and drugs in
order to tackle the gangs."

Those measures include mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain
drug dealing offences and weapons offences, promises the Conservative
government have made in the past. Toews lauded American laws that
specifically prosecute gang members and allow police to confiscate
any property that could be tied to criminal activity, saying it
contributed to a drop in crime in some of the biggest cities in the
United States.

He also reiterated the government's pledge to prevent the
decriminalization of marijuana -- legislation that the federal
Liberals introduced while they were in power.

Toews spoke just two days after five people were charged with
first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of eight men, all of whom
had links to the Bandidos, a Texas-based biker gang. One of the
eight, Jamie Flanz, 37, was remembered yesterday as a charming rogue
who was trying to turn his life around.

A his funeral in Montreal his brothers and sisters called Flanz a
charismatic man who coached minor hockey and marched to the beat of
his own drum.

"Obviously his death comes as a shock to me and to all of us but I
take comfort in the fact that before his death he spoke of turning
his life around," his sister, Jennifer, said in a statement read out
at the service.

"No matter what you have heard or will hear and regardless of the
terrible circumstances surrounding his death, my brother was a
wonderful person."

There was no visible biker presence at Flanz's funeral, which drew
several hundred people.

Flanz did not have a criminal record but, according to media reports,
the Ontario Provincial Police had recently interviewed him in
connection with a murder. Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz encouraged mourners
to remember the Flanz they knew, "and not the object of rumours and
speculation."

Four of those charged will appear in a St. Thomas, Ont., court today.
Wayne Kellestine, arrested with the other four in his house near the
death scene, is scheduled in court April 24.