VIETNAMESE WELCOME 'RACIAL PROFILING' DECISION

Court Stayed Charges In Grow-Op Case

OPP Search Breached Charter, Judge Said

Toronto's Vietnamese community welcomes a Superior Court decision
that found police had used "racial profiling" to find a marijuana
grow operation run by a Vietnamese Canadian.

"For some time our entire community has been under the microscope
when it comes to illegal marijuana grow operations," said Kim Trinh,
program co-coordinator with the Vietnamese Association of Toronto.

She was reacting to a decision by Justice Emile Kruzick last month to
stay charges against a man of Vietnamese background who was arrested
on Feb. 26, 2003, after police found 596 marijuana plants in his
Orangeville-area home.

The judge ruled that the method an OPP officer used to target Van
Trong Nguyen was a violation of an individual's right to safety and
security under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In this case, the officer had searched land registry records in the
area to find people of Vietnamese descent because some people from
that ethnic community had been charged in past investigations of
illegal grow operations.

Kruzick concluded that Nguyen's house had been targeted for
investigation because of "a stereotypical assumption that because
some grow operations have been run by East Asians, that anyone
purchasing a new home who is Vietnamese must be conducting a grow operation."

Trinh said this decision should be a wake-up call for police who may
target one particular ethnic community for particular types of
criminal activity.

"We know for a fact that there are lots of people from other ethnic
and Canadian communities involved in the same illegal activities,"
she said. "But whenever it is someone from our community it seems to
be bigger news."

She said there are about 50,000 people of Vietnamese descent in the
GTA and 67,000 in Ontario.

"Most of them are hard-working people in all of the professions and
careers that are available," she said. "But it is true that a few
people trying to make a new life in Canada make the wrong choice to
try and quick-start their life in Canada with an illegal marijuana operation."

Trinh said the sad thing is that it is usually the grower, the lowest
person in the drug production network, who is charged while the "big
bosses" -- not usually of Vietnamese descent -- get away.

"We have been pushing the courts to give stiffer sentences for this
offence as a further deterrent to people getting into it," Nguyen said.

She said her organization, which mainly assists with the resettlement
of new Canadians of Vietnamese origin, has applied for a provincial
grant to mount an extensive public and community education program on
the dangers of marijuana grow operations.

OPP Supt. Bill Craig said they are reviewing transcripts of the
judge's ruling before deciding if further action should be taken or
an appeal pursued.

Craig said the OPP takes a "zero tolerance" approach to racism and
racial profiling during investigations.

"This is not standard operating procedure, but I would like to have
all the information to see what led the officer to do that in the
first place," Craig said.

He said a breach of operating procedures could subject an officer to
disciplinary measures.

"We would have to look at all of the factors involved before deciding
what action to take," he said