'NOT A CASE OF TURNING A BLIND EYE': LAWYER

FIVE Chinese immigrants should be given the benefit of the doubt and
cleared of charges they knowingly participated in a massive marijuana
grow operation, their lawyer argued Thursday.

Mike Cook said it's obvious the accused had no idea what they were in
for after being recruited in Toronto's Chinatown district to work on
the rural Manitoba pot farm in the fall of 2005.

"It's easy for them to have made an honest mistake," Cook said during
closing arguments of the trial.

All five testified in their own defence and told court they didn't
realize the crop they were working on was marijuana. Some believed it
was fruit or vegetable, while one man thought it was "Chinese medicinal herbs".

Cook said none of his clients had ever seen a pot plant before.

"This is not a case of them turning a blind eye to anything. There's
nothing outstanding about a marijuana plant," he said.

"There's no evidence anyone ever came into their citizenship class
holding a marijuana plant and saying 'Don't touch one of these.'"

Queen's Bench Justice Deborah McCawley has reserved her verdict until
later this fall.

She told lawyers there is clearly a "cultural issue" at play she must
consider and that the actions of the accused can't be compared to
what "you or I" would have done.

Crown attorney Anne Turner said the accused must have realized what
they were doing was illegal and that offers to make up to $300 a day
were "too good to be true".

She said allowing them to walk free would send the wrong message.

"These accused are here asking to be held to a standard lower than
any other Canadian citizen," said Turner.

The five accused were among 28 people arrested two years ago
following an extensive undercover RCMP investigation that yielded $19
million worth of pot. They are the first to go on trial.

Police found 25 men and three women sleeping side-by-side,
head-to-toe in every room of a tiny, 700-square-foot house in
Sundown, Man., which is about 140 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

More than 10,000 mature pot plants were thriving in four sprawling
greenhouses sitting on the same rural farm property, which was hidden
from the public by a thick curtain of trees.

Khyong Wong, the alleged mastermind behind the grow operation, has
avoided prosecution by somehow slipping out of Canada while the
subject of an undercover police investigation.

He is being sought on a Canada-wide warrant.