WERE CHINESE MIGRANT FARM WORKERS DUPED?

FIVE migrant Chinese farm workers from Ontario are claiming they were
duped into an illegal criminal enterprise as they are put on trial for
their role in Manitoba's largest-ever marijuana grow operation.

The group was among 28 people arrested in October 2005 following an
extensive undercover RCMP investigation that yielded $19 million worth
of pot in Sundown, which is about 137 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

Police found the 25 men and three women sleeping side-by-side,
head-to-toe in every room of a tiny, 700-square-foot house during an
early-morning raid last October.

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.

The Crown called extensive evidence last week about the operation,
which began with a series of property purchases in rural Manitoba that
drew the attention of police and led to complex ground and air
surveillance straight out of a James Bond movie.

Defence lawyer Mike Cook opened his case Monday by putting two of the
accused -- both single mothers -- on the witness stand in their own
defence. The other three are expected to testify today.

The women told court through a Chinese interpreter they had no idea
what they were getting into when they heard about an opportunity to
jump on a bus, come to the Prairies and make $100 a day doing labour
on a farm.

One woman said she wanted some extra money so her son could afford to
buy a computer. She was working in a coffee shop, earning minimum
wage. The other woman was on social assistance, court was told.

"Neither of them had seen a marijuana plant before. Nobody told them
anything about this being marijuana, or being illegal. Basically they
were told they would be picking leaves off plants, working sunup until
sundown," said Cook.

He said there's no denying the accused were working at a major
criminal enterprise, but that still doesn't mean an automatic
conviction. The Crown has to prove they had both "knowledge and
control" of the marijuana.

Cook said his clients are claiming "wilful blindness" -- which
essentially means they didn't know any better.

As the Free Press revealed last year in a special investigative
report, the alleged mastermind behind the grow operation has avoided
prosecution by somehow slipping out of Canada while the subject of an
undercover police investigation.

Khyong Wong -- who also goes by the name of Simon Wong -- is being
sought on a Canada-wide warrant. His most recent address was in
Burnaby, B.C., but justice sources say he has likely returned to his
native Hong Kong.

Wong, 43, has lived in various provinces including B.C., Manitoba and
Ontario, but would probably not face extradition even if caught
because he is a Chinese national and therefore exempt.

Wong was last spotted in Manitoba in late October 2005 as police
watched him board a WestJet flight to Vancouver, according to court
documents obtained by the Free Press.

B.C. Mounties initially continued surveillance upon his arrival. A
warrant for Wong's arrest was issued Oct. 27, 2005, and has never been
executed.

The five accused are the first to go on trial. One person has already
pleaded guilty and was given a one-year conditional sentence, while
the remaining 22 accused are still before the courts.

The case made national headlines, especially after the language
barrier and large number of accused meant many people sat in custody
for weeks before obtaining lawyers and being released on bail.