CROWNS TO TARGET OUTLAW BIKERS

Ontario has launched a new offensive against outlaw biker gangs, adding a
special team of Crown attorneys to toughen the prosecution and sentencing
of gang members, Attorney-General Michael Bryant said yesterday.

"Biker gangs are a particularly wicked form of organized crime. They are
neither quaint nor corny," he told The Globe and Mail.

"I've established a permanent major-case prosecution team to tackle the
megatrials and the large and complicated cases, such as biker gang
prosecutions," he said.

The new offensive also includes hiring eight Crown attorneys, assigning a
senior one to work on a day-to-day basis with the joint-forces police Biker
Enforcement Unit, providing assistance to Crown attorneys in dealing with
the time-consuming tasks of disclosure of evidence, and giving Crowns
support in arguing for stiffer sentences.

Mr. Bryant's announcement yesterday of the new offensive follows
publication in The Globe last month of an extensive series on the
activities, expansion and prosecution of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang
in Ontario and across Canada.

Until now, prosecutors across the province have fought a steep uphill
battle, particularly as regards resources. The bikers, in contrast, are
well-financed and typically have been defended by some of the country's top
criminal lawyers.

"The Globe series has been helpful in blowing wind into the sails of
government and educating the public on these issues," he said.

"I can tell Ontarians, and The Globe has underlined this point, if your
kid's bike has been stolen, if your house has been broken into, if your
credit card has been wrongly used, you have probably been touched by a
biker gang or some form of organized crime," he said.

"The purpose of the major-case prosecution team is to support those Crown
attorneys who are working on the big cases and the megatrials to develop
the strategies to help us deal with the challenges that come with these
cases," so that no Crowns are left to combat biker gang members on their
own, Mr. Bryant said.

Disclosure of evidence to defence attorneys can take up large amounts of
prosecutors' time, especially in large cases that can involve several
defendants, each with his own team of lawyers.

In one case cited in The Globe series, a Crown attorney said he and his
assistant faced as many as 87 defence lawyers, all clamouring for
documentation of evidence.

The two prosecutors provided 33 boxes of documents for disclosure. That
took nine months and cost taxpayers $350,000.

The new team will assist Crown attorneys with this disclosure "to ensure
the prosecutors are in court, where they should be," he said.

Timely disclosure is important to avoid delays in a case that defence
lawyers then can use to argue for dismissal of charges.

In Edmonton, a major gang case collapsed last fall when a judge threw out
charges against 11 people accused of conspiring to sell cocaine. He said
the lengthy delay in trying the case violated their Charter rights. The
delay arose chiefly because federal prosecutors and the RCMP were slow in
disclosing evidence to the defence.

In 2000, Quebec set up a special office for organized-crime prosecutions to
help combat a biker gang war that saw more than 160 people die from 1994 to
2001. In four years, it has prosecuted more than 100 bikers and associates;
all have been convicted or pleaded guilty.

At Queen's Park, Mr. Bryant added that the government also will try to ease
the burden of disclosure in other ways. "We are taking a look at taking
advantage of some of the efficiencies from electronic disclosure."

Among other steps in the new offensive:

A senior Crown attorney has been assigned to work directly with Ontario's
joint-forces biker squad. The Crown will provide police officers with
advice on complicated issues in obtaining evidence, including the use of
search warrants and wiretaps, Mr. Bryant said.

Eight new Crown attorneys have been hired "to free up senior prosecutors to
dedicate themselves to the major cases, including organized-crime cases,
which include biker gang cases," the minister said.