CRITICS BLAST COSTS

The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation and other critics charge that the
$36 million in public money spent on a mega-case netted little
justice. "It's sad for taxpayers to get limited results for $36
million," said John Carpay, the Alberta director of the CTF. "If a
private company got no returns on a $36-million venture, you would see
some heads rolling. But in government you just don't have real
accountability."

Provincial Liberal justice critic Laurie Blakeman added it was a waste
of money to build the $2.1-million courtroom to house the mega-trial.
She thinks the amount of time it took to build the courtroom also
contributed to the delays and the eventual collapse of the case. "Do I
fault the provincial government's part in this? Absolutely."

However, Alberta Justice spokesman Jason Chance said, "Although the
courtroom was built in part to accommodate this trial, certainly
long-term use of the courtroom was considered in building it and it
most definitely will be used - it's not a waste, no, absolutely not."

And Alberta director for federal prosecutions, Wes Smart, said
organized crime prosecutions are always expensive so "to not prosecute
because of cost is simply unacceptable."

But federal Conservative Justice critic Vic Toews, said Canada's gang
laws are too cumbersome. "The onus is so heavy on the Crown in these
complex cases, defence lawyers insist on these disclosures whether
they're necessary for the defence or not. So it becomes a paper game
rather than disclosing substantive evidence."

Yesterday, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said the government
plans to improve the disclosure process and will develop draft
amendments to address the problems.

Anne McLellan, former justice minister, said "profound disappointment"
was her reaction to the remainder of the case collapsing, and she
agrees there needs to be changes.

Staff Sgt. Peter Ratcliff, Edmonton Police Association head, blames
defence lawyers. "There's got to be a limit put on the ability of
defence lawyers to make motions and to create a smokescreen their
clients can walk away under."

The bulk of $36 million for the cost of the mega-drug case - $23.7
million - went to defence lawyers. Smart said a judge's ruling that
the public pick up the defence bills saw some accused having four
lawyers working at $150-an-hour each. Each of the accused was entitled
to 180,000 pages of disclosure and 400 cassette tapes containing
250,000 conversations.