TOUGHER PENALTIES FOR BOOBY TRAPS CHEERED

Pot growers who set deadly traps to protect their harvest may soon face
stiffer jail sentences under new legislation tabled in the House of Commons
on Friday.

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon announced the proposed amendments to the
Criminal Code that would see the maximum penalty for setting a trap in a
place used for a criminal purpose rise from 10 years to 14 years in a case
where someone is injured.

The maximum sentence would be life imprisonment in an incident where
someone is killed by a trap.

The legislation is aimed primarily at a growing industry of marijuana
growers across Canada.

Firefighters At Risk

"We have to protect emergency workers like firefighters on the front line
who may be exposed to dangerous situations like marijuana grow operations
or clandestine drug labs," said Cauchon.

"The nature of these criminal activities creates a risk of fire. If
firefighters or police officers are put at risk, injured or killed by traps
set to defend these criminal enterprises from law enforcement or rival
gangs, those who set the traps must feel the full weight of the law."

The concern is that firefighters and police responding to a fire or
enforcing a search warrant may walk into a deadly trap.

The traps are likely put in houses and outdoor grows to defend marijuana
plants from rival groups.

"It's more designed to keep the competition away but it is indiscriminate,
that's the danger of it," said Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault, national
co-ordinator for marijuana grow operations at the drug branch of the RCMP
headquarters.

Organized crime gangs have turned marijuana cultivation into a
multibillion-dollar industry starting in British Columbia.

The trend of marijuana growing operations has moved east and many are
currently operating in cities like Ottawa.

Dunrobin Raid

On Thursday, Ottawa police raided a Dunrobin Rd. home and seized $800,000
worth of drugs. One man was arrested. It was just one of dozens of similar
homes police have raided in recent years.

Officials say traps include crossbows rigged so that they will fire bolts
at anyone opening certain doors and also concealed holes dug in floors of
buildings used to grow marijuana. Those types of traps have not been seen
in Ottawa.

The amendment has also been supported by the International Association of
Firefighters, which has been seeking changes that would protect on-duty
firefighters from criminal acts.