FEDS TARGET POT BOOBY TRAPS

Pot growers who rig deadly booby traps to protect their product could soon
face stiffer penalties.

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon introduced new legislation yesterday aimed
at protecting front-line firefighters and police officers from explosives,
trip-wired firearms and false floors.

The devices are commonly set in marijuana growing operations or clandestine
drug labs to impede police or rival criminal gangs.

"Organized crime is using more and more traps in places to proceed with
their offence," Cauchon said.

A proposed 10-year maximum sentence under the Criminal Code would jump to
14 years if an emergency worker is injured or a life sentence if they are
killed. Currently, setting a trap nets a maximum five-year prison term.

Jim Lee, a spokesman for the Canadian arm of the International Association
of Firefighters, said many firefighters have suffered injuries from
electrical shocks and falls through cutaways in floors. In one case, a
crossbow was set up but fortunately wasn't properly rigged.

Organized crime gangs often steal electricity from power grids and rig
marijuana growing operations to alert them to the presence of law enforcers
or to destroy evidence.

"We are the first responders in those situations -- the first people
through the door," Lee said. "We're concerned about it, and it's just luck
more than anything we haven't had a firefighter killed."

WIDESPREAD PROBLEM

If adopted, Lee said, the legislative changes will help combat a problem
that's widespread and on the rise.

Among other Criminal Code amendments tabled yesterday is a post-Sept. 11
clarification to authorize reasonable force to prevent criminal activity on
board an aircraft in flight.