Justice minister mulls U.S. organized crime laws after violent gang deaths

Canadian Press
Apr. 12, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - The internal war of the Bandido biker gang that led to the shooting deaths of eight members in southwestern Ontario has led Canada's justice minister to question whether the country needs U.S.-style legislation to combat organized crime.

Federal Justice Minister Vic Toews said he's considering changes to Canada's organized crime laws - not just in response to last weekend's gangland slayings in southwestern Ontario, but because current anti-gang laws are too "cumbersome" and "complex" to effectively fight the problem.

"We need to have a more direct system of holding these individuals accountable for gang activities," Toews said after Ontario Provincial Police arrested five men in connection with the murders near London, Ont.

The victims were eight members and associates of the Bandidos biker gang. The accused are linked to the same club.

Toews said the Conservatives want to set up minimum sentences for gun crimes and pay for more RCMP officers to tackle gun crime.

But he also suggested Canada might need laws similar to the U.S. Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute. It's used to specifically prosecute gang members, and includes a provision that allows police to confiscate any and all property that could be linked to criminal activity.

Toews called the RICO laws "a good example of what is constitutionally proper legislation, but effective in dealing with organized crime."

Toews' comments came as provincial politicians and crime experts questioned whether police have enough resources to investigate organized crime.

"Are there enough resources to combat organized crime? Probably not," security consultant and former police officer Chris Mathers said Monday.

"But there's other things that are more important to the Canadian people - things like health care."

"The police get what the people are willing to give them."

A lack of funds is always an issue but it's up to police to determine how best to use limited resources for specific investigations, said former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster.

"The difficulty for law enforcement is that they have very scarce resources and they're spread so thinly, it's hard for them to find time to deal with them all," Inkster said.

Ontario's Liberal government rejected opposition claims they're not doing enough to equip police forces with the tools they need to tackle underground criminal activity.

"The fact that the OPP were able to arrest these individuals so quickly indicates to me that they have the resources to do it," said Ontario Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter.

He also said provincial funds will help hire and train 1,000 new police officers who should be on Ontario streets by year's end.

But Conservative Leader John Tory said only five per cent of those officers are going to OPP detachments outside the Greater Toronto Area, which is getting a quarter of the new officers amid recent gun violence in the city.

Tory also said Monday's arrests are just a start in the war against underworld criminal activity in Ontario.

"There's a lot more of them out there needing to be rounded up and if they had the proper resources for the OPP, then we might be able to round them up," Tory said.

But Kwinter pointed to January's arrest of 27 senior members of the notorious Hells Angels biker gang as another example of fine police work in the province.

Those arrests followed a two-year investigation centred in the Thunder Bay area by the OPP's biker enforcement unit, which was put in place in 2002 by the former Conservative government.

Mathers said money to hire more police "probably isn't going to make a huge difference" in combating organized crime, partly because it's often informants, not greater numbers of police, that lead to arrests.

Inkster said it's difficult for police to get inside information since they're easily exposed when they try to get close to a gang member.

"For anyone to infiltrate the bikers, before they'll let you in as a member, you have to commit some terrible crime. Well, of course no law enforcement agency is going to allow any of their people to commit a crime just to achieve membership," Inkster said.

Const. Doug Graham of the OPP's London detachment said police continue to rely on public tips when fighting organized crime.