Pubdate: Sat, 16 Sep 2000
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 2000
Contact:  200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Authors: Tim Naumetz, and Petti Fong, Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun

FIGHT AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME

MPs Meet In Secret In Vancouver

MPs on a federal committee holding top-secret hearings into organized crime 
in Vancouver have been ordered to clam up after one of them disclosed that 
some committee members asked for police protection for their families.

The committee is so secret it will not reveal even the whereabouts of its 
hearings or the names of its members. It was revealed Friday the committee 
had already begun its hearings, with meetings in Vancouver, before the 
Commons resumes on Monday.

At least one MP on the committee also told the Toronto Sun newspaper 
details about extra security measures in place for hearings.

The apparent gangland shooting of a Montreal crime reporter this week 
spurred Quebec MPs, already under RCMP protection themselves at the 
committee hearings, into asking that security measures be extended to their 
families, one of the MPs was reported as saying.

"We're under a gag order," B.C. Canadian Alliance MP Germant Grewal, a 
member of the committee, said Friday in explaining why he could not comment 
on security measures, testimony at the hearings or the witnesses.

Grewal said, however, he intends to openly discuss the topic of organized 
crime despite a request from the Liberal MP chairing the committee, Paul 
DeVillers, that members cease speaking to the media.

"I'm a Member of Parliament, I represent my constituents and I have to talk 
about organized crime if I deem it necessary.

"As far as the security issue is concerned, it's not the journalists, it's 
not the Members of Parliament or the members of the committee whose 
security is at stake, it's every single Canadian whose security is at stake."

Alliance immigration critic Leon Benoit told The Vancouver Sun that he was 
asked to sit on the committee but decided not to be a representative.

"I do not think anyone working for their constituents should be under a gag 
order," Benoit said. "It's not right to do things in secret meetings."

The sub-committee of the Commons justice committee was struck after the 
passage of a Bloc Quebecois motion in the House last October calling for a 
review of federal laws on organized crime. The Bloc proposed the motion 
after one of its MPs, Yvan Loubier, sought police protection while 
campaigning against the underground marijuana trade in his riding.

DeVillers refused Friday to discuss the hearings and would not say which 
MPs were taking part in the Vancouver session. Clearly angry at the breach 
of secrecy, DeVillers said he planned to speak to committee members to 
remind them of the sensitive nature of the hearings.

"I wasn't pleased to read some of the stuff. We're supposed to be not 
speaking to the press. Our agenda is not supposed to be published. The 
members of our committee are supposed to be able to come and work in camera 
and we're not supposed to be talking about security measures, whether we 
have or don't have them. The first rule in security is you don't say what 
you're doing, because then you're showing your hand."

While names of MPs on the committee were published in the Hansard record of 
Parliament last June, the membership has since changed. Grewal replaced 
Alliance MP Jim Abbott on the panel, while Bloc MP Pierrette Venne, who 
confirmed her membership Friday, is also an addition.

In the aftermath of the gang-style shooting of Montreal journalist Michel 
Auger, the Bloc Quebecois plans to table a motion in the Commons Monday 
demanding the government pass new legislation against criminal gangs by 
Oct. 6. More than 150 people have been killed in Montreal over the last 
five years in the violent war between two motorcycle gangs, the Hell's 
Angels and the Rock Machine, over control of the lucrative drug trade.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart