Pubdate: Wed, 05 Feb 2003
Source: Recorder & Times, The (CN ON)
Section: A, Page 1
Copyright: 2003 Recorder and Times
Contact:  http://www.recorder.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2216
Author: Ronald Zajac

CITY PONDERS BANNING BIKER BUNKERS

Brockville needs an anti-bunker bylaw as a deterrent to organized crime, 
especially in light of lenient sentences in drug-related court cases, 
Police Chief Barry King told a city council committee Tuesday.

Court decisions are "not a deterrent" to criminals, King told the 
environment, planning and development committee before it recommended city 
council enact a bylaw outlawing excessive fortifications.

King later told The Recorder and Times he was referring to a January ruling 
granting a conditional sentence to a man who ran a pot-growing operation 
from a home west of the city.

In that case, Hoang Xuan Dang was granted a conditional sentence of two 
years less a day to be served in the community.

But King pointed to lenient penalties in drug-related cases across Canada 
to argue other means are necessary to deter organized crime.

Bylaws limiting fortifications on private property are aimed at ridding 
communities of "biker bunkers," heavily fortified facilities aimed at 
keeping law enforcement officials and rival crime gangs out of a property.

Such properties can use potentially lethal means of keeping others away and 
typically include other illegal measures, such as hydro bypasses to avoid 
electricity meters.

While biker bunkers are not a problem in Brockville, King warned the 
committee criminal elements are looking to small rural communities as they 
are pushed out of Quebec and the Toronto area. That includes not only biker 
gangs but other forms of organized crime such as drug traffickers.

Last year, the chief noted, city police prevented one group from setting up 
a clandestine drug lab in the city.

Section 133.1 of Ontario's Municipal Act allows municipalities to prohibit 
"excessive fortification" of land.

The draft bylaw heading to council for approval, for instance, would 
regulate surveillance equipment, such as video cameras, "night vision" 
systems or electronic listening systems that can scan beyond the perimeter 
of a property.

Exceptions to these provisions include financial institutions, jails and 
police, military or city-owned facilities.

But planning department staff members stressed they are open to suggestions 
and will be flexible in enforcing the bylaw, which leaves room for council 
to make further exceptions upon application.

The idea is to tailor the bylaw to uses not now anticipated, planner 
Jonathan Faurschou said.

Councillor Bob Huskinson, the committee chairman, asked what would happen 
to people who put motion sensors on their garages.

Putting a security system on one's own home does not fall under the bylaw's 
definition of "excessive," Faurschou replied.

"When you electrify the place, it's excessive," he said.

The full city council is expected to vote on the proposed bylaw next Tuesday.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth