Pubdate: Sat, 11 Mar 2006
Source: Brandon Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006, Brandon Sun
Contact:  http://www.brandonsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2437
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)

CRACKDOWN LAW EXTREMELY WELCOME

Now that's proactive. Our hats are off to Manitoba Justice Minister
Gord Mackintosh for taking a huge step to stop crystal meth from
spreading into our communities.

From now on, all provincial investigators need to take down a
suspected meth lab is receive a complaint from neighbours that some
sort of illicit activity is happening in a nearby property. From
there, the investigators need to apply to a judge for the authority to
close the property and evict the people.

"Your home may be your castle, but not if you're screwing up your
neighbourhood," Mackintosh told a press conference in Winnipeg on Thursday.

As we've seen in Brandon and many other places throughout Manitoba,
all it takes is one bad apple to spoil the batch in our
neighbourhoods. Last summer, we watched in frustration as the Indian
Posse street gang set itself up in a suite in a downtown neighbourhood
and terrorized the area. The property's owner told the Sun that he
tried to evict them, but was powerless to remove the menace that had
taken root in his building and his neighbourhood.

This province has always been pretty good about giving people a way to
get rid of problems in their backyards. In 2002, the NDP followed
through with a promise made by the outgoing Progressive Conservative
administration and passed the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods
Act. The law allows people to anonymously complain to the province's
director of safety, who can mount his own investigation, gather
evidence and shut down drug dens, grow-ops, brothels and other such
cancers on communities. As of last summer, police had received 600
tips and shut down 110 operations -- including some in Brandon,
Portage la Prairie and The Pas.

This new law would supercede that earlier act. It would give
investigators the ability to shut down a suspected crystal meth lab
even if hadn't produced a single bit of methamphetamine. As long as
the property's owners had the equipment -- or anything else they
shouldn't, such as brass knuckles, switchblades or child porn -- the
province would be able to simply take the property and evict its
owners or tenants.

The beauty of the law is it's civil and relies on the public -- who
are more likely to know what's going on in their neighbourhoods --
giving them the power to take back their areas. Better yet, by seizing
the property it also prevents the people from going back and
continuing with whatever it was they were doing that got them into
trouble in the first place.

"That activity will tend to continue until such a time as its
finalized in the courts," Sgt. Kevin Martell of the Winnipeg Police
Service told the Winnipeg Free Press.

"With the civil legislation, the activity is stopped in a shorter
period of time."

Some will worry that the law means justice officials can take people's
property without reasonable and probable grounds for search and
seizure. We disagree. Investigators still need to do their due
diligence to apply for the authority to close the property. They can't
do that without any evidence that something untoward is happening. Not
only that, but if people are innocent, they can appeal and prove that
they do not have equipment for making meth or growing marijuana plants.

Besides, if people have nothing to hide, what are they worried
about?

We applaud the minister for his stand. Crystal meth, which has exacted
a terrible financial and social cost on so many communities around us,
must be stopped from doing the same thing to our province.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin