Pubdate: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2007 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/info/letters/index.html Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture) AN EROSION OF RIGHTS JUSTICE Minister Dave Chomiak essentially served notice in Tuesday's throne speech that provincial legislation that was supposed to hit organized crime in the pocketbook has been something of a bust. Police refused to enforce the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act. Rather than scrap his law, Mr. Chomiak intends to put public servants in charge of it. Police should enforce law that is underpinned by rules of due process, not chase suspected bikers with legislation that skirts the rigours of the Criminal Code and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The forfeiture act requires no evidence that a crime has been committed in order to seize assets, just proof that the individual belongs to a gang. The biker then has to prove in a civil proceeding he has not amassed his wealth from crime. Reverse onus is offensive to the rule of law because it assumes the suspect is guilty. Even with the lower burden of proof, the law has never been used. Police are too busy chasing real crimes. The throne speech gave notice the government will take care of this problem by putting an internal team in the Justice Department in charge of investigations. This has been done in other provinces; the law in Ontario has triggered a Charter challenge. Manitoba already employs the civil investigative process to shut down drug dens and prostitution houses under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. That legislation, which threatens landlords with the padlocking of doors, has closed hundreds of such operations, or rather chased them out of a specific neighbourhood and into others. Dealers can simply move to a new house, something good police work and a strong criminal charge might prevent. The forfeiture act was intended to undercut organized crime by taking away the houses, income and other property of bikers in order to prove that crime doesn't pay. How public servants' evidence of assets will be collected has yet to be described. It is not the kind of thing easily done by surreptitious surveillance by bureaucrats armed with a video camera, as under the safe neighbourhoods act. The justice minister is hoping his campaign will be aided by a bid to get the federal government to outlaw specified street and biker gangs as illegal organizations, thus making the prosecutor's job easier. Gang members would become accused criminals for who they associate with, rather than for what they are convicted of doing. Manitoba justice officials report that other jurisdictions are developing a fondness for legislation like the safe neighbourhoods act, and little wonder since it disposes of the protection of due process and fundamental rights, such as the right to be presumed innocent. That judicial pillar is slowly becoming a romantic artifact in this province. Manitobans should worry where the erosion of fundamental rights will stop. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake