Pubdate: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2008 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/info/letters/index.html Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: Mike McIntyre Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) CHINESE MIGRANTS' CHARGES DROPPED Workers Didn't Realize Crop Was Marijuana Manitoba justice officials have dropped charges against nearly two dozen Chinese migrants found working in a massive marijuana grow operation. The decision not to proceed comes after a judge ruled last fall that five co-accused were innocent dupes manipulated into the criminal enterprise and should not be held responsible for the illegal activity they participated in. Queen's Bench Justice Deborah McCawley found them not guilty on multiple drug offences in a decision that prompted the Crown to re-examine the rest of its case. Federal prosecutor Paul Jensen said Monday they were unlikely to secure convictions given McCawley's ruling, which was not appealed. "We took that as a basis for not proceeding," he said. The case made national headlines following an extensive undercover RCMP investigation that yielded $19 million worth of pot in the fall of 2005. Police found 25 men and three women sleeping side-by-side and head-to-toe in every room of a tiny, 700-square-foot house in Sundown, Man., which is about 140 kilometres east of Winnipeg. More than 10,000 mature pot plants were thriving in four sprawling greenhouses sitting on the same rural farm property, which was hidden from the public by a thick curtain of trees. "They became the unwitting dupes of unscrupulous advantage-takers," McCawley said in handing down what would become a precedent-setting decision. "Contrary to the Crown's implicit argument that their actions were motivated by greed, opportunism and a willingness to ignore or break the law, their actions were borne of ignorance, unearned trust and a desire to better their lives." The suspects had all been recruited in Toronto's Chinatown district and offered up to $300 a day to work on the "fall harvest," court was told. The five on trial testified in their own defence and told court they didn't realize the crop they were working on was marijuana. Some believed it was a fruit or vegetable, while one man thought it was "Chinese medicinal herbs." Defence lawyer Mike Cook said none of his clients had ever seen a pot plant before. Crown attorney Anne Turner had argued the accused must have realized what they were doing was illegal and that the financial offers were "too good to be true." She said allowing them to walk free would send the wrong message. "These accused are here asking to be held to a standard lower than any other Canadian citizen," Turner said during her closing arguments. McCawley said she couldn't ignore the obvious cultural issues in this case. "To make such a finding (that they knew what they were getting into) would be to impose a cultural understanding on these individuals which is not within their life experience and which in some instances is beyond their comprehension," she said. "Unworldly, vulnerable and living near or below the poverty line, it is not difficult to understand how each of them could be easily enticed by the possibility of making more money." Only three of the original 28 accused now remain before the courts. They are accused of playing a more prominent role in the operation and didn't have their charges stayed. Khyong Wong, the alleged mastermind behind the grow operation, has avoided prosecution by somehow slipping out of Canada while the subject of an undercover police investigation. He is being sought on a Canada-wide warrant. His most recent address was in Burnaby, B.C., but justice sources say he has likely returned to his native Hong Kong. Wong, 43, has lived in various provinces including B.C., Manitoba and Ontario, but would probably not face extradition even if caught because he is a Chinese national. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom