Canada's biker war tests free assembly

Biker gangs are a problem in Quebec as nowhere else. The current war stems from a Hell's Angels attempted takeover of the rival Rock Machine in 1994 at a time when the latter's leader was in jail pending extradition to the United States on drug charges. The Rock Machine refused the offer; a rash of car bombs and brutal executions broke out and hasn't stopped since.

The situation was intensified, says University of Montreal criminologist Pierre Tremblay, by the "botched prosecution" in the case of Maurice ("Mom") Boucher, on trial for conspiracy in the 1997 murders of two prison guards. Prosecutors relied too heavily on informants' testimony, Mr. Tremblay says, and the subsequent acquittal sent a "message of impunity" to the gangs.

Tremblay also suggests that part of the problem in Quebec is jurisdictional rivalry among law enforcement agencies, particularly between the Montreal police and the provincial force, the Sret du Quebec.

McLellan alluded to this last week: "If you don't have those forces working together sharing information, integrating their efforts, it doesn't matter what law you have on the books, it's simply not going to be effective."

The Hell's Angels are estimated to number about 250 full-fledged members across Canada, with 2,000 to 3,000 "associates." In western Canada, however, they behave differently from their Quebec counterparts.

"Some are criminally involved, but they don't commit crimes as a chapter," says Neil Boyd, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

But even there, Canada's Charter protections can make hard-nosed law enforcement difficult. Last month, Mr. Boyd testified in a case where a judge in Alberta ruled that that province's "zero tolerance" initiative against the Hell's Angels was a violation of members' Charter rights. The court found that police roadblocks, ostensibly intended to inspect their vehicles, were actually intended to impede the group's expansion and to gather intelligence on it.

In British Columbia, marijuana is typically cultivated indoors, but the favored modus operandi in Quebec is for growers to "squat" on the land of legitimate farmers, using razor wire to fence a long, thin strip of cornfield and relying on intimidation to keep landowners silent.

This is an important issue both for Parti Qubcois, who run the provincial government, and sister party Bloc Qubcois, opposition in Ottawa; both have a large rural constituency. At least two MPs who have spoken out against squatters have received death threats; one, Yvan Loubier, remains under 24-hour police protection, along with his family.

The 1997 changes to the criminal code take Canada down a path close to that followed by the United States with its RICO legislation: They help prosecutors get at the proceeds of crime, and while they don't ban membership per se in "criminal organizations," they do allow for stiffer sentences for those convicted of offenses committed as a member of a "criminal organization."

Since 1997, assets valued at $140 million have been seized by authorities Canada-wide.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society

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