6 - North Shore News — Wednesday, August 23, 2000

ORTH Vancouver District

should be opposing more

than the truck noise that will
be generated by the Cleveland Dam
project. The municipality should be
opposing the project itself.

Last week district council voted 3-
2 in favour of instituting a noise
bylaw aimed at mitigating the disrup-
ticn to neighbourhood life that will
be caused by the convoys of heavy
trucks moving material from the dam
to abandoned watershed gravel pits
along a service road that runs direct-
ly behind approximately 60 Grouse
Woods-area homes.

In addition to the $20-million pro-
ject to patch up Cleveland Dam, an
$80-million ozonation plant is being
built at the dam. That project will
add up to more noise and more truck

VIEW POINT:

But aside from their impact on
Grouse Woods neighbourhood life,
both projects have questionable long-
term value. And both should be put
on hold until the Greater Vancouver
Regional District has completed its
recently approved evaluation of local
water resources. There are better and
more plentiful drinking water sources
in the Lower Mainland and Fraser
Valley areas than the Capilano reser-
voir. The Cleveland Dam/’s seepage
problem is not new. It has been a
problem since the dam was built in
1954.

The millions being invested in
patching up the dam and installing a
temporary ozonation facility would
be far better spent in tapping what
will be the future sources of water for
the Lower Mainiand’s growing popu-

A BAN ON SOLICITATION cS LA

TO RESORT To NEW TACTICS. _

trips... lation.

mailbox
immigrants nee

Dear Editor, . :
T.am responding to Mr. Renshaw’s “Ripping. Yarns”
“Municipal Mental Vacation Time” article of August 13th.
Imagine that you have landed in a strange and foreign city
— like Toronto. Unfamiliar customs, different people and a
peculiar language, wouldn’t you feel uncomfortable, inse-
- “cure, and vulnerable? How would you cope if you had fallen
victim to a.criminal? Difficult? Now imagine Kabul,
Afghanistan! ;
 Thave spent approximately thirty years dealing with new-
comers to Canada, Often they do not have command of the
language and certainly do not understand our culture. This
can be hell for them and their fomilies. Often alone without
- peer support they stumble and fall victim to criminal preda-
* tors and bureaucratic bullies. These individuals will target the
new immigrant because they know that the newcomer is -
.. Without power and protection. This victim will not complain
© and even if they decided to do so think of how difficult it
would be for you to approach the authorities in a country
with a language and culture vastly different from our own.
12 Even if the newcomers fully understood their rights and
freedoms, they would not insist that they be accorded the
‘same respect and rights that we all take for granted. Oh no,
but why not?. Because they are only a few short months away
from a different reality and, in many ways have yet to make
the journey. to Canad. It is tough and hard on families. The
- transition to this culturs takes a considerable length of time
— often a generation. Any community effort to help make it
a little easier has my unflagging support.
“|. Firing the Community. Diversity Committee sent the
wrong message: period. .
'. Douglas: MacKay-Dunn _
‘ Councillor, District of North Vancouver
.., macdunn@uniserve.com :

“DO VOU HAVE A STORY IDEAT
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LAST Friday, Alberta Provincial
Court Judge Ailan Fradsham
delivered a 110-

page decision effec-

tively stating the

police had breached

the rights of 150 or

so Hells Angels

who were travelling

to Red Deer in July

1997 to attend the

formal “patchover”

of the Grim

Reapers bike gang.

The decision was the result of a court

challenge made by the Angels, which

involved numerous days of testimony from
a variety of people, including the iocal
media darling, criminology Professor Neil
Boyd of Simon Fraser University. Boyd,
long an advocate of legalizing marijuana,
was a defence witness in the case. He testi-
fied, “My opinion is that chapters in
Western Canada are not involved in orga-
nized crime as chapters or as a regional
entity.” ;

Boyd's testimony came from his vast
experience and interviewing “32 members
and visiting various clubhouses in the past

- couple of months.”

So let me get this straight. The profes-

_sor interviews the bikers and accepts their

largesse and parties with them at the club-
houses and from this he determines they -
are not involved in organized crime. And

‘he’s passed off as some kind of expert in a

court of law?

What did he do for his research? Ask
the bikers if they were involved in orga-
nized crime? And when they said, “No
sirt”... alrighty then, case closed! Let’s go

By Terry Peters

Ry) punishment

‘neo Bench blind on organized crime

_ is unbelievable. :

to the clubhouse and have a few pops.

In my view, whatever credibility Boyd
might have had is now permanendy, irre-
trievably destroyed.
Three years ago, ;
Professor Rob Gordon,
who runs the SFU crimi-
nology department,
wrote a report on gang,
activity, which referred to
the Hells Angels as a
criminal business ongani-
zation. Evidently Boyd’s
level of research doesn’t
even require he talk to
his colleagues at SFU, let
done the cops who
investigate organized crime.

Evictently, acither do judges. .

Judge Fradsham ruled on three points
of law. Essentially, he said the police
breached she bikers’ rights in detaining
them jor several hours on the roadside
while they.sdentified and photographed
everyone ior intelligence purposes.’ But, he
also said there was no breach on the
Angels’ freedom of association or freedom
of mobility. oo, ;

Now, it should be said that I don’t
inherently have a problem with the ruling ©
itself. St is to be expected from those who

Leo
Knight

crime and

worship at the altar of the Charter and park ©

their common sense elsewhere. My con-
cerns come about from some of the com-
ments made by the judge in his written
conclusions. if

When he concluded the police did not
breach the Angels’ right to freedom of

. mobility and association, he stated the

police were operating on the basis of
“unsupported conclusions.” He also
termed the bikers as “unsavory characters.”
But, he refused to recognize that the Hells
Angels are an organized crime group. This

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Never mind examples like the ongoing «"
war over drug turf in Quebec with the.
Rock Machine and the 150 plus associated
deaths or the host of documerted evidence
presented annvally and publicly by
Criminal Intelligence Services Canada to
Parliament. ; ey
Consider, if you will, the comments of |
Alberta Judge B.R. Fraser, 2 colleague of
Fradsham, in a case involving a former
Hells Angel, Anthony Leonard Vaughan, ©:
who pleaded guilty last year to 13 criminal’. °°,
charges including possession of a bomb, a0 =
2.2-kilogram tube of dynamite. mee
_ In the decision in tat case, Judge
Fraser made this statement: “The ac :
has a lengthy, serious and unénviable
record, That should be expected given he °.*:
was a member of the Hells Angels.” *
So what does thig jadge know, that
everyone else in the justice systems also
knows, chat somehow Fradsham can’t seem
to gsasp? . woe :
‘he case against Vaughan was much
talked about in the halls of justice in’. *
Alberta. Vaughan you see had a problem.
He owed a considerable sum ef moncy in a
drug debt to another member. To repay :
the debt, he was ordered to bomb some’ -
homes including one of a Calgary alder-
man et aa
Vaughan got himself jammed up by. th
police in an unrelated criminal matter and
ulfered to testify against the Angel who
ordered the bombings. He consented to,
wiretaps and electronic surveillance to ,-
gather evidence againse the biker. That case
is still before the courts so I will not go,"
into it. The result was the deal Vaughan
made with the Crown on his outstanding
charges which Fraser was dealing with.

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