Hells Angels criminal organization, judge rules

INDEPTH: BIKER GANGS
Canada's anti-gang law
CBC News Online | September 07, 2004

There's a bloody war in Quebec.

Motorcycle gangs have been fighting over turf for the past six years. More than 150 people have been killed so far, including an 11-year-old boy who was hit by flying shrapnel from a car bomb that exploded nearby.

In September 2000, Le Journal de Montréal reporter Michel Auger, who had been covering the province's biker war, was shot five times in the newspaper's parking lot. Police said they believed the attack was revenge for a feature article he had just written about Quebec's biker gangs and Mafia organizations.

Auger survived but nobody has been arrested for the shooting.

The event put the federal government under intense pressure to do something about its anti-gang law, which some say isn't tough enough.

Bill C-95, passed in 1997, amended the Criminal Code (and other legislation) to acknowledge crimes committed "for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with" a criminal organization. Convictions carry a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 14 years.

But then there's section 11, which reads:
"Every one who… participates in or substantially contributes to the activities of a criminal organization knowing that any or all of the members of the organization engage in or have, within the preceding five years, engaged in the commission of a series of indictable offences… of which the maximum punishment is imprisonment for five years or more… is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years."

In other words, the bill makes it illegal to be a member of a motorcycle gang or other criminal organization.

But it wasn't until February 2001 that the first convictions under Canada's anti-gang law were won.

Four men, Philippe Côté, Mario Filion, Eric Leclerc and Simon Lambert, were all found guilty of operating a drug ring for the Rock Machine motorcycle gang (which has since merged with a U.S. gang). Four others were acquitted of gangsterism charges but were found guilty of lesser crimes, including drug-related offences.

Before this, the only person who had been tried for charges under Bill C-95 was Peter Paradis, an admitted gang member. Paradis eventually became a police informant and was used as the Crown's main witness in the Rock Machine trial.

In September 2004 in Barrie, Ont., two members of the Hells Angels went on trial for extortion and were also charged under C-95 for allegedly committing the offence "for the benefit or at the direction of a criminal organization." Some lawyers consider the Ontario trial to be the first significant test of the law.

Critics of Bill C-95 say it goes too far, arguing it infringes on the freedom of association guaranteed by section 2(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In fact, the trial for the eight Rock Machine gang members was postponed to allow the defence more time to consider whether to challenge some of the charges on constitutional grounds.

And they're not the only ones who have the Charter on their side.

Bikers in Alberta won a major court victory in Alberta last summer when a judge ruled police violated their constitutional rights during a massive roadside check in 1997. And the Charter will no doubt be used against Ontario's proposed Bill 155, which would give police the power to seize the assets of criminal organizations even without a criminal investigation.

Other critics say the bill is flawed because it means people could be guilty of an offence simply because of their status in a group rather than because of something they themselves did.

Then there are those who say the bill simply won't work, that it's only a political move aimed at making gangs less visible to the media and the public. The members would stop wearing gang colours to avoid being arrested under Bill C-95, but the gangs would go on.

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