Justice Committee on March 30th, 2010

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Was the agency a legitimate agency originally, or was it set up to...?

[Insp John Ferguson]

Yes, it was a legitimate agency that was receiving its funding through, I believe, a church here in Winnipeg.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

You said it was government funded.

[Insp John Ferguson]

That's correct. The funding was coming from the government.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

But it was based in a church...?

[Insp John Ferguson]

I don't know if Constable Leone might have a little bit more information, because I'm not exactly sure of its structure. It was an agency developed to help gang members. Their funding was received from the federal government through a local church. How they established themselves, I'm not quite sure.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Do you have any idea how long they functioned before they were infiltrated?

[Insp John Ferguson]

It was quite a while. I don't have the information with me, but it was a year, possibly, if not longer.

[Constable Nick Leone, Winnipeg Police Service]

I have to agree. I think the initial funding was coming through a legitimate organization, and then this group set up their own committee to handle the funds themselves. That's where there were issues.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

How long did it go on before they were caught?

[Insp John Ferguson]

At least a year, if not longer.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Is there any evidence, or other investigations currently going on, of a similar type of attempted infiltration, or successful infiltration?

[Insp John Ferguson]

Not to that scale, no, not that I'm aware of.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Inspector Poole, you raised it as well in terms of corruption of criminal justice figures. We've heard both in Toronto and in Edmonton in these last two days of meetings that there are either investigations going on or suspicions that there may have been penetration into police forces or the criminal justice agencies and staff. Have there been any charges here of criminal justice people, or other investigations going on?

[Insp Jim Poole]

I'm not sure I raised that.... Infiltration into the government?

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I thought you did. Oh, maybe it was intimidation.

[Insp Jim Poole]

Yes, it was intimidation.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Has it been successful? Were there investigations that were compromised, or practices compromised, as a result of intimidation of those figures?

[Cst Nick Leone]

I can say we've conducted investigations into members within the Winnipeg Police Service who we believe were corrupted by organized crime and were using their influence as police officers to further these organizations, yes.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

What about on the intimidation side?

[Cst Nick Leone]

That's always an issue for us. We have difficulty in getting our witnesses to come forward. That's always a problem.

[Insp Jim Poole]

But against the judiciary, we've laid charges in some incidents where they've been intimidated.

[Cst Nick Leone]

Absolutely.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

All the way up to judges.

[Cst Nick Leone]

We've had crown attorneys who've had home invasions and that sort of thing by gang members.