Justice committee  They tend to be officers who have policed an area for a long time, so they have that background. They tend to be at the end of their careers. Again, in every case I have ever done involving organized crime, that's the first dispute with the police--in terms of who their expert is

Justice committee  No. When they go into this particular line of work there's a whole routine in terms of developing a curriculum vitae, testifying, going to groups across Canada and serving. But it's very resource-intensive.

Justice committee  You buttress right up against freedom of association. You'll find--and I'm just thinking of certain outlaw motorcycle gangs that I can talk about--that some members commit no crimes. You can have rare individuals in some groups that commit no crimes. They may have a particular fu

Justice committee  I'll answer that two ways. First, when you're designing legislation it's not just for one particular group. The one thing about motorcycle gangs is they have trademarks; they have very clear indicia. Most criminal organizations are amorphous and they're very difficult to list. It

Justice committee  Again, it's their choice. Section 655 of the code makes it their choice. They have an absolute veto. So, yes, they are proud to be members, but they still make the crown prove it.

Justice committee  I'm not aware of that.

Justice committee  Criminal organizations don't have written constitutions that say “this criminal organization is a money-laundering shop”, so we tend to have to rely on hundreds of hours of wiretaps. Members of organized crime groups know they're being wiretapped, so you have to play a lot of the

Justice committee  Whether a group is a criminal organization is an element of the offence. It has to be proven by the crown beyond a reasonable doubt each and every time. Because it's an element of the offence, the way the charter works you can't simply apply one decision into another fact pattern

Justice committee  It's not a crime in Canada to be a member of a criminal organization; it's an element the crown has to prove. The crown has to prove that I'm a member of the particular group. For example, if it's a section 467.12 offence, the crown has to prove that, let's say, an extortion oc

Justice committee  No, not on every element, but there is this gang dynamic where accused persons, because they are still a member of the gang and they fear retribution, don't want to do any particular act that may look bad on the group, so they won't make an admission about the group itself.

Justice committee  I'll deal with the practicality question first. In terms of practicality, there are two responses. The first thing is you need to understand that when people think about criminal organizations they tend to use an analogy to corporations. They think they operate that way. The bet

Justice committee  You're still going to have to call evidence about how the group operates. It will depend on the specific case. In terms of your second question on the pretrial powers, more powers to the judiciary to manage trials is a good thing. Right now, we still operate on a bit of an Edwa

Justice committee  The effect of this is to increase the cost and length of these prosecutions. Many times I have to prove the equivalent of water being wet, but that is because of gang dynamics. For some groups there is an unwritten rule that you cannot plead guilty to organized crime charges. Rec

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, members of the committee, for inviting me here today. I have been a federal prosecutor in western Canada for almost my entire career and have handled several large organized crime cases involving street gangs, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and mem