On Friday, November 1, 2013 1:34:30 PM UTC-7, Greg Carr wrote:   
   > Do the B.C. Hells Angels have a shot at getting the courts to throw out    
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   > the province’s civil forfeiture law?   
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   > Simon Fraser University criminal law expert David MacAlister thinks it    
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   > may be possible.   
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   > The constitutional rights of the seven men connected to the East End    
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   > Chapter that filed the suit Tuesday may be violated because a lower    
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   > burden of proof is required in civil forfeiture cases compared to their    
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   > legal counterparts, said MacAlister.   
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   > “If the outcomes are the same, then presumably the due process    
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   > safeguards should be the same,” MacAlister said. “Because you’ve got the    
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   > same sort of seriousness of penalty, the effect of sentence is the same,    
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   > the stigma attached to having your property forfeited is the same.   
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   > “Therefore, the Crown should be forced to go through the same hoops    
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   > regardless of whether we’re talking about the federal (criminal) law or    
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   > provincial (civil) law.”   
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   > The Hells Angels launched its counterclaim Tuesday to a suit by the CFO    
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   > last fall to seize Hells Angels’ clubhouses in East Vancouver and    
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   > Kelowna. Hells Angels’ lawyer Joe Arvay said the government has been    
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   > going after clubhouses owned by the gang, even though they haven’t been    
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   > able to prove in a B.C. court that the Hells Angels is a criminal    
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   > organization.   
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   > B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Office (CFO) was created seven years ago to    
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   > “take away the profit motive” for criminals and has since seized about    
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   > $40 million worth of property, goods and cash, including more than $8.4    
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   > million last year, according to its director, Phil Tawtel.   
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   > Forfeited items include properties housing marijuana grow operations,    
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   > vehicles, helicopters, boats and large quantities of cash obtained from    
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   > drug trafficking, he said in an emailed statement.   
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   > To date, the “extremely successful” office has seized property in almost    
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   > half of its 1,400 cases and decided to not go ahead with about 370 other    
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   > cases forwarded by police across the province, Tawtel said. Most of its    
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   > 510 ongoing cases are tied to drug activity and the vast majority    
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   > involve wads of $10,000 in cash or less.   
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   > Since 2007, the government has used the Civil Forfeiture Act to go after    
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   > Hells Angels’ assets in Nanaimo, East Vancouver and Kelowna, including    
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   > the three clubhouses.   
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   > This week, the CFO filed another lawsuit going after the assets of a    
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   > Kelowna business that police allege was a “chop shop” used by the Hells    
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   > Angels and other biker gangs.   
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   > A lawsuit was filed in B.C. Supreme Court last week against Kelowna’s    
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   > Cycle Logic and its owner John Edward Newcome, alleging his business    
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   > “was an automotive chop shop for the purposes of storing, processing,    
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   > trafficking and selling stolen vehicles.”   
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   > The government wants $750,000 worth of property seized in a police raid    
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   > in August 2012 forfeited and sold, with the proceeds going into the    
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   > Civil Forfeiture account.   
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   > Newcome is facing a series of charges including possession of stolen    
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   > property and trafficking in stolen property. He is next in Kelowna    
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   > Provincial Court Oct. 11.   
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   > At the time of his arrest, Kelowna RCMP said Cycle Logic was involved in    
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   > modifying vehicle identification numbers on stolen vehicles, trailers    
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   > and machinery and then reselling them.   
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   > And police said members of Nanaimo Hells Angels and Throttle Locker    
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   > biker gang worked at Cycle Logic and that HA members from Nanaimo and    
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   > Calgary were seen there.   
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   > Newcome has not yet filed a response to the government’s claim, which    
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   > lists dozens of motorcycles and parts seized including Harley Davidsons,    
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   > Yamahas and Suzukis.   
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   > The civil forfeiture lawsuit makes no mention of the Hells Angels or any    
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   > other gang.   
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   > The new Hells Angels suit alleges the Civil Forfeiture Act is being    
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   > misused to go after assets as “instruments of criminal activity” even    
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   > when police have insufficient evidence to support charges.   
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   > “Civil forfeiture laws allow the government to do indirectly what it    
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   > cannot do directly, and that is, to prove crimes without affording to    
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   > those most directly affected all of the basic protections that the    
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   > criminal law and process properly requires,” Arvay said Tuesday.   
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   > “In our view, this legislation is beyond the powers of the provincial    
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   > legislature and contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”   
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   > In November 2012, the director of civil forfeiture went to court to    
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   > seize the East End and Kelowna clubhouses, naming 21 Hells Angels in    
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   > both chapters as defendants in the action.   
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   > “The East End HAMC clubhouse and the Kelowna HAMC clubhouse have been    
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   > used to engage in unlawful activities,” the suit claimed, including a    
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   > list of offences such as production, importing and trafficking cocaine,    
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   > pot and methamphetamine; assaults; uttering threats; extortion; and    
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   > “committing manslaughter or murder.”   
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   > After news of the counterclaim broke Tuesday, B.C. Justice Minister    
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   > Suzanne Anton said, “The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the    
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   > constitutionality of civil forfeiture laws in Canada.”   
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   > She said the CFO “must convince a B.C. Supreme Court judge that    
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   > forfeiture should be ordered in any contested case.”   
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   > The federal Supreme Court’s ruling only addressed the ability of each    
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   > province to enact their own civil forfeiture laws and not the    
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   > constitutionality of such laws, MacAlister said.   
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   > “This case seems to go to the next level, and say, ‘OK, just because the    
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   > province has the power to enact these laws, where do we go from there?’    
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   > in terms of looking at them and seeing if there are some other grounds    
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   > for challenging them,” MacAlister said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a    
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   > Hells Angel, you’re a mafia boss or an alleged terrorist, your rights    
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   > are your rights and they apply equally to you, regardless of what kind    
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   > of crimes you’re accused of committing.   
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   > “If it just so happens that it takes a Hells Angels case to get this    
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   > issue addressed before the courts, well then, that’s what happens.”   
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   [continued in next message]   
      
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