OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
In the last week, the center of the global war on motorcycle clubs
has shifted to Canada and the prime target there is the Hells Angels.
Last week, the Department of Justice for the Canadian province of
Manitoba officially declared the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club to be a
“criminal organization.”
Manitoba
The declaration means that Manitoba prosecutors no longer have to
prove that the Hells Angels are an organized criminal entity in order to
enhance the sentences of club members found guilty of breaking the law.
Until now, prosecutors had to prove that an accused man was actually a
racketeer before sentencing him like one. Now in Manitoba, Hells Angels
are no longer presumed to be innocent. They are now presumed to be
racketeers.
Manitoba Justice Minister Andrew Swan called the abandonment of a
presumption of innocence “…a milestone for Canada and a clear signal
that Manitoba will continue to develop and use every tool available to
fight criminal organizations and the threat they pose to Manitobans. It
is now law in Manitoba the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a criminal
organization.”
“The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was actually given the opportunity
to come forward and present some evidence to suggest they were not a
criminal organization,” Swan told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “As I understand it, there was no response to that.”
A defense attorney named Jay Prober told the CBC he doesn’t
think the new declaration will make much difference in criminal cases.
“I don’t think it was necessary. It’s window dressing, but it makes good
politics and gets votes,” Prober said. “I doubt this piece of
legislation will withstand a constitutional challenge.”
Forfeiture
Where the new law will make a difference is in civil forfeiture
cases. What Manitoba police and prosecutors seem to be after is an
easier path to stealing the assets of Hells Angels charters and patch
holders. The new declaration will make it harder to fight forfeiture.
Yesterday Kim Bolan, the Vancouver Sun’s beat reporter
covering “gangs, terrorism, crime and justice,” wrote that Angels
charters in Canada had begun to liquidate their assets to avoid
forfeiture. Bolan quoted Detective Sergeant Len Isnor of the Ontario
Provincial Police Biker Enforcement Unit who heard it through the
grapevine that Canadian Angels are saying, “it’s not worth it and they
are selling their assets. It seems to be a new trend in Ontario.”
Sergeant Isnor told Bolan that Manitoba made the criminal declaration
because “They were tired of waiting for the federal government. The
courts are just bogged down…. We are proving water is wet over and over
again.”
Bolan also reported yesterday that the British Columbia Nomads recently sold their clubhouse for $2.175 million.
No corpus. No corpus delicti. No assets. No assets to forfeit.
