PLANNED ORGANIZED CRIME LAW BLASTED

HAMILTON - One of Canada's top criminal lawyers says the province would
violate constitutional rights by passing a law allowing police to seize
assets belonging to suspected members of organized crime.

John Rosen - one of the lawyers who represented convicted sex-slayer Paul
Bernardo - says the proposed law, which would allow police to seize
everything from cash, to cars, to companies before an accused is convicted
in criminal court, is ''an outrageous piece of legislation'' that ''erodes
individual rights'' and ''presumes guilt.''

The Toronto lawyer says such a law would allow police to make seizures based
only on their opinion and it would strip away the right to a hearing or to
confront one's accusers.

Only a criminal court can determine if someone is a member of organized
crime, he says.

Attorney General Jim Flaherty announced yesterday he will introduce his
civil asset-forfeiture law before Christmas, with the hope of making Ontario
the first province in Canada to adopt this sort of legislation to crack down
on organized crime.

In August, Flaherty sponsored an international summit on organized crime,
during which experts from the United States, Ireland, Wales and South Africa
talked about civil asset-forfeiture laws in their countries. A summary of
that conference was released yesterday.

Rosen says stakeholders and critics were not included in Flaherty's summit,
nor in any discussions he's had on the forfeiture subject. If they had been
asked, says Rosen, criminal lawyers would have told Flaherty his idea
contravenes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

''Once again our attorney general has gone out on a political limb and is
about to saw the branch off,'' Rosen says.

The lawyer has defended a number of suspected organized crime members. Most
recently, he acted for Angelo Musitano on charges of conspiring to kill
crime associate Carmen Barillaro. Hamilton lawyer Dean Paquette represented
Angelo's brother, Pasquale, on the same charge.

They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Rosen says Flaherty is pushing criminal law hot buttons to win support.

The legislation would allow for both civil and criminal approaches to
fighting organized crime, says Hamilton-Wentworth Police Chief Ken
Robertson.

If a suspected Mafia member or outlaw biker is charged with drug
trafficking, police can seize the car he used to transport the drugs and the
house he bought with the drug money, Robertson says.

Right now, there are federal proceeds of crime laws in place that allow for
the same sorts of seizures, but not until after a conviction, which
Robertson says could take years to get.

A former organized crime investigator himself, the chief says civil
asset-forfeiture laws have withstood legal challenges in other countries and
will stand up against the ''naysayers'' who will criticize the proposal in
Ontario.

Paquette says he is doubtful the law will get past first reading in the
Ontario legislature, however, because he believes it is based on a complete
misrepresentation of the division of powers.

While Ontario has control over property rights, he says, the proposed law
isn't really about property but about criminal justice, and that's the
jurisdiction of Ottawa.

Paquette believes the province doesn't even have the power to bring in such
a law.