DOCKERS SET TO SUE

Union Threatens Police Forces Over Alleged Crime Links

The Montreal longshoremen's union is threatening to sue two police forces
unless they retract allegations that its members have ties to organized crime.

The Syndicat des Debardeurs du Port de Montreal fired off letters to the
Montreal Urban Community police and the RCMP - via the federal justice
minister - demanding they cease making "irresponsible allegations" about
its members and retract statements already made.

The union's complaints are based on comments made by police after two
recent seizures of drugs brought through the port.

After seizing five tonnes of hashish at the port on Oct. 19, MUC police
said they were certain the drugs were tied to the West End Gang, a
collection of mostly anglophone criminals based in western Montreal.

Police also said that during their eight-month investigation, they
monitored a ring of 10 port employees who were stealing goods from the port
and helped facilitate the entry of drugs.

After making a seizure on Nov. 3 of 1,000 kilograms of hashish from
Belgium, hidden in a container loaded with boxes of 5-kilogram bricks of
chocolate, RCMP investigators said it had become evident that people with
ties to organized crime groups like the Hells Angels were working at the port.

Union president Michel Murray said he was particularly upset by a recent
estimate by an RCMP spokesman that 15 per cent of union members have
criminal records.

"Enough is enough," Murray said. "We are not drug dealers.

"We've seen of lot of things happen. Our members go to a restaurant or to
the arena with their kids while wearing their longshoreman's jacket and
people say 'Hey, that's one of them.' "

Murray said no members of the union have been arrested as a result of the
recent seizures. But MUC police said as recently as last week that they
were still investigating the Oct. 21 hashish seizure and that arrests could
be coming soon.

A general report on organized crime published in 1999 by Criminal
Intelligence Service Canada said: "Criminal organizations are entrenched
within the infrastructure of Canada's maritime ports (including Montreal),
a position they use to control the bulk of contraband entering through the
ports.

"The criminal infiltration of a port is usually accomplished through the
placement of members, associates, relatives and friends in legitimate
positions at the port. It is often accompanied by intimidation of regular
port workers to ensure either co-operation or silence."

Murray also said that no union members have been arrested inside the port
since 1996 - but he later acknowledged that a Montreal longshoremen was one
of six people implicated in a 1999 RCMP seizure of almost 1,000 kilograms
of hashish, found in a truck in a South Shore town. The $16-million
shipment originated in Kenya and arrived in Toronto on a Lufthansa flight.

Murray said that while the case involved a union member "the crime occurred
outside of the port."