SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS PROVINCES' POWER TO SEIZE PROCEEDS OF CRIME

(CNS) Provincial governments were spared the prospect of returning
millions of dollars in seized property when the Supreme Court of
Canada ruled unanimously yesterday that the Crown has the power to
confiscate the proceeds of crime.

The decision preserves provincial laws adopted in recent years
permitting governments to attempt to take the profit out of crime and
to compensate victims by ordering the forfeiture of ill-gotten goods.

The ruling rejected an Ontario man's argument that the province's
Civil Remedies Act is unconstitutional because it treads on federal
jurisdiction over criminal law. "Each level of government bears a
portion of the costs of criminality and each level of government,
therefore, has an interest in its suppression," Justice Ian Binnie
wrote in the 7-0 decision.

Robin Chatterjee, a former student at Carleton University in Ottawa,
was en route to his home in Thornhill, Ont., in March 2003 when
police pulled him over because his car was missing a front licence plate.

They discovered he was breaching a court order to live in Ottawa and
upon searching his car, found a light ballast, one light socket and
an exhaust fan - items commonly used for marijuana grow operations.
He also had $29,000 cash.

Police did not charge him because they said they did not have enough
evidence. Ontario's Civil Remedies Act, however, does not require a
criminal conviction, so the province moved in and seized the goods
after receiving judicial approval.