City programs target at-risk youngsters By JILLIAN AUSTIN, WINNIPEG SUN

Keeping vulnerable youth on a positive path is a challenge the City of Winnipeg has been dealing with for years.

Mayor Sam Katz says they continue to provide programs and expand initiatives for disadvantaged youth to “feed their creativity and encourage them to blossom.”

“When our kids are on the right path then the entire city gets to celebrate their successes and accomplishments,” Katz said. “Sadly ... the unfortunate reality is that many youth don’t receive the support or the safety they need. Not at home, not at school, which often can result in them seeking acceptance elsewhere.”

Youth programs are already in place to help break down barriers, whether financial, cultural or transportation-related, he said.

Katz is especially proud of the Live Safe program.

“We’ve been able to provide 850 youth with the opportunity to play soccer ... and now it has staff and employees running the program with inner-city youth, who were once participants themselves.”

It’s My Community Too is a partnership between the city and the Manitoba Metis Federation that focuses on building individual and community pride. It is designed to work with clients who possess multiple employment barriers.

“We did a community work experience program, which resulted in the 12 participants gaining full-time employment,” Katz said.

Keeping kids busy with positive activities after school is exactly what the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre is all about.

The centre opened in 2000, and has since grown to offer recreational, tutoring and academic achievement programs.

The Student Mentor Aboriginal Role-Model Tutorship (SMART) program incorporates after-school tutoring, leadership activities and community involvement.

“The whole goal of the program is, we want to see more aboriginal students enter into post-secondary (education), and also become leaders,” said Lindsay Campbell, program coordinator.

The SMART program has been running at St. John’s High School for the past five years, and Campbell says it has had great success.

“We do see that the students pull up their socks and do attend school more regularly,” Campbell said. “In some instances, their grades are getting better because of the tutoring ... We also see them being more responsible, also staying out of trouble.”

Grade 10 student Whitney Moar said she feels privileged to be a part of the program.

“It’s helping me ... to get work done,” she said. “It’s self-motivating me, and it’s a great way to learn things to become a good leader.”

CJOB

On October 7th, I will be on the Richard Cloutier show from 9am - 11am with three young people talking about their involvement in gangs and how parents can learn how to prevent kids from joining gangs. Having two hours on Richard's show is amazing!

Violence reaches 'epidemic levels' Desire to belong, poverty blamed for growing crime trouble

Violence reaches 'epidemic levels'

Desire to belong, poverty blamed for growing crime trouble

By: Susanna Kelley

17/03/2010 1:00 AM

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‘In all the locations and corners of this province, there are people who use drugs. Where there’s a consumer base there’ll always be a seller, and that’s where some of our native gangs seize the opportunity’ -- Supt. Dan Malo, the RCMP’s officer in charge of the Combined Forces Gang Task Force in B.C.

Aboriginal gangs are proliferating across Canada as criminal organizations exploit the intense poverty and squalid conditions that many First Nations youth live in, says a top officer with the RCMP's aboriginal police division.

The gangs' stock-in-trade includes drug distribution, prostitution and theft, and they're only growing more sophisticated, said the RCMP.

"The gangs are brought on by poverty," said RCMP Sgt. Merle Carpenter, who holds the aboriginal gangs file with the National Aboriginal Policing Services.

"They intimidate by violence and these aboriginal youth are just wanting to belong to somebody."

While Winnipeg, with its large aboriginal population, is still the epicentre for native gangs, outfits like the Indian Posse, the Manitoba Warriors and the Native Syndicate have spread from coast to coast and into the Far North.

"They are certainly increasing in numbers and becoming more sophisticated in how they do business," said Carpenter, who is a member of the Inuvialuit First Nation in the Western Arctic.

The gangs are growing through the country's network of jails, which are acting as hothouses for recruitment and learning the tricks of the trade.

If you're not a member of a gang when you go to jail, police officials in Manitoba say, you will be when you come out. Many prisoners simply cannot survive jail life without the protection of a gang.

Last week, an aboriginal policy conference in Ottawa heard that aboriginal youth membership in gangs could double in the next 10 years.

Mark Totten, a sociologist and expert on Canadian street gangs, released a study that found aboriginal gang violence has reached "epidemic levels" in many communities.

Totten said female aboriginals are often traded among gang members and, as part of their initiation, are made to have sex with numerous gang members at the same time.

Observers say the explosive growth can't be combated unless the federal government steps up and addresses the woeful conditions underlying the startling trend.

"It's so simple that it's hard to understand why nothing's happening," said Steve Koptie, an aboriginal social worker who spent several years working in the mental health field for 21 reserves in Ontario's northwest.

"It's all about education and employment. If we don't get youth educated and we don't get them... participating in the workforce we're going to continue to watch this deterioration."

Koptie notes there is vast mineral wealth in Canada's North, such as the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario, which can provide jobs for many now-destitute aboriginals.

"The issue is how are we going to share the resources and how are we going to make education a priority," said Koptie, who notes schools on reserves get half the funding of schools off reserve.

"The federal government is responsible for education on reserve and they're fallen so far behind, they've dropped the ball majorly on this."

Calls to the federal Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs for comment were not immediately returned.

Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, with its close proximity to the United States and its coastline, have become a major gateway for the importation of drugs in the last few years, said the RCMP.

But alarmingly, the native gangs are spreading into rural B.C. as well recently, including Vancouver Island, the B.C. Interior, Fort St. John in the northeast and Prince Rupert on the northwest coast.

Smaller gangs are springing up there, with names like Red Alert, Cree Boys, Native Blood and Native Posse.

They are now in all corners of the province, said Supt. Dan Malo, the RCMP's officer in charge of the Combined Forces Gang Task Force in B.C.

"In all the locations and corners of this province, there are people who use drugs," said Malo.

"Where there's a consumer base there'll always be a seller, and that's where some of our native gangs seize the opportunity."

Aboriginal gangs are easily migrating eastward from Winnipeg into northwestern Ontario as well, often using relatives and friends as drug and alcohol couriers into even the most remote fly-in reserves, via plane or winter ice-roads.

"In one of the northern communities I was in, I met a young man with rope burns on his neck, he was 17 years old, and a gang member from Winnipeg had been in the community and he gave him one week to come up with $1,500," said Koptie.

The young man decided he was going to kill himself because he couldn't come up with the money, he said.

"This is happening across the country."

Now, in any given neighbourhood in Winnipeg, for instance, all the gangs will be represented, said Mitch Bourbonniere, a Métis and veteran social worker who has spent decades pulling aboriginal kids out of gangs in Winnipeg.

"The higher-up guys who are smarter know not to make trouble for each other," he said.

"They've all learned to kind of co-exist because they all know they're all in it for the same reason, and that is to make money."

CeaseFire: A Public Health Approach to Reduce Shootings and Killings

About the Author

Nancy Ritter is a writer with the National Institute of Justice. She is a former editor of the NIJ Journal.

by Nancy Ritter

Strategies that address serious health threats can also reduce violent crime.

The bloodshed in some of the Windy City's toughest neighborhoods declined substantially with the advent of the CeaseFire violence reduction program.

A rigorous evaluation of the program, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, confirmed anecdotal evidence that had already led officials in other cities to adopt Chicago's CeaseFire model. Researchers found that CeaseFire had a significant positive impact on many of the neighborhoods in which the program was implemented, including a decline of 16 to 28 percent in the number of shootings in four of the seven sites studied.

"Overall, the program areas grew noticeably safer in six of the seven sites, and we concluded that there was evidence that decreases in the size and intensity of shooting hot spots were linked to the introduction of CeaseFire in four of those areas. In two other areas shooting hot spots waned, but evidence that this decline could be linked to CeaseFire was inconclusive," the researchers reported.

Led by Wesley Skogan, a political science professor at Northwestern University, the evaluation team meticulously measured CeaseFire's impact on shootings and killings in Chicago.[1] The researchers spent three years evaluating the program. The findings are encouraging.

What Is CeaseFire?

CeaseFire uses prevention, intervention and community-mobilization strategies to reduce shootings and killings. The program was launched inChicago in 1999 by the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. By 2004, 25 CeaseFire sites existed in Chicago and a few other Illinois cities. Some of the program's strategies were adapted from the public health field, which has had notable success in changing dangerous behaviors. For example, public health campaigns have helped to decrease smoking and increase childhood immunizations. In fact, the program's executive director, Gary Slutkin, is an epidemiologist who views shootings as a public health issue.

As the researchers note in their report, a significant amount of street violence is "surprisingly casual in character." Men shoot one another in disputes over women, or because they feel they have been "dissed." Simply driving through rival gang territory can be fatal. In the gang world, one shooting can lead to another, starting a cycle of violence that can send neighborhoods careening.

CeaseFire uses various tools to target this violence:

• Community mobilization.
• A major public education campaign.
• Services, such as GED programs, angermanagement counseling, drug or alcohol treatment, and help finding child care or looking for a job, that can improve the lives of at-risk youth, including gang members.

In their evaluation, the researchers detail the program's approaches to building collaborations in the CeaseFire sites. The successes and pitfalls were many, as could be expected in a complex program that required law enforcement agencies, businesses, service providers, schools, community groups, political leaders and one of CeaseFire's most important partners, churches, to work together.

Of all of the program's facets, the most notable involves hiring "violence interrupters."

See "Who Are the Violence Interrupters?"

CeaseFire's violence interrupters establish a rapport with gang leaders and other at-risk youth, just as outreach workers in a public health campaign contact a target community. Working alone or in pairs, the violence interrupters cruise the streets at night, mediating conflicts between gangs. After a shooting, they immediately offer nonviolent alternatives to gang leaders and a shooting victim's friends and relatives to try to interrupt the cycle of retaliatory violence. Violence interrupters differ from community organizers or social workers. Many are former gang members who have served time in prison, which gives them greater credibility among current gang members.

CeaseFire's message travels from violence interrupters to gang members, from clergy to parishioners, and from community leaders to the neighborhood through conversations, sermons, marches and prayer vigils. The message appears on banners at postshooting rallies, which are a major part of the program. The message is simple: "The killing must stop!"

Measuring Results

The evaluation included two parts: process and outcomes.

In the process evaluation, the researchers looked at how the program worked in the field. They interviewed CeaseFire staff, police, social service workers, and business, religious and community leaders at 17 sites. The researchers also interviewed 297 gang members and street youth to get their assessment of the program.

The evaluation of outcomes was challenging because the researchers had to find comparable areas without the program to make valid comparisons to CeaseFire neighborhoods. They found seven such sites within the city of Chicago.

Statistical analysis: Analysis based on 17 years of data showed that, as a direct result of CeaseFire, shootings decreased 16-28 percent in four of the seven sites studied. The researchers called this decrease in gun violence "immediate and permanent" in three of the sites and "gradual and permanent" in the fourth site.

Hot spots analysis: Using crime mapping techniques, the researchers compared shooting patterns before and after CeaseFire started to those in areas that had no CeaseFire program. Six of the sites grew noticeably safer overall, but the researchers could credit this to CeaseFire in only four of those areas. In two sites, shooting hot spots waned, but there was not enough evidence to link this to CeaseFire.

Gang social network analysis: Gang killings declined in two CeaseFire sites. The researchers also looked at the proportion of gang homicides that were sparked by an earlier shooting. This violence was a special focus of the violence interrupters. In four sites, retaliatory killings decreased more than in the comparison areas.

Impact on Young People

The researchers also looked at CeaseFire's impact on gang members and other at-risk street youth ("clients") that the program targeted. More than 80 percent of CeaseFire's clients had past arrests, 56 percent had spent more than a day in jail, 20 percent had been to prison, and about 40 percent had been on probation or parole. Most CeaseFire clients had been involved in a gang. Nearly 60 percent had only a grade school education.

Many clients said in interviews that they had received significant help from CeaseFire. More than three-fourths of the clients said they needed a job; 87 percent of that group received significant help. Of the 37 percent who said they wanted to get back into school or a GED program, 85 percent said they had received help through the program. Nearly every one of the 34 percent who told the researchers that they wanted help in leaving a gang reported that they had received such guidance. However, although two-thirds of the clients became active in CeaseFire after they had formed a relationship with a violence interrupter — and indeed, half of them took part in marches and vigils after a shooting occurred in their neighborhood — 70 percent of the clients were still in a gang when they were interviewed.

That said, the researchers found that CeaseFire had a positive influence on these at-risk youth.

"A striking finding was how important CeaseFire loomed in their lives," the researchers stated in the report. "Clients noted the importance of being able to reach their outreach worker at critical moments — when they were tempted to resume taking drugs, were involved in illegal activities, or when they felt that violence was imminent."

CeaseFire also had a positive influence on the violence interrupters themselves. The program employed 150, many of whom had been in a gang and served time in prison. CeaseFire gave them a job in an environment where ex-offenders have limited opportunities and, the researchers note, "Working for CeaseFire also offered them an opportunity for personal redemption and a positive role to play in the communities where many had once been active in gangs."

Challenges and Cautions

Evaluating Chicago CeaseFire was not a neat laboratory experiment. Because the program runs in the real world, boundaries were not always clear between CeaseFire neighborhoods and other neighborhoods. For example, the violence interrupters had to go where gang members and other potential perpetrators of gun crime (and their potential victims) lived or hung out. "Spillover" between targeted areas and other areas was inevitable, although the researchers pointed out that this could have resulted in underestimating the program's impact.

Other programs, such as Project Safe Neighborhoods, were running in and around some of the CeaseFire sites during part of the time the researchers evaluated the program. Despite their best efforts to avoid such areas when selecting comparison sites, it was not always possible to do so. When this occurred, the researchers stated they were unable to determine empirically that CeaseFire alone was responsible for the decrease in violence.

Other issues made it difficult to discover the exact effect of CeaseFire in as straightforward and precise a way as policymakers and citizens might like. For example, in looking at the statistical data about violence, the researchers had to pick a month as the pre- and post-CeaseFire demarcation. However, pinpointing a precise date for the start of a program as large and multifaceted as CeaseFire is not easy. Community-mobilization and public education efforts got under way at different times in different areas, and the hiring of violence interrupters came a few years after the program started.

Another issue to consider when looking at the findings is that the researchers were able to examine only events that were reported to and recorded by police.

Finally, one overarching caveat to keep in mind is that Chicago experienced a huge drop in violence beginning in 1992.[2] As the researchers state in their report, "The reasons for this decline are, as elsewhere in the nation, ill-understood, and we could not account for possible remaining differences between the target and comparison areas in terms of those obviously important factors."

Still, It Worked

Despite these caveats, the evaluation showed that the program made neighborhoods safer. CeaseFire decreased shootings and killings (including retaliatory murders in some of the sites), making shooting hot spots cooler and helping the highest-risk youth.

The full report contains an extensive discussion of many topics, including:

• How sites were selected and organized, and how the central CeaseFire management worked.
• Challenges in areas with notably weak community bases.
• The crucial role of local police in providing immediate information about a shooting. This cooperation was not automatic, and readers may want to learn more about how this evolved.

Like other criminal justice programs, CeaseFire was vulnerable to the vagaries of funding fluctuations. Policymakers in particular will want to read sections of the evaluation to understand how the program was funded and the role that fluctuations played throughout the years. Also, CeaseFire was a small-scale program. Although it varied among the sites, the typical CeaseFire site's annual budget during the period covered in the evaluation was about $240,000. In the summer of 2007, the program was dramatically downsized because of budget cuts. The researchers found that they did not have enough data to do a rigorous statistical analysis of this cutback’s impact. They did state, however, that "[a] detailed examination of the existing data did not reveal any dramatic shifts in crime following the closures [of CeaseFire sites], when compared to trends in the comparison areas."

CeaseFire is still running in 16 Chicago communities and six other Illinois cities. The CeaseFire model is going national. Recently, CeaseFire has collaborated with the Baltimore City Health Department to set up the model in four sites. Parts of the model are being implemented in Kansas City,Mo., and officials are considering implementing it in Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Jacksonville, Fla.; and New Orleans. Other programs modeled on CeaseFire are being launched in eight New York cities, including Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester and Syracuse.

The NIJ evaluation was supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Gang showdown 'imminent' Confrontation brewing over city's drug trade, police warn

By: Mike McIntyre

9/03/2010 1:00 AM

Winnipeg police say the recent collapse of the Hells Angels has created a toxic environment that has the city on the verge of a dangerous biker war."Tensions are extremely high... violence is imminent," a veteran Winnipeg police officer with extensive knowledge of the organized crime scene wrote last month in newly released court documents the Free Press obtained Monday.
Police explain in detail why they believe the relative calm of the past few months is about to be broken -- including evidence of gang members stockpiling weapons in preparation to take out their rival "by any means necessary." The document was used to obtain a search warrant for an East Kildonan home in which a loaded handgun was found hidden in a backyard last month.
Police say a pair of newly arrived gangs are at the centre of the brewing battle as they try to fill the "vacuum" created by a major undercover sting operation dubbed "Project Divide" that ended last December. Police used a career criminal-turned secret agent to infiltrate the Hells Angels, resulting in the arrests of 34 high-ranking members and associates. Police say every member of the Zig Zag Crew, the Hells Angels' so-called puppet club, was put behind bars while only a handful of Hells Angels remain free.
With the demand for drugs as high as ever, the criminal underworld was thrown into turmoil. Police say two major events this winter have set the stage for an ugly spring.
"The Rock Machine has been attempting to establish a foothold in the province of Manitoba due to the arrests in Divide. Members of the Rock Machine have been capitalizing on the fact the Hells Angels members and supporters are low in number and have been 'flying' their colours throughout the city of Winnipeg, enraging members of the Manitoba Hells Angels," police wrote in their court affidavit.
The Rock Machine has a long history with the Hells Angels in Quebec, especially during the 1990s when dozens of gang members were killed. But they are new to Winnipeg.
The Hells Angels responded quickly despite their diminished state, according to police. Two longtime members of the gang assembled a new group in January to stand up to Rock Machine members trying to take over Winnipeg's drug scene. The Redlined Support Crew is comprised entirely of imposing young men who are free in the community and have previously shown their allegiance to the Hells Angels, at least informally.
The Redlined Support Crew made their first big impression in mid-January when they allegedly lured a Rock Machine member to an auto repair shop on St. Mary's Road that has connections to the Hells Angels.
"He was attacked by several members of the Redlined Support Crew and suffered a vicious beating. Two members of the Hells Angels were also present," police wrote. The victim was rushed to hospital in serious condition and required emergency surgery. He has not been co-operative with police and the case remains under investigation with no charges laid.
"As a result of this altercation, members of the Hells Angels, Redlined Support Crew and Rock Machine have all armed themselves as retribution is expected from both sides," police wrote. "There is imminent violence being planned... it is unknown at what time or place this violence could or would occur."
Police used the search warrant they were granted to raid a home on Feb. 3 on Mighton Avenue. Members of the heavily armed tactical support team found a loaded, nine-millimetre gun hidden under some snow in a dog run protected by a large, angry animal.
"The dog was going buck," a Winnipeg Crown attorney told court last Friday at a bail hearing for the homeowner, Justin MacLeod. MacLeod -- described by police as six feet tall and 300 pounds -- is allegedly one of the men the Hells Angels recruited for the Redlined Support Crew. Police seized several items from inside his home, including a Redlined Winnipeg vest and tuque, a gold ring with the gang's name on it and a framed picture of the Hells Angels Manitoba chapter, taken in British Columbia last summer.
MacLeod was charged with numerous weapons offences, along with his girlfriend and another man. He had also been free on bail from a November 2009 arrest for an alleged sexual assault and forcible confinement of a woman who police say was forced to strip naked and dance for several hours during a party at another East Kildonan residence.
Police also claim MacLeod was one of the Redlined members who participated in the January attack on the Rock Machine member.
www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 9, 2010 A3

African Mafia: the power of a name

By: Gabrielle Giroday

25/01/2010 2:17 PM



Is there anyone I hang out with who didn't hear me tell them to run -- not walk -- to Cinematheque to see The Storytelling Class


?The documentary about a bunch of multicultural youth at inner-city Gordon Bell High School made me proud to be a Winnipegger, if for nothing else than the wicked kids the documentary showcased. It also drove home some themes I think about a lot as a reporter, about telling true stories.

In the film, there's a section where teacher Marc Kuly tells students their first assignment in the storytelling group will be to explain their names.

Our names are the first thing we tell others about ourselves, he says, and they are the most basic thing we can share with others about who we fundamentally are.

It hit me hard, and not just cause I have an immediate cringe factor when people frequently call me 'Gabby,' a name that soooo isn't mine. Yick.

So why this warm fuzziness on a post about an inner-city gang that changed the West End into a shooting gallery and runs crack-houses for cash?

Last week, the Freep ran a print story and web story on an illuminating police report prepared for a sentencing hearing for Thon Guot and Mayen Madit, two African Mafia members.

The report garnered a lot of attention, even thought the Organized Crime Unit detective who carefully prepared it wasn't chatting with media.

The Winnipeg Police Service usually does not name gangs, presumably to avoid enhancing each gang's street status.

It's one of those 'damned if you, damned if you don't' approaches. By not naming gangs, we're not necessarily undermining their already entrenched street reputations and explaining to the larger world what's going on with patterns of violence/drug trade power struggles.

That's key, I would argue, to providing a nuanced and informed perspective about crime -- rather than one that operates on irrational fear and unexplained spates of violence.

Some other police agencies will name gangs who are linked to crime (think Vancouver and Abbotsford, for example) in the interest of public disclosure. Newsflash: people know who the Hells Angels are, and who the African Mafia are.

Which brings me to the very thoughtful report prepared by Det. Ryan Howanyk .

Among the pearls of wisdom gleaned from the 20-page document?

How do Winnipeg police figure out if someone is a gang member?

There's a six-point validation criteria outlined in the report, based on the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada's approach. A person is considered a verified gang member if they hit two of the six criteria, and an associate if they hit one of the six. They are:

1. Reliable source information
2. Observed association with known gang members
3. Subject acknowledged gang membership
4. Involvement in a gang-motivated crime
5. Court ruling subject was a gang member
6. Common and/or symbolic gang identification/paraphernalia

What is the history of the African Mafia?

• Police first noticed them in 2005 as a splinter of Mad Cow Street Gang (formed in 2004)
• Police allege Evan Murphy Amyotte (a.k.a. Dirt) and Yassin Ibrahim (a.k.a. Ace) formed the Mad Cows, and Amyotte "preyed" on young male immigrants from Africa to join
• Started warring with B-Side gang in 2004 and remain rivals until now
• Eventually, African Mafia forms because B-siders shoot and kill Sirak Okazion Rezene (a.k.a. Shaggy) in 2004, who was associated with Mad Cows.
• Police say many Mad Cows were displeased with Amyotte because they didn't retaliate for Shaggy's murder and felt they weren't getting enough cash for trading drugs. Hence, the formation of the African Mafia by 2005. Those two factions start fighting over the West End drug trade and exchange open-air gunfire, leading to the shooting death of bystander Phillippe Haiart in October 2005. In response, the city kicks off Operation Clean Sweep -- evolving into the Street Crime Unit -- which still exists to this day.
• Today, there are 40 to 50 active members/associates of the gang. Police say tensions between Mad Cows and African Mafia have calmed down, say police, because they want to avoid heat from police and focus on making cash money from the drug trade. There's also two new splinter gangs, called Da Pitbull Army (DPA, 2006) and All Bout Money (ABM, 2008).

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Ads hope to keep kids out of gangs

Will cost taxpayers about $250,000

By: Bruce Owen

2/12/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

New Attorney General Andrew Swan's first strike against the province's gang problem is a blunt ad campaign aimed at kids who think running with gangsters is a good career choice.

The ads on TV, buses and the Internet started airing after Monday's throne speech and will cost taxpayers about $250,000, Swan said Tuesday.

But Swan argues it's money well-spent when considering it's just one piece of the province's evolving anti-gang strategy.

"This is not a silver bullet, but we think it's going to open, at least in some young people, up to getting more information," Swan said.

The second part of the anti-gang plan will outlaw bulletproof cars driven by gangsters. Several of these vehicles have been yanked off the street in Vancouver where police have waged an ongoing battle against well-armed and violent drug gangs, but to date they have not surfaced elsewhere in Canada.

Swan said new legislation, when introduced, will spell out the penalties for driving an armoured gang car in Manitoba.

"We will make sure the bill is drafted in the strongest possible way that's not going to be seen as unconstitutional," he said.

Swan added the province is also looking at restricting the sale of bulletproof vests in Manitoba, something British Columbia is doing.

Gang members in Winnipeg have been known to wear body armour: perhaps the best-known case is the 2005 shooting in which a then-Hells Angels member was shot in the leg by a man wearing a bulletproof vest. Police also periodically seize body armour from gang members or drug dealers.

Progressive Conservative justice critic Kelvin Goertzen said the NDP's new ads and its new anti-gang battle plan are similar to its Project Gang Proof plan released a decade ago, which he added obviously had little success as the gang problem has only ballooned.

Goertzen said rather than an ad campaign, more resources should be given to police to arrest known gang members on substantive charges, removing the influence they have over younger kids.

"Get the recruiters off the street," he said. "Only then will the ad campaign have more resonance."

Swan also said the province will clamp down on businesses that serve as fronts for gangs. Measures could include making it harder for a known gang member to register a business.

"We want to give more tools to try and knock the feet out from under criminal organizations to prevent the income they're using to do other things," he said.

Gang members in Winnipeg have been known to own and operate businesses ranging from restaurants to portable sign companies, towing companies and tattoo parlours.

A third initiative may prove to be the most difficult. The province wants to create a statutory list of criminal organizations, to remove the need for prosecutors to repeatedly prove to judges that a particular gang is a criminal organization.

"We will do what we can within our authority," Swan said. "We can only control those proceedings under provincial laws. We want the federal government to do the same thing with respect to the Criminal Code, which will give us a broader reach."

Ottawa already has a list of known terrorist organizations and Manitoba's plan would treat criminal organizations the same way.

For example, right now in Canada there is no unanimity in the courts that the Hells Angels is a criminal organization.

The three measures are part of the overall anti-gang plan unveiled in September.

It also involves city police focusing more intensely on the top 50 known gang and violent criminals in Winnipeg, as well as a gang-awareness education program for parents.

Called Project Restore, police are also building up a database of gangsters to allow law enforcement across the province, and at some point across Canada, to track offenders more closely as they move from city to city.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

An armoured gang vehicle

It's a vehicle, typically a SUV, that's been modified with three-inch-thick, bullet-resistant windows and ballistic armour. They can also have gun ports and an exterior surveillance camera system.

Police in Vancouver have seized a handful of these vehicles over the past two years in connection to a number of fatal gang shootings.

The presence of these vehicles prompted B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's government to announce last February the province will ban the registration and insurance of modified armoured vehicles. New powers under that province's Motor Vehicle Act will allow the confiscation of vehicles carrying illegal weapons.

In October, the B.C. government also introduced legislation restricting the sale of body armour. The legislation is the first of its kind in Canada. Both the United States and Australia have criminal and regulatory measures to restrict body armour ownership.

In June, the Alberta government passed legislation to ban armoured vehicles. Police now have the authority to seize such vehicles and require them to undergo an inspection. The new law is an amendment to the Traffic Safety Act. Vehicles that don't pass the inspection can be removed from the road and their drivers could face a penalty of $2,000 and six months in jail.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 2, 2009 A4