Winnipeg Free Press

So Maclean’s Magazine is at it again — but this time, British Columbia and not the country as a whole is under the microscope.

The national magazine’s latest effort to uncover the ways and means of Canadian crime focuses in on BC’s orgnanized crime issues — the key points I’ll summarize:

There are more than 20,000 marijuana grow ops in the province [duh…] and an estimated “many more” in mountainous and valley areas.

BC based Asian gangs are the largest suppliers of ecstacy to our country and the USA.

In the last year, an estimated 2 dozen gangland slayings have taken place in the Vancouver region.

11 out of the top 20 Maclean’s ranked most dangerous cities in Canada are in the province hosting the 2010 Olympics.
Most concerning though, is the article’s contention that the number of murders in BC’s lower mainland from Jan 1 to Mar 31 of this year was three times that of Toronto. Forty per cent of these murders are linked to organized crime.

Much of what the article says is that Vancouver’s existence as a gateway to Asia and the U.S. makes it a prime location for the importing of drugs and the drugs to make drugs like methamphetamine and ecstacy — and that police are short the resources to combat the problem. They can only handle 30 per cent of it, the article says.

Interestingly enough, added as a kind of sidebar was an article about BC’s fight against their own soaring auto theft problem through the use of bait cars — something that Winnipeg police flirted with for a time, but quietly shelved.

You can watch real car thieves humiliate themselves and wreak havoc on the public here but its definitely NSFW.

Sometimes, it’s odd how life works.

There’s been a huge focus on youth crime in Winnipeg lately and it’s not difficult to see why.
With a group of psueudo-famillial gangs of teens running around the city stealing cars and causing havoc over and over again only to go to jail and be put back on the streets, people are furious and often, I have to say, mystified by the perception nothing’s being done.

Their phone calls, letters and e-mails show that there’s a lack of faith in the justice system to deal with the problem these teens pose. You only need scroll through the comments on this nacent blog to see that when it comes to solving the serious issue of youth crime, the opinions are often fierce.

A phone call late last week from a concerned mother of a teen whose spent time at the MYC on a minor charge, was released on a curfew and breached it only to land him back inside again raised some serious questions for me, not necessarily about philosophical issues relating to youth justice, but about the place that most of these kids wind up - The dour-looking Manitoba Youth Centre on Doncaster.

The mom, clearly frustrated by her son’s situation - raised some serious questions about the “mesh” between Manitoba’s education, child protection, justice and probation services when kids are in “open custody” (serving a sentence) at the MYC.

If the emphasis is indeed on rehabilitation for youth, I’ve been wondering what evidence we have that the MYC is set up for this purpose, and how effectively is carries it out. Since the general public and media only truly have access to one tiny part of the MYC complex - the dim, cramped youth courtroom - how can we know what happens on the inside?

I suppose then, it’s serendipity that I was placed in a seat next to “Don” - a former MYC corrections worker on an airplane today.

For a number of years, Don worked inside one of the 12 “cottages” at the MYC that house the kids who go there - and he not only filled me in on the layout and design of the centre, but explained a couple of things to me as well, which I’ll break down in bullets for brevity.

Note: he hasn’t worked there in a year or two now, so any of what he told me may have changed since he left - I write it as just things for you to consider strictly from his informed perspective. I was intrigued to hear about the centre, of which not much is known.

1] Youth in custody are given 45 minutes of outside time (in an open to the elements centre-court) a day, coupled with 45 minutes of gym time indoors. The rest of the time they are typically locked in their cottages or rooms.

2] In a kind of reverse irony compared to Winnipeg’s Auto Theft Strategy, kids are rated by corrections guards on a rate of one to four, with one being poorest, four being the most co-operative with staff and peers, do their homework, and volunteer for extra chores . Kids rated as ‘ones’ are allowed no access to telephone calls, computer time (Don wasn’t sure if there was Internet access yet - it was being considered when he left) and have to be locked in their “cells” (really a locked room with a window on the door by 8:00 p.m.).

3] The best kids - level 4’s - are allowed to work in the MYC cafeteria, netting them $1.25/hour, which can be used on Friday “Coke Runs,” where they are allowed to purchase pop and chips.

4] Inside each of the “cottages” there are 12 rooms, a classroom, bathroom with one shower and three toilets and a TV set, Don said. In the middle of each cottage is a “control room” where the on-duty corrections officer operates the locks on the doors and generally co-ordinates the activity in the room.
On weekends or other busy times for remands and arrests the number of kids housed in each cottage can grow to 24. On one occasion Don said there were as many as 30 kids to a room. The best room (one with a view of the outdoors) is saved for what he termed “the leader,” the young offender in the position as “pack leader” in the cottage.

5] Corrections officers ignore safety protocol at their peril - He told me of two instances where guards were seriously assaulted by kids who cunningly looked for weaknesses in the attending officer’s behaviour and waited to strike- on one occasion, two youths were able to escape from the centre, triggering a police search for them.

6] The worst pressure point in the MYC is the cafeteria, where three groups of kids from different cottages at a time converge for meals. Don said it’s often the place that gang-violence rears up in the place as youths from competing gangs bait each other.

7] There’s a small chapel at the MYC, along with a room off the gym for traditional aboriginal ceremonies. It’s not known who gets to go to church or attend spiritual sessions - The mother who phoned me last week said it’s her understanding that kids who show gang-affliations are barred from church or spiritual workshops. This is unconfirmed.

8] The demographics: Don told me that the vast majority of kids housed in the MYC during his time there were aboriginal (about 70 per cent), about 10 per cent of Metis descent, and 10 per cent white.
The other 10 per cent is made up of black kids, often new to the city - Don said it’s his impression that this number has probably climbed a bit since he left.

There was a lot more that we discussed, which will figure in later posts - I just wanted to leave this with you to chew on. Weigh in in the comments with your perception of the MYC based on Don’s description of it.

Above is a picture of a police-monitored surveillance camera at the centre of the centre of the universe - Queen St. West and Spadina. As Winnipeg draws ever closer to putting a few of these on our streets as part of a police-involved pilot program, I’ve been thinking of just how they’ll be implemented and managed.

I know Toronto was one of the places Winnipeg looked at when coming up with ideas for our own program - they recently installed 22 of these cameras at a cost of $2 million not including the cost of police salaries.

T Dot’s cams, however, are hardwired into a fibre optic network, meaning it was way more expensive to install them than the roughly $160-200 K Winnipeg’s looking at for cameras that are wireless and portable.

What I found interesting, and something I hope our city does for those that miss the memo, is how Toronto did this:

There’s still many questions left to answer about how The Peg will adopt the cameras - As the police service and the “working group” of people picked to consult on the issue moves forward to consult with different communities, It will be interesting to hear the different perspectives…

As reported today, more kids under 12, including a 5-year-old! have been cautioned by arson police for setting fires in the north end of Winnipeg - some for setting devastating fires in vacant houses:

And others who are just “getting the hang” of how to use a lighter or matches, are honing their skills on overflowing city-owned garbage bins in the area.

So far this year, 24 kids under 12 have been cautioned, but they can’t be charged with a crime because they’re too young.

I was surprised at the openness to discussing Winnipeg’s youth problem shown by Det. Sgt. Derrick Todoruk of the Winnipeg police’s five-man arson strike force on Wednesday - In a frank, 1/2 hour discussion, I really got the impression that the guys in this unit care about the kids they come in contact with, and that frequently their efforts to get them help -and there is help available - are stymied by parents who are either in denial that there’s a problem, or maybe mistrust the cops when they make the effort.

I can tell you from experience that there’s a problem with letting kids run wild in the North End. Attend any crime scene, at any time of day in the area, and without fail, there will be any number of really young kids there gawking at what’s happening.

Makes you wonder.
Oh yeah - there’s more to the story about Wednesdays’s police re-arrest of a teen auto thief that removed his movement-monitoring bracelet than has been revealed publicly.

check it here.

Are just too weird to be real, but they are.

Which gang should your child join? Check the link above for some thought food.

Well, they got their man…ahem…kid.

It came later in the day today, but the 17-year-old car thief who “cut and run” from his new fandangled movement-monitoring bracelet “given” to him by the province in early April is back in police custody.

Safe to say, the bracelet wasn’t a token of affection - a sort of promise ring, maybe, but that’s splitting hairs in a couple of ways.

Fact is, the whole “cut and run” description doesn’t ring true: Brent Apter, the Manitoba Justice program manager for the ankle monitors told me last week the kid never actually cut the bracelet - but disabled it some other way.

The bracelets are essentially a rubber ring with a GPS tracker housed in a hard plastic case. The tracker communicates over the cellular network to a call centre in Georgia [believe it or not] to track the movement of the city’s worst auto thieves.

Right now, only six or seven of the bracelets are actually in use: the reason for this is that a “level 4″ offender under the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy has to actually breach probation, steal another car or do some other thing to be brought before the courts. Only then can the Crown submit the wearing of the ankle bracelet as a condition of release.

Funny/odd/subtly ironic aside: last week in youth court, the lawyer for the sixth youth to be ordered by the court to wear one of the bracelets was asked if his client understood what that meant.

His reply: “yes, your honour, He has a good friend already wearing one who has told him all about it.”

Even in in the midst of calamity and crookery: friendship.

Anyhow: cheers to the guys in the stolen auto unit for catching up with the kid, who, naturally, was allegedly in the process of stealing another car when they grabbed him.

I’d imagine that his bracelet will be handed over to another kid more likely to play by the rules, while he sits in the MYC for a while.

Or, given the nature of youth justice in Canada, he’ll be back out in a couple of days. Sigh. No wonder the police are so frustrated. I’d be ready to blow a gasket too.

This just in from a reader named Cheryl, who was also “skim scammed” by debit card crooks in the most recent wave — and what she has to say should give all debit card users pause [emphasis below is mine]:

Hi James,

I saw your debit scam article and thought I’d send you a note to let you know the scam was even larger than the article reported. It wasn’t just credit unions, but banks across the city that were affected. CJOB had a call in show about it yesterday morning.

I’m a Scotiabank customer and I got scammed for $480 myself. I phoned the stores I had visited to let them know they may have devices that have been compromised. A manager at one of the stores confided that the same thing had happened to both his wife and son, separately, that weekend and they were out over $1000. They’re TD customers. My bank told me the crooks don’t even need to know your PIN anymore, so there’s no way to avoid it if you’re a debit card user. They spent a whole day calling customers whose cards had been skimmed. I’m using a credit card from now on.

Cheers,

Cheryl.

As I understand it , the commercial crime unit is investigating - but that shouldn’t prevent you from doing what you can to protect yourself.

Just talked to Mathieu Allard, a local bloke who fell victim to a debit card skimming scam in St. Boniface last weekend. His wife was also hit - in total, they lost about $400 or so.

Allard raised an interesting point that could eat up a lot of ink: Social cost spinoffs.
Essentially, what’s the real cost after the police services, bank manpower and other resources have been factored into this $400 crime?

How many hours of precious police time and effort will be spent investigating a crime that Allard himself considered pretty minor in terms of its effect on his life? No doubt, it’ll add up quick.
Also spoke with a local bank manager who has had a number of clients come forward recently saying they’ve been defrauded by either the same, or a similar slick debit card scam.

Many of these scams are nothing new - but the rate at which criminals adapt and change to improved security methods is alarming.
Last year, more than $100 million was paid back to debit card clients who had been defrauded - it’s a big dent that, like most things, comes back to hammer consumers when prices go up to cover the losses.

Scarier still is how easy it is to come across the technology to scam people’s account info.

Here’s a story, courtesy of the mighty Dust My Broom blog about a couple who gave up on debit after they got scammed.
And as lame as some may think it is, I’m posting the following directly from the Canadian Banker’s Association (sound like a bunch of fun-loving guys, no?) strictly to remind people to take action before they get burned and give up on what’s become Canada’s most popular way to pay.

“What can I do to protect myself from debit card fraud?”

Banks take the responsibility of protecting customers from fraud very seriously. But there are also a few simple steps you can take:

Protect your secret Personal Identification Number, or PIN: you are the only one who should know it. Put your free hand over the keypad when entering your PIN at a bank machine or retailer and don’t share your PIN with anyone. Without your PIN, your card is useless to criminals.
Check your monthly statements or your accounts online often and look for any unusual transactions. If you see anything unusual, report it to your bank immediately.
Memorize your PIN: don’t write your PIN down and don’t choose something obvious like your birthdate, address or part of your telephone number.
Always conduct transactions when and where you feel most secure. If you are uncomfortable about using a machine for any reason, do it later or go to another location.”

In the wake of Monday’s article pitting two perspectives on auto theft against each other, the letters have been coming fast and furious. While many people — including one man from rural Manitoba so angry about car thieves HE WROTE HIS ENTIRE E-MAIL IN ALL CAPS — sided with the position of the police that these teenaged chronic law-breakers steal cars for fun, one in particular left me thinking. Here it is, last name withheld:

In order to stop Juvenile delinquency (especially these level 4 car thieves) we need to adopt the strategy a couple of Oregon State Municipalities have taken.
Their approach is to charge the parents along with the young offenders and have a sliding scale for the parent’s penalties and involvement in the sentencing.
This forces these kid’s parents to do some parenting……

The first offence requires the parents attend counselling with the youth, with financial penalties applied for not attending. (How do we make them pay the penalties? See below)

The second offence has the parents being criminally charged along with the youths, and full restitution must be paid, in these cases to MPI. (Deduct restitution right off the welfare cheque each month)

The first question is “how do we make these welfare recipients pay”?
The answer is very easy, you either pay, or we cut off your assistance benefits. End of story.

On another note, most of these youth car thieves come from the same economic demographic, “welfare families” and due to the substance abuse in the household they don’t get any parenting in the first place. Mandatory drug test the welfare recipients, if you don’t pass, you don’t collect. They should also be subjected to mandatory random drug testing anytime they are receiving welfare benefits. End of story.

I am a Professional Truck driver and I am required to drug test at the time of hiring, or if any accident occurs whether I am at fault or not, and also randomly at any given time if requested by my employer. (These are Department of Transport rules and regulations that all Trucking Companies must comply with in order to keep their good standing and safety rating) Why should a welfare recipient have more rights than myself, a non criminal honest working man and be immune to drug testing? Why should my hard earned tax money go to these welfare recipients who abuse drugs and alcohol and pay for the abuse with my money and raise another generation of welfare recipients?)

-Phil

While I’ll reserve comment on the parts of Phil’s letter that address the welfare system, I do dig the idea of parental responsibility and the notion of including the parents of these kids as quasi co-accused.

Check this out to get a better idea of how some Oregon municipalities are trying to get a handle on the issue, and let me know what you think about it. Possible? Stupid?