VANCOUVER - British Columbia's solicitor general says gang violence will escalate if the federal government doesn't toughen up the Criminal Code to deal with offences such as last week's murder of six people in a Surrey, B.C., apartment.
John Les said Wednesday the Canadian justice system has allowed criminals to roam the streets, infecting communities with what he calls their nefarious activities.
"The federal government, in its recent throne speech, talked about some changes in the Criminal Code to improve public safety," Les said. "They need to get on with it, they need to be fully supported by all MPs in Parliament."
Surrey Mayor Diane Watts said courts aren't enforcing the consequences of gang activity, making matters worse.
"It's just a revolving door," she said. "It's time we started having consequences. I mean, two innocent people have lost their lives and you just can't have these people walking out on the street."
Four of the men found dead in an apartment in suburban Surrey last Friday night had criminal records, including drug and weapons offences. Police say the 15th-floor apartment was being used to deal drugs.
Two of the victims were innocent bystanders - a young man who lived in a neighbouring apartment and a visiting gas-fireplace repairman.
Les said there's a pattern of people whose long lists of criminal charges are either stayed or dropped but then they're involved in horrendous crimes such as the multiple murders in Surrey.
The problem rests with the justice system, he said.
"If we carry on the way we are, we're going to see more of this kind of mayhem in our communities," Les said in Victoria.
The RCMP said the Surrey killings were a result of gangs, guns, drugs and violence.
It's the latest in a spate of apparent gang-related attacks, including the killing of two men at a Vancouver restaurant last August and the attempted shooting of a suspected motorcycle-gang member as he drove his son to school in suburban Langley.
Drugs aren't the real issue, said Mark Totten, a criminologist and social worker with the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa. He said people often join gangs because they're disenfranchised from society.
Mark said toughening up the Criminal Code, locking people in jails and putting more police on the street would be a waste of money.
Early intervention and prevention would be much more effective, said Totten, who has worked on youth-gang issues in several provinces, including B.C.
"Locking the worst offenders up who are going to kill themselves or kill other people, is important," he said.
"But the dilemma is the longer you lock somebody up the worse they get. So if they're not a gang member when they get inside one of our federal prisons, they're going to be one when they get out."
RCMP Supt. John Robin of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force said quick cash from the province's huge marijuana trade is the lure for people who get in way over their heads when they join a gang.
"It's not poverty or disenfranchisement or whatever," Robin said. "The cash is the motivating factor."
But what looks like an easy way to make money and acquire all kinds of material goods is filled with risks and violence for people who distribute drugs, he said.
"They may lose a load because of some police enforcement," said Robin.
"Suddenly, they're on the hook for half a million dollars and they're being extorted, they're being kidnapped and being tortured.
"I don't care how long you've been in this business. They still manage to shock you with how callous and brutal and cowardly they can be," he said of the violence inflicted by those involved in the illicit drug trade.
Mid-level gangs involved with drugs come from a variety of backgrounds and ethnic groups, often going in and out of different groups that have no hierarchy and aren't geographically based, Robin said.
Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the government is committed to tackling and preventing crime and keeping communities safe.
"Our government is taking action by hiring 1,000 new RCMP personnel and working with the provinces and territories to create a new cost-shared program to put 2,500 more police on the streets in Canada's cities and communities," Day said in a statement e-mailed to The Canadian Press.
The government's new anti-drug strategy gives police the power to go after those who produce and push drugs by cracking down on gangs and combating illegal drug production such as grow-ops and methamphetamine labs.
The anti-drug strategy, which has been panned by critics as an American-style and ultimately futile approach to dealing with drugs, also aims to prevent illicit drug use and treat drug dependency.
"Our message to organized crime is clear: Canada will not stand by and allow its citizens to live in fear," Day said.
On Wednesday, police descended on a second apartment building in Surrey, four kilometres from the murder scene, as they searched for clues in the murders.
A woman who lives in the apartments said a police team arrived at the building Tuesday night.
Police have also been searching a park near the building where the murders occurred in an effort to find any relevant evidence.
Cpl. Dale Carr of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said it's a huge investigation, not seen since police converged on Robert Pickton's pig farm in Coquitlam starting in 2002.
Robin said police have put massive resources into investigating gang-related activities involving illicit drugs but a lot of police officers are tied up providing disclosure to the Crown and defence when a case goes to court.
Of the 35 Mounties and 25 municipal police officers that make up the gang force, Robin said 35 have been involved in simply responding to defence lawyers' requests during a court case.
"One of the big concerns we have is that somehow we've got to find a balance between our rights and freedoms and what we've created within the court process," he said.
