SLOW TO FIX
Key proposals to end the trade in illegal guns still not implemented
More than a year after a report by a B.C. government task force on illegal firearms, several key recommendations have not yet been implemented.
Postmedia has learned that forensic testing of some guns used in suspected crimes is not getting done because of a lack of capacity in RCMP forensic labs.
And border guards still don’t have access to a B.C. police database that would give them intelligence on organized criminals and gangsters who might be attempting to cross into Canada with firearms or drugs.
But retired RCMP Assistant Commissioner Wayne Rideout, who headed the Illegal Firearms Task Force, said a lot of progress has been made implementing other recommendations from the November 2017 report on gun violence in the province.
B.C.’s anti-gang agency — the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit — is “building what we call that firearms intelligence hub,” he said.
And more anti-gang educational programs have been developed and funded in 13 high-risk communities around B.C.
But Rideout confirmed that some key measures from the November 2017 report haven’t been implemented or have faced obstacles.
One of the major concerns is the inability to forensically analyze some of the illegal firearms seized by police in B.C. Rideout’s report had recommended the establishment of a B.C. firearms-tracing hub and increasing capacity in RCMP labs — neither of which has happened.
In fact, Rideout said, the RCMP lab capacity “has diminished over the last number of years.”
“There are simply incredibly long delays in getting a firearm both a) validated as a firearm so that the Crown can prosecute cases of people who are in possession of them … and then b) raising grounddown serial numbers and doing ballistic testing and matching casings at scenes.”
He said criminal cases are sometimes compromised by the delays.
Rideout said the B.C. government “believes that tracing recovered firearms is critical to any kind of successful mitigation strategy, and we are not doing that right now.
“The value of firearms tracing and analytics in support of a firearms strategy is that it has got to happen quick,” Rideout said. “You have got to get that information and collate it and do the analysis of it quickly for it to have any value because criminal patterns, criminal alliances and criminal allegiances are like the wind — moving constantly.”
Firearms linked to other crimes may go to out-of-province labs “on a priority basis, based on their capacity to take them,” Rideout said.
But in the case of some seized guns, the forensic testing “just doesn’t get done at all.”
“At the same time we are seeing an upswing in the firearms, we are seeing decreased capacity to do analysis,” Rideout said.
He said the lower RCMP lab capacity comes from “the legacy of deficit reduction … that affected the RCMP at a national level and had a trickle-down effect in British Columbia.”
RCMP Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said in an emailed statement that the Mounties operate three national forensic labs — in Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa — where staff “work collaboratively with investigators and clients to determine a diary date according to the urgency or priority of the case.”
She did not address the claim that some illegal firearms are not getting analyzed at all or that delays are affecting prosecutions.
Statistics provided by the B.C. Prosecution Service indicate that in 2017, police completed 803 reports to Crown counsel, recommending various firearms charges be laid. Prosecutors approved 735 of those charges. In 2018, police brought forward 843 firearms charges, but only 728 were approved by the prosecution services.
Rideout said that in some instances, a suspected drug trafficker caught with an illegal firearm might only face drug charges because the wait to get the firearm analyzed could delay the prosecution beyond time limits established by the Supreme Court of Canada.
But, he said, “the issue is not just about charges, the issue is about the ability to get the global picture” about where criminals are sourcing their firearms.
The B.C. government has still not received its share of $327 million promised by the federal government in November 2017 to tackle gangs and gun violence. Some of the cash could be committed to aiding in the gun testing, sources say.
CFSEU Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said the anti-gang agency is taking the lead in developing a provincial firearms strategy, as recommended in the task force report.
She said the B.C. government has provided money for what CFSEU calls “Provincial Tactical Enforcement Priority-related investigations around the province.”
“The province has also provided funding to CFSEU for firearms-related strategies,” she said.
Gang violence has continued to rage across the Lower Mainland, with two people completely uninvolved becoming unintentional targets of public gunplay last year.
Nurse and hockey coach Paul Bennett was shot to death in his driveway on June 23, 2018.
No one has been charged in the murder.
Postmedia has learned that gangster Kyle Gianis, who survived a shooting a year earlier, lived near Bennett’s home and was the suspected target that day. Gianis has been aligned with the United Nations-Dhak-Duhre side in the ongoing gang conflict.
Fifteen-year-old Alfred Wong died after the car he was riding in caught a stray bullet in Vancouver on Jan. 13, 2018.
The gunplay along East Broadway was between warring gangsters linked to the Wolf Pack. Kevin Whiteside, one of the gunmen, was also killed that day. Another target, Matthew Navas-Rivas, was shot to death months later in East Vancouver. Again, no one has been charged in the murders.
Vancouver Police Sgt. Jason Robillard said Vancouver had 19 shots-fired incidents in the city in 2018, with five people killed in shootings and eight others injured.
Surrey RCMP Cpl. Elenore Sturko said the number of shots-fired reports in Surrey last year was at a four-year low, with just 38 incidents called in. That was down from a high of 88 in 2015.
She also noted that Surrey launched an “Inadmissible Patron Program” last fall “as a result of the recommendations of the 2017 firearms task force report and the mayor’s gang task force report.”
The program mirrors Vancouver’s successful Barwatch program, aimed at keeping gangsters and their guns out of nightspots.
All of Abbotsford’s five murders in 2018 were gang-related and involved firearms, Abbotsford Police Dept. Sgt. Judy Bird said this week.
While the murder rate in the Fraser Valley city was down from the year before, she said the APD “remains concerned with the gang violence that our province is facing.”
“Our No. 1 priority is the safety of our community, and gun violence is concerning,” Bird said.
“I know this is one of our main priorities and it is multi-faceted — everything from intervention to community engagement to enforcement — everything we can think of we are trying to do.”