Federal politicians can no longer ignore pervasive organized crime: Michel Auger's attack, RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli have sounded alarm on threats of organized crime By Antonio Nicaso - Hill Times, September 18, 2000 ``Unhappy is the land that needs heroes.'' Those words of Bertold Brecht, the famous German playwright, came to my mind after learning of the shooting of Michel Auger in Montreal. Mr. Auger, a seasoned reporter for Le Journal de Montreal, a friend and a colleague, is a hero Montreal needs. He is one of the few reporters in the country who regularly investigates organized crime. Last week, he was shot five times in the back in the parking lot of the Journal de Montreal. That there are so few other such reporters, speaks to the lack of bravery of others in his field, or a lack of direction by their employers. In any case, the five shots fired into Mr. Auger have had the effect of awakening the sleeping media giants. Time will tell if they will respond as Irish journalists, for example, reacted to the gangland murder of Veronica Guerin, slain in 1995, when the entire resources of the media industry focused on the underworld.                                        But what of the governments in Canada? How many more reporters will have to feel the chill as organized crime pushes the envelope? Will it take the murder of a judge? A politician? Just how much outrage does the federal government need to be stirred into action, a strong action, not the tentative measures it has brought in so far? Justice Minister Anne McLellan spoke last Thursday of ``breaking the back of organized crime.'' How does Ms. McLellan intend to break the back of organized crime? From what she has said in the past, we can expect talk and discussion and planning and conferring and examining.                   Ms. McLellan said Ottawa is reviewing its laws to make it easier to crack down on crime gangs, saying she wants to ``make sure we have the legislation, the law enforcement and the resources necessary to break the back of organized crime in this country.''                                      Declared Ms. McLellan of the crime gangs: ``As they find new ways to commit their criminal acts and hide their ill-gotten gains...it's incumbent upon us to be one step ahead of them at least.''                It took 20 years of half-steps, steps back, steps forward, discussions, conferring and examining to bring in an effective money laundering act, Bill C-22. This fall there will be hearings -- closed hearings, lest the public find out just how pervasive organized crime is in Canada and how weak the government's grasp is on the situation into criminal syndicates. There are conferences planned into money laundering, cyber-crime and white collar crime.                                              This, it seems, is the government's idea of action. Michel Auger is the third journalist wounded in Quebec since 1973 which is a sign of the level reached by the criminal organizations in this country. No later than one month ago, an Alberta judge ruled that the police has no right to stop and identify motorcyclists allegedly linked to criminal organizations. The police had been taken to court for the violation of human rights.                Quebec Minister of Public Security Serge Menard is right to say that we must remedy the situation now, before it's too late. The Charter of Rights in this country only protects criminals, not the victims of these new barbarians who know no limits. Mr. Menard proposed the temporary suspension of the Charter of Rights, invoking the ``notwithstanding clause,'' allowing special laws to be passed, as was done at the time of the clash with the Front de liberation du Quebec in the seventies. It's worth noting that those killed by organized crime outnumber by hundreds those killed by the FLQ. Almost 200 deaths in the past six years, including an innocent 11-year-old, should make our lawmakers reflect. Mr. Auger's wounding is too grave a fact for its political significance to be ignored. The new RCMP Commissioner himself, Giuliano Zaccardelli, has sounded the alarm on the threats that organized crime poses for democratic institutions. It's time to act. Now or never. Organized crime will not stop and we shall count more bodies. More innocent blood will be shed. And many, in Ottawa, will feel a guilty conscience.                                         As with the death of the 11-year-old bystander during a biker gang bombing, it takes outrage to force our government to take initiatives against the threat of organized crime.                            Someone today as intuitive as Brecht might also have said: ``Pitiful is the government that needs the cries of victims to awaken it.''