The Westerner for February 28, 2011
Meeting: Chair, Mike; Music, Jerome; Grace, Bert
Attendance / Guests: 25 including Carl Wilberg, Fred Kraft and Allan Plesniarski
Announcements:
- Thanks to Bob Lamoureux for organizing our attendance at the Oil Kings Hockey game on Saturday night and the Greek Dinner on Sunday night. President Mike was pleased with his shots at Goalie District Governor Elect Harry Buddle at Rexall Place. The Greek Dinner was fabulous!
- Doug Sollows is pleased to announce that Saul Rolhinger will be speaking to our club on March 14th with an update on plans for the Capital City Park deveopment. That would be a good opportunity for members to invite guests to hear about some positive visions for the future of our community.
- Ron Hutchinson reminded members that the Interact Club is looking for donations for their upcoming silent auction at their annual fundraising dinner. Please contact Ron if you think you may have something suitable.
- Bill Macdonald provided an update on Athlone School. 21 Athlone students participated in the Edmonton Journal Games, proudly wearing the T-shirts donated by Bert Andrews. Those shirts are being retained by the school for use in future years, but each of the students received Journal Games T-shirts.
- Finemaster Bill Buckham extracted loonies or twonies from most members.
- 50/50 Draw - Bill Buckham and Frank Boodram did not match cards, so the pot is growing.
- Cheryl Bauer and Ben Doz won moneys in the Hockey pool.
New Members: Allan Plesniarski and Fred Kraft were inducted as members of the Club.
Allan is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, came to Edmonton in 1990 to manage a restaurant, and then made a career change to Information Technology. He works for IBM and is an evening instructor at NAIT.
Fred Kraft hails from Eston, Saskatchewan and received his BSc. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. He has recently retired from a long career with Agriculture Canada / PFRA doing soil and water conservation projects in Canada, Ethiopia, Egypt, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Iran, Ukraine and South Africa.
Welcome to the club Allan and Fred.
Program: Proceeds of Crime Legislation
Chris Gowers introduced our guest speaker Carl Wilberg
Carl is a lawyer, employed by Alberta Justice, a cyclist and a member of the same church as Chris.
In 2009 and 2010, changes were made to legislation in Alberta to allow the government to sieze assets from convicted criminals. The seizures must be done by following strict rules based on facts. It is a Civil process, not a Criminal process. Siezed properties (or moneys) are held in trust and can only be used for the purpose of crime prevention programs or to compensate victims of crime. The Supreme Court of Canada has reviewed and approved the legislation and the intent of the legislation.
To date, over 300 cases have been prosecuted, and there have been only 5 repeat offenders. This indicates that the legislation is acting as a deterrent. A drug dealer who has lost his fancy vehicle is likely to have to find a different way to find his clients. The 300+ cases have yielded siezures worth roughly 20 million dollars.
Carl says that Alberta Justice wins about 95% of their applications for siezures. When they find, for example, 4 guys in a car with $20,000 cash, all 4 will deny that the cash is theirs. The cash finds are the big winners for the government, because the criminals can't really put up much of a fight for it. (They may have to then deal with the Canada Revenue Agency for tax evasion.)
The benefit to the taxpayer is in the order of $1.50 for each $1.00 spent on the program. To date, roughly $2 million has been handed out to victims of crime or crime prevention programs, and there is another $1.5 million now available for distribution. Much has been given to women's and youth shelters. Alberta Justice is working on a new website where organizations like Rotary Clubs could make application for funds for worthy projects or programs.
Over 100 vehicles have been siezed. They are sold by auction process by Michener Allen Auctions (www.maauctions.com). Grow houses siezed are often a tear-down due to mold and/or other damage. Street level drug dealing is a billion dollar per year business in Calgary alone.
Carl was thanked for his interesting presentation by Bill Buckham