Common Border, Common Values, Common Problems

…God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
(National Anthem of Canada)

…And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
(National Anthem, United States of America, final stanza)

Among my many responsibilities as president of NDAA, I have been given the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States. I have certainly enjoyed visiting with prosecutors on both coasts and in every region in between. Recently, though, I derived an equal amount of enjoyment during a trip to northeastern Canada.

At the invitation of D.A. Bellemare, assistant deputy attorney general (Criminal Law) and head of the Federal Prosecution Service, Tom Charron and I traveled to the meeting of the Federal Provincial Territorial (FPT) Heads of Prosecutions held at St. John’s, Newfoundland. St. John’s sits at the easternmost point of the North American continent on an island that juts out into the North Atlantic. The rugged beauty of its coastline is often enshrouded in fog and mist, but when the skies are clear and the sun is bright it is as beautiful a setting as found anywhere in North America.

Meeting with our Canadian counterparts, it became abundantly clear that our nations share not only a common border, and judging by our national anthems, an equally strong common devotion to maintaining the freedom of our citizens, we also share many common problems.

Tom and I were given the opportunity to briefly address the group and then we listened for several hours to the roundtable reports of the prosecutors from every Canadian province and territory as they identified the challenges facing law enforcement in their various jurisdictions. While we have been dealing for decades with our homegrown gangs and the newer gangs that have taken up residence from Central America and other countries, Canadian law-enforcement has had to deal with aboriginal gangs, as well as gangs made up of recent immigrants. Similarly, while we have dealt with a high level of gun violence and drug activity for many decades, the Canadians are beginning to experience an increase in gun violence in recent years as well.

Like us, the Canadian prosecutors are concerned about the response to crime issues by their legislative assemblies. For instance, they are concerned about the effects of proposals that would institute legislation similar to our “three strikes” laws. They wonder if the law would actually deter crime or if it would simply cause an increase in trials beyond the resources available to them to try cases. One prosecutor mentioned that his jurisdiction had initiated its first community prosecution program, and then he fielded several questions about what that program is all about.

Tom and I were able to respond to some of their concerns and we gave them the benefit of our experience with both the “three strikes” issue and the community prosecution program, which U.S. prosecutors have been using for several years. It is clear that both our nations are trying to deal with what appears to be growing crime problems best summarized by three words: gangs, guns and drugs. If we also add concerns about the possibility of attacks by terrorists then we have pretty much completed the picture.

We know that prosecutors on both sides of the border can learn from their counterparts on the other side. With just that in mind we encouraged the efforts of Mr. Sabin Ouellet from the Quebec Ministry of Justice, who proposed convening a regional conference to address cross-border crime which would involve prosecutors from the province of Quebec and those from our northeastern states of Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. I believe there would be much to gain from such a conference. Mr. Ouellet proposed holding the meeting in mid-October 2006. NDAA will fully support this effort and will work to help convene other regional conferences involving Canadian and U.S. prosecutors.

Tom and I left St. John’s with a renewed desire to encourage cooperation between the prosecutors of our two great countries. We have much in common. While we may celebrate our “melting pot” traditions, the people of Canada enjoy their social “mosaic.” Regardless of the terminology, we are both open and free nations that celebrate the diversity of our people and strive to maintain freedom and safety for all persons.

In the weeks following our trip, I was reminded of our common challenges by the news of a major roundup of scores of street gang members in Toronto. That was followed by the news that Canadian intelligence agents and police arrested 17 people, many of whom are Canadian citizens, who had assembled a large store of explosives and, inspired by Al-Qaeda, were planning to bomb government targets in Ottawa and Toronto.

Challenges to free and orderly societies in both of our countries provide strong justification for NDAA to continue to reach out to Canadian prosecutors so that both of our nations can benefit from our common values, strengths and experiences.