Years in the making, a civil lawsuit against the Hells Angels appears to have finally ended this week, with B.C.’s attorney general getting the green light to seize three clubhouses owned by the motorcycle club.
On Wednesday, the province’s Court of Appeal published its decision regarding British Columbia (Director of Civil Forfeiture) versus Angel Acres Recreation and Festival Property Ltd.
The 332-paragraph decision, a heavy read signed by a panel of three judges, ultimately ruled that the Hells Angels’ clubhouses in Vancouver, Nanaimo and Kelowna “were likely to be used in a way that enhanced or facilitated the engagement by members of the relevant chapters in unlawful activity.”
As such, “the clubhouses therefore constituted ‘instruments of unlawful activity’ in accordance with the future use definition and were subject to forfeiture under the Act.”
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The clubhouses are located at 3598 E. Georgia St. in Vancouver, 805 Victoria Rd. in Nanaimo and 837 Ellis St. in Kelowna.
The province’s Civil Forfeiture Office was established in 2006 to seize proceeds of crime. And not long after it was organized, the clubhouses underwent a series of police raids.
The attempted seizures wound their way through the courts. And, in 2020, B.C. Supreme Court justice Barry Davies squashed the province’s seizure attempt, saying there was a lack of evidence that the clubhouses were used for criminal activity in the past.
However, the province appealed that decision, stating Davies used an elevated standard of proof that wasn’t needed.
Eventually, the Court of Appeal agreed, noting the trial judge (Davies) made errors in his decision, though it also acknowledged and complimented him on navigating this “procedural quagmire.”
“The trial itself involved many hotly contested evidentiary rulings and questions of statutory interpretation, all of which the trial judge carefully considered and analyzed at length,” said the Court of Appeal.
“In all, the director’s claims took 11 years to get to trial; the judge was occupied with the case for at least the same number of years until his reasons (some 327 pages) were issued on June 11, 2020.”
The Court of Appeals decision can be accessed online.
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