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Manitoba seeks to seize home where sexual assault happened

Property forfeiture law was previously against drug dealers

The idea of authorities seeking to seize the cars and houses of drug dealers and criminal gangs is familiar enough. In Manitoba, for example, the province’s criminal property forfeiture unit made headlines last spring by taking control of a Hells Angels clubhouse. But now the unit is going to
court to try to take the Winnipeg home of a soccer coach who allegedly abused a preteen girl. It’s the first such attempt under the province’s Criminal Property Forfeiture Act, previously used to grab the
asset of marijuana growers and other profit-seeking criminals. The head of the unit says the soccer coach has used his house in a crime, and therefore shouldn’t expect to keep it. The man hasn’t been tried yet on the criminal charges and his name isn’t being used in news reports.

Winnipeg Free Press

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