All the while, he was practically under their noses. The pedophile and former Vancouver lawyer was either stalking more young prey in San Francisco and Los Angeles or serving time in California for sexually assaulting them.

Meanwhile, RCMP and counter-terrorism investigators in Canada and the U.S. were scheming to seize Maher Arar, an innocent civilian, brand him a terrorist and ship him to Syrian officials to be tortured

And top national-security agencies in both countries were scrambling to buy high-tech detection devices and ramped-up tracking equipment to stop international terrorists from getting in.

Yet they couldn't stop one molester from getting his mitts on more kids.

Despite a Canada-wide warrant for Polman's arrest, law enforcers hadn't a clue where the fugitive had been hiding until two years ago when he tried entering Canada from the U.S., only to be arrested for sex crimes committed before he fled B.C. 20 years ago.

It was sheer luck -- not artful police or prosecutorial work -- that Polman didn't damage more kids while awaiting trial here. Because authorities on either side of the border didn't think to ask the tough questions about his whereabouts, a Vancouver judge -- unaware of Polman's U.S. child-sex offences -- promptly released him on $2,500 bail, pending a provincial court trial on the 1987 charges.

In fact, after his arrest, local police turned to the public to help piece together the previous two decades of Polman's shifty existence.

"He's a man of mystery," Vancouver Const. Tim Fanning admitted at the time Polman was arrested by border guards. "We thought he was a missing person. There was possibly foul play involved."

Turns out, the only foul play was Polman's criminal exploitation of kids.

It seems no one on either side of the border ever bothered to search for him.

Governments spend billions of our tax dollars on counterterrorist surveillance and security apparatus to keep the terrorists at bay and yet law enforcers lack the wherewithal to connect the dots when dealing with dangerous domestic criminals.

Scary thought.

"We rely on the police to make inquiries and to keep us informed. They are the keepers of information," Stan Lowe, spokesman for the criminal justice branch of the Attorney-General's Ministry told me recently.

"Because we have no common registry, nor do we share an information system with U.S. authorities, there's really no way of knowing, especially if someone is living under another name, as he was."

Lowe said police are still working on a more reliable computer system that helps them identify and keep tabs on offenders here in Canada.

A criminal justice/police network linking the provinces with states in the U.S. is a long way off -- there are no plans for one at this time, Lowe said, while conceding that such a system would be useful.

Governments and law-enforcement agencies need to throw more resources into efforts to stop the molesters, child-porn dealers and crack pushers hanging around our streets.

They pose the real risk to our families.

Phone: 604-605-2119

Fax: 604-605-2099

jthompson@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2007