A member of Vancouver's gang task force watches crowds in village square on Friday night of the Victoria Day weekend in Whistler.BONNY MAKAREWICZ FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
It's Friday night, just after 9 p.m. in this quintessential resort community. Hundreds of people are in Whistler's main square looking for fun in the nearby restaurants, bars and nightclubs.
Not Inspector John Grywinski.
The veteran Vancouver police officer, commanding seven uniformed members, is focused on a much more serious task - searching for gang members from the Vancouver area.
Over the coming hours, the team from B.C.'s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit - the province's key investigative agency for organized crime and gangs - strolls through the village and into its nightclubs.
"A lot of times, it's like they're taking a holiday," said Insp. Grywinski, explaining the situation during a break in his work.
Whistler has no gangs operating in the area, police believe. But unlike other B.C. communities, where gangs have put down roots in drug-dealing or other illegal enterprises, police say the Whistler scenario involves individuals with gang ties coming up from Vancouver to spend money and have fun.
"Gang members go to Whistler," said Sergeant Shinder Kirk, a spokesman for the special-enforcement unit. "Certainly that is a fact. Their purpose in going to these communities - not just Whistler - is that they are, in fact, going to socialize." He noted that means some funds from illegal activities would inevitably go through the community.
"One can only assume that's what they're doing. Many of them aren't employed, and their sole source of income is illegal activity," he said.
Insp. Grywinski added, "They like to go where the parties are happening, where the youth are, where the good-looking people are."
Acting Whistler mayor Ralph Forsyth concedes there's a disconnect between all of this and Whistler's popular image as an "idyllic village" that played co-host to the 2010 Olympics and is a magnet for sporting and leisure enthusiasts in winter and summer.
But he adds: "Whistler is attractive to all shapes and sizes and I suppose that includes gang members."
The situation is taken seriously enough that this is the third visit the gang unit has made to the community in recent years.
This year alone, there has been at least one reported assault on a nightclub doorman by a known gang member from Vancouver, and gang members were kicked out of two local establishments. In February, eight men from North and West Vancouver with suspected gang links were arrested and issued public-nuisance tickets after a fight in a nightclub.
During an interview, Mr. Forsyth refers to one incident in particular that, he said, galvanized the community. In 2007, a drug dealer's bodyguard shot a man dead in Whistler's village square after a fight in a nightclub spilled out into the street. The shooter was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 16 years.
That incident, in particular, led to greater co-operation among city officials, entertainment operators and the police.
For example, Insp. Grywinski was previously in town 10 days ago to meet with nightclub operators. He talked about effective gang-fighting measures enacted in Lower Mainland nightclubs.
The issue is especially acute this past holiday weekend because it is seen as the start of the summer in Whistler, and busier than the Canada Day and Labour Day weekends.
Although the special-enforcement unit deployed officers to Kelowna and Campbell River to monitor dozens of Hells Angels converging for festivities in both communities, there were still resources for Whistler.
The gang unit has long loaned its expertise to police outside the Lower Mainland, which explains this weekend's visit.
"Some of those people who come up [from the Lower Mainland]are involved in gangs, and so we get the gang task force to come up and assist us," said Staff Sergeant Steve LeClair, detachment spokesman.
On Friday night, the gang-unit members stood out among general-duty Mounties on patrol because of their dark-blue uniforms, with Gang Task Force stencilled on the back.
Officers were looking for faces familiar from their gang-activity files, checking IDs. Past experience on the beat suggests many of these people will have court orders barring them from being with associates, who may be on the dance floors or at the bars with them. "We'll go right up to them and ask them what they're doing here, how long they're going to be here, let them know we're here also. They get why we're here," said Insp. Grywinski.
In the hours that The Globe and Mail followed the team, officers dealt with teenagers with open bottles and cans of beer, and dealt with two rowdy patrons at nightclubs, removing one from the premises at the operator's request.
No gang members, however.
By Monday, Staff. Sgt. LeClair, reviewing the files, reported a reasonably quiet weekend of scattered fights, and at least six men jailed briefly for being drunk in a public place. After running the names of those involved through police files, he said none were flagged for gang connections.
Still, he said officers in the detachment had been pleased to have the gang unit on hand.
Joey Gibbons, designated to speak on the issue for the Whistler Nightclub Association, said operators support any police initiatives "to make sure we have the right demographic up here."
Insp. Grywinski said a quiet weekend was a good thing for Whistler, with a caveat.
"Any community that provides a beautiful locale and a place for people to be able to enjoy themselves and have fun, where nightclubs are involved, have to be vigilant about what kind of clientele are coming up there," he said.