THE FORCE IS WITH GRANNY

Another Marijuana Grow-Op Bust, Another Victory For The City's Anti-Grow-Op Granny.

Sixty-seven-year-old Chris Taulu spent Wednesday afternoon in front of a house in the 6300 block of Bruce Street on the East Side where police busted another grow-op.

The day before, she was at a press conference telling reporters about the evils of grow-ops and how hundreds of them are in homes with children, even though mold, chemicals and dangerous electrical equipment are commonplace in such operations.

"Here these idiots are, living with a baby whose lungs and body are supposed to be developing," said Taulu, a resident since 1972 of Collingwood, where she raised two children and lives with her husband, Ian.

"It's terrible what people are exposing their kids to."

The media gathering was designed to promote a video, Growing up in a grow-operation, that she managed to convince a couple of local filmmakers to produce.

"The problem is huge-I had a grow-op behind me, a grow-op up my street, a grow-op down my street.  The police took the one down behind me, and then teased me that I didn't find it."

This month, Taulu and co-workers at Collingwood community policing centre, where she is executive director, will celebrate 10 years of fighting crime in the Joyce Street and Kingsway area.  The former elementary school teacher helped get the centre open and was the key figure in getting police to create the Growbusters team to dismantle grow-ops.

Originally from Fort Frances, Ont., Taulu moved west in the late 1950s to teach elementary school in Squamish.  She's had various jobs, including working in an old folks' home and doing office work for a food supplier.  She toured the province in the 1980s with a non-profit group to protest cuts to education and to educate parents about working with school boards.

Since Growbusters-which is also staffed with firefighters, city inspectors and hydro investigators-began in the fall of 2000, the squad has busted more than 1,900 grow-ops, including the one on Bruce Street Wednesday.  Volunteers routinely accompany the team during busts to distribute pamphlets to neighbours on how to sniff out a grow-op.

Taulu has visited many grow-ops, and preaches the dangers to anyone who will listen, including the media, politicians and especially the community.

Despite the ties many grow-op operators have to organized crime, Taulu, who lives near the community policing centre, said she's not afraid to speak out against the criminals.

She said she's never been threatened, and sees her role as the voice of residents, including new immigrants, who are afraid to speak out about their neighbours.

"If somebody did something to me, you guys in the media would jump all over the grow operators, and the people within the police department, well, they take good care of me.  They would find out who it was pretty quick."

Insp.  Kash Heed, commander for the southeast quadrant of the city and former head of the drug squad, has known Taulu for 10 years.  Their conversations haven't always been "a bed of roses," but they've always agreed the common goal is to fight crime, Heed said.

When Heed took over command of the drug squad almost four years ago, Taulu was worried Growbusters would become more of an investigative-surveillance unit, which would lead to less grow-ops being busted.  That never happened, and Growbusters continues to shut down eight to 10 grow-ops a week.  Though the busts rarely lead to charges, Heed and Taulu argue the community feels safer.

Heed said he admires the energy of Taulu, who's at an age when many people are retired.  Her dedication to fighting crime is a good example of how a resident can bridge the gap with police, he said.

"If you have to look up a definition of how we are going to do that, you'll find a picture of Chris Taulu.  If I could figure out what drives Chris Taulu, I would like that because I would use it on several other people I know."

As for Taulu, she has no plans to retire-she says she feels good about what she does.

"I can sleep at night."