N.S. vows support for tougher gang legislation

Nova Scotia's justice minister said he will support any federal effort to strengthen anti-gang legislation.

Cecil Clarke said violence in Halifax is a grave concern, after nine shootings since November, many of them related to a turf war between rival drug families.

"I'm very disturbed by it," Clarke said. "One of the things that we have to recognize is the general concern to the wider public that are impacted."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Vancouver Thursday and is expected to discuss the anti-gang legislation.

The two bills, expected to be tabled by the government on Thursday and Friday, will focus on gang-related killings and drug crimes.

One bill would seek to make any gang-related homicide a first-degree murder charge; the other would attach mandatory sentences for serious drug crimes.

Clarke said he believes these amendments are a good place to begin cracking down on gang crime.

"The legislative changes that are being proposed, I welcome wholeheartedly," Clarke told CBC News. "And I can tell you, without seeing the full details, from what I know, we'll be supporting to the fullest extent."

"We have to basically put penalties in place to basically discourage people from considering that way of life, which is intolerable, and it is not acceptable...," Clarke said.