Shannon Kari (National Post) – The federal government has lost its third attempt to delay a court ruling from taking effect next month that would allow RCMP officers to form a union.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian MacDonnell dismissed a request for an indefinite extension, in an Aug. 25 decision that was released this week. “What the government is seeking is an order that will preserve the status quo pending appeal,” said the judge in his decision.
The ruling leaves the federal government with little more than a month to pass legislation that would allow Mounties to form a union, or it could go back to court to try to extend the already lengthy legal battle. Continued…
Categories: Abuse Of Mounties, Political/Government Interference or Involvement.
(CBC News) – Six of the seven men who allegedly watched on a security camera monitor while two women engaged in sex in a Kamloops, B.C., jail cell have been suspended.
The RCMP said Wednesday that three officers have been suspended with pay, while the fourth will learn his status soon.
The City of Kamloops suspended two jail guards and a watch clerk.
In a news release issued on Tuesday, the RCMP alleged that, for seven minutes on Aug. 18, four RCMP officers, two civilian cell guards and the civilian watch clerk — all of them men — watched the two women engage in what appeared to be consensual sex without intervening. Continued…
Categories: Your Tax Dollars In Action.
Opinion (Calgary Herald) – It has become de rigueur to be down on the RCMP — and rightly so, after the much-publicized tragedies of the Robert Dziekanski incident and the Air India bombing, their role in Maher Arar’s deportation to Syria by the U.S., and the managerial bungling that resulted in four young Mounties dying in Mayerthorpe. Not to mention the recent airing of political dirty laundry and infighting over Commissioner William Elliott’s management style.
Yet that doesn’t mean the RCMP is doing everything wrong. The above incidents caused a lot of Canadians to lose confidence in the force, but when Canada’s iconic Mounties get their man, they deserve credit for the hard slogging they do out of sight of the public. Such credit is more than deserved this week with the news that the RCMP have broken up a possible Ottawa terrorist cell allegedly with links to al-Qaeda. The cell is thought to have been readying a terrorist attack on Canada.
Nabbing alleged terrorists and thwarting a potential attack on home soil is the product of tedious, patient intelligence and surveillance work. The rewards may be slow in coming, but in the end, they are well worth waiting for, and they represent months of diligent toil. The RCMP, along with CSIS, helped prevent certain mayhem and death with the Toronto 18 arrests and convictions and here is yet more evidence that their vital work continues. We should all be grateful.
Categories: CSIS - Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Kudos, RCMP.
Fredericton, N.B. (Canadian Press) – Fundraising efforts to build a vocational school in Haiti commemorating RCMP Sgt. Mark Gallagher were launched this week in his home province on New Brunswick.
A coalition called Friends of Mark Gallagher is leading the drive to raise money for the school, which will be named after the Woodstock-based officer who died in the Haiti earthquake.
Gallagher was killed in Port-au-Prince in January while conducting UN peacekeeping mission training.
Continued…
Categories: Kudos, The Ultimate Sacrifice.
Andrea Woo, Vancouver, B.C. (Vancouver Sun) – Four RCMP officers and three civilian municipal staff at a Kamloops jail are the subjects of criminal and internal code of conduct investigations following an Aug. 18 cellblock incident involving two prisoners.
Global News, citing a well-placed source, reported Friday that one of the two female prisoners is HIV positive. The women were placed in the same cell and allegedly became involved in an intimate encounter that lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. RCMP and prison staff, who watched the encounter via video cameras for about seven minutes, did nothing to stop it, the source told Global. Continued…
Categories: Your Tax Dollars In Action.
Adam McDowell (National Post) – A senior Mountie is transferred out of the job of running a gun registry he supports, ostensibly to take French lessons. The country is told it must continue to wait for a detailed RCMP report that is expected to declare the gun registry sound at last; six months after the English version was finished, the report still cannot be released because the French version is apparently still in the works. The British Columbia arm of the RCMP drops out of a press conference at the last minute, at which the force would have solidified its support of a safe drug injection site that the government opposes.
Does the Royal Canadian Mounted Police genuinely have a lot of trouble with French and press conferences? Or are Stephen Harper’s Conservatives meddling in the federal police force’s affairs to an inappropriate degree? Continued…
Categories: Political/Government Interference or Involvement.
By Paul Cowley, Red Deer, Alberta (Red Deer Advocate) – An off-duty Red Deer RCMP officer who threw a woman against a wall in a booze-fueled brawl outside a city bar last year was convicted of assault in Red Deer provincial court on Friday.
Judge Vaughn Myers granted Darren Gordon Ryan, 30, a conditional discharge as long as he completes nine months of probation and 100 hours of community service. Ryan must also report to a probation officer, take anger management and alcohol abuse programs if directed, and refrain from drinking alcohol for nine months. If he completes his probation successfully, he would not have a criminal record. Continued…
Categories: Mounties Charged.
Saskatchewan (CBC News) – A provincial court judge in Regina has slammed the RCMP for destroying video evidence that could have been used in a drinking and driving case.
“I can only conclude that the police do not understand their obligations to preserve and disclose evidence,” Judge Clifford Toth wrote in a decision dated Aug. 18.
Toth decided the case against the driver should not proceed.
Toth’s criticism was directed at RCMP detachments throughout Saskatchewan and their policies on saving surveillance camera videos. Continued…
Categories: Lack of Resources, Other, Shoddy Investigations.
Jim Bronskill, Ottawa (Canadian Press) – Canada’s security agencies made a point Thursday of stressing how well they co-operated in the investigation of terror suspects arrested in Ontario — an apparent attempt to dispel persistent criticism that the RCMP and CSIS don’t play well together when it comes to national security.
CSIS assistant director Raymond Boisvert was quick to note that intelligence leads concerning the alleged terror plotters were provided to the RCMP, who picked up the ball and completed an exhaustive criminal investigation.
“This case is an excellent example of the strong relationship which exists between CSIS and the RCMP.”
Continued…
Categories: CSIS - Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Kudos, RCMP.
Yellowknife, N.W.T. (CJCD Mix 100 News) – An RCMP officer charged with theft under $5,000 had his first appearance in territorial court this morning.
Sgt. Larry O’Brien didn’t show up in person, but had his lawyer speak on his behalf.
O’Brien is accused of stealing some $2,000 from a police locker at the Yellowknife detachment in May, 2008.
He’s also charged with breach of trust by a police officer, which could be tried by indictment if the matter goes to court. Continued…
Categories: Mounties Breaking The Law, Mounties Charged.
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