RCMP Watch

Canadian Press
An Ontario judge has struck down key portions of Canada’s national secrecy law, tossed out RCMP warrants used to search a reporter’s home and delivered yet another stinging rebuke to the Mounties over the Maher Arar affair.
Justice Lynn Ratushny of Ontario Superior Court, in a ruling yesterday, quashed three sections of the so-called leakage [...]

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Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star
In a ruling hailed as a victory for press freedom, an Ontario Superior Court judge tossed out archaic sections of Canada’s national secrecy law, quashed RCMP search warrants used to raid a reporter’s home and office, and left the Mounties’ investigation in limbo.
The ruling by Judge Lynn Ratushny also casts another shadow [...]

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Don Butler, National Post
An Ontario Superior Court judge has struck down a law used to obtain search warrants that authorized controversial RCMP raids on Ottawa Citizen journalist Juliet O’Neill’s home and office in January, 2004.
Judge Lynn Ratushny ruled yesterday parts of Section 4 of the Security of Information Act are unconstitutional because they violate the [...]

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Tamara King, Winnipeg Sun
Manitoba is about three dozen Mounties short, and the force is using some retired RCMP officers to fill the ranks.
In one case, a retired officer who’s old enough to collect his Canadian Pension Plan and Old Age Pension will soon be strapping on a gun and heading out to patrol Manitoba Highways.

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News Talk 650
A La Ronge Mountie accused of sexually-assaulting a female prisoner admits he did have sex with her.
But, Cst. Terry Jax says it was consensual at his apartment, and not while his accuser was locked up. As well, Jax told his trial in Prince Albert Thursday that she came on to him after she [...]

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Tamara Cherry, Toronto Sun
Two RCMP officers have been suspended and charged with attempting to obstruct justice after they opened a container and inspected a “large quantity” of illegal drugs without a warrant.
The allegations stem from an incident in February 2005 involving officers from the Toronto Airport Drug Enforcement Unit, which is made up of officers [...]

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RCMP Press Release
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is pleased to be recognized again this year as one of the country’s top employers, as chosen by Mediacorp Canada Inc. for the 2007 edition of Canada’s Top 100 Employers.
“Operating in today’s increasingly competitive employment market makes being an employer of choice even more important,” says Barbara [...]

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The Associated Press
Syrian torturers could find nothing to implicate Canadian Maher Arar in al-Qaida or any other terrorist ties. An official Canadian government report agreed with that finding and recommended that Arar be compensated for his 10 months in a Syrian prison.
Still, Arar remains on the U.S. government terror watch list. Neither has the United [...]

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Toronto Star
A Commons committee has called upon the Conservative government to formally apologize to Maher Arar and his family, and recalled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli to testify Tuesday.
MPs want to question Zaccardelli further about inconsistencies between his recollection of briefings the RCMP gave to the former government about the Arar case, and contrary indications by [...]

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Halifax Herald
A Lunenburg County Mountie spent a night in jail and faces a day in court after a domestic dispute with another RCMP officer in which several shots from a police pistol blasted into a wall of her home.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Frank Skidmore said a seven-year constable who lives in the Chester area is [...]

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