RCMP Watch

CBC News
Despite being exonerated by a federal inquiry, Maher Arar remains on a U.S. government watch list, says the U.S. ambassador to Canada.
In an interview with CBC Radio’s The House, Ambassador David Wilkins confirmed Arar remains on the American border lookout system.
“My information is that he is on the watch list and has been since [...]

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Rod Mickleburgh - Globe and Mail
The RCMP is under heavy fire for its criticism of Vancouver’s pioneering supervised injection site for heroin users, a project that has won positive reviews from more than a dozen rigorous research studies.
In a critical, three-page report on the site, Staff-Sergeant Chuck Doucette questioned findings of the numerous peer-reviewed studies, [...]

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Tenille Bonoguore - Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press
Justice Dennis O’Connor has called for a new watchdog to independently monitor and review all RCMP activities, including national security, in a bid to prevent a replay of the Maher Arar affair.
But the Canadian man whose deportation from the U.S. and subsequent torture in Syria triggered [...]

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David Ljunggren - Reuters
Stunned by revelations of police incompetence in the case of a Canadian man deported to Syria, the government launched an investigation on Tuesday into claims by three other men who say they were tortured in Syria because of information provided by Canadian authorities.
The inquiry could further damage the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, [...]

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Associated Press
The Canadian government announced Tuesday it would launch new investigations into claims that three Muslim Canadians were tortured while being held in a Syrian prison because of faulty information given to Damascus by Canadian authorities.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day made the announcement just hours after a federal commission into another such case recommended that [...]

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Rochelle Baker - Abbotsford News
An off-duty RCMP dog that attacked an eight-year-old boy, leaving him with injuries requiring 72 stitches, has been OK’d to return to duty.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Gary Carlson, who is responsible for police dog services in the Lower Mainland, said Monday that two senior personnel have evaluated the five-year-old dog and determined [...]

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CBC.ca
The commanding officer of the RCMP in B.C. filed an appeal Tuesday of a recent decision by a tribunal to halt a disciplinary hearing into the conduct of a Prince George Mountie.
Const. Justin Harris had been accused of having sex with three underage teenage prostitutes
The allegations surfaced during the investigation into the sexual misconduct of [...]

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Meagan Fitzpatrick - CanWest News Service
A new independent review agency should not only examine the RCMP’s national security activities, but those of five other government departments, concluded the second Arar Commission report released Tuesday.
As expected, Justice Dennis O’Connor recommended the creation of a new body called Independent Complaints and National Security Review Agency (ICRA) for [...]

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Reuters
The scandal of how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police botched the case of a man deported to Syria by U.S. agents shows that the national force needs to be subject to stricter controls, an official inquiry said on Tuesday.
Software engineer Maher Arar was arrested in New York in 2002 after Canadian police falsely told U.S. [...]

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Tonda MacCharles and Michelle Shephard - Toronto Star
Two senior RCMP officers retired before formal disciplinary proceedings could be completed into allegations of harassment in the workplace, according to a letter obtained by the Star.
The Nov. 2 letter says “formal discipline was warranted” against former assistant commissioner Bradley Holman with regard to “inappropriate behaviour” towards an [...]

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