RCMP Watch

Colin Kenny, Globe and Mail
When Governor-General Michaëlle Jean arrived for Canada Day ceremonies on Parliament Hill a few weeks ago, a mounted RCMP honour guard preceded her carriage.As the Mounties approached the crowd on Wellington Street, several looked apprehensive. When waves of applause rang out for them, well before the Governor-General’s carriage came into [...]

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The RCMP, defensive? That much was known. But it’s still a shock to learn that the RCMP commissioner has the right to overrule findings by the civilian body that handles public complaints against the national police force. And overrule findings he (and she) has done, regularly, says the annual report of the Commission for Public [...]

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CanWest News Service, The StarPhoenix
The Edmonton Police Service employed bureaucratic stonewalling in an attempt to block Const. Joe Slemko from providing expert evidence in a court case — evidence which helped stay a first-degree murder charge — a local defence lawyer says.
“It is almost an obstruction of justice,” lawyer Bob Aloneissi said Friday. “There was [...]

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Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
The Mounties in B.C. now will have observers on their shoulder during investigations into in-custody deaths or other serious incidents involving the RCMP.
The pilot project announced in Ottawa Thursday by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP is aimed at restoring confidence in the force after two high-profile police shootings in [...]

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Laura Drake, Globe and Mail
An Edmonton police officer who faced official sanction for testifying as an independent blood-spatter expert at the Ian Bush inquest said yesterday he felt vindicated to hear the Edmonton police chief say he should be able to take similar action in the future.”I’m elated, really, or very, very happy, because it’s [...]

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Tim Naumetz, CanWest News Service, Ottawa Citizen
The past two RCMP commissioners before the recent appointment of a public servant to head the force effectively rewrote half of the rulings by a civilian watchdog agency that found Mounties used excessive force or acted improperly over a year-long period, the head of the independent agency says.
The [...]

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Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun
Ian Bush lost his life. And the Royal Canadian Mounted Police lost a major chunk of its reputation.
The Bush inquest ended two weeks ago. It dealt with a tragedy that left a 22-year-old Houston man, with a whole life ahead of him, dead — within 20 minutes of being arrested on a [...]

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Josh Pringle, 580 CFRA
The RCMP public complaints commission suggests the Mounties’ attack dogs should be classified as “impact weapons.”
In its annual report to Parliament, the commission says attack dogs are “effective weapons for protecting public and officer safety.”

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A veteran RCMP officer has been charged with sexual assault, sexual exploitation and luring a child over the Internet.
The charges stem from a five-month investigation following a complaint from a 17-year-old girl, said Sgt. Patrick Webb of the RCMP. “They are very serious charges,” Webb said.
He said the girl was 15 when Const. Guy Armand [...]

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CTV.ca News Staff
The government will be forming a task force to overhaul the embattled RCMP, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Monday.
“This is an organization with a proud history but history is built on how organizations can handle themselves in the present and that’s how they can assure themselves of a robust future,” Day told [...]

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