RCMP Watch

(CTV.ca News) - A woman’s death in an RCMP holding cell in southern Alberta Thursday is being investigated by the force’s Major Crimes Unit.
The woman, whose name and age have not been released, died about two hours after being placed in a cell attached to the RCMP detachment in Airdrie, about 20 kilometres north of [...]

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(Amherst Daily News, Editorial) - It really comes as no surprise that editors across Canada have named the RCMP as 2007’s Newsmaker of the Year considering how much the law enforcement agency has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the last 12 months.
From Tasers to terrorism, from pensions to the perils [...]

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(Cape Breton Post, Editorial) - A spokesman for Vladimir Putin, interviewed on CBC Radio, chose to take it as complimentary that the Russian president had been named Time magazine’s 2007 Person of the Year. Clearly, though, it is as much for his notoriety as for any laudatory aspects of his leadership that Putin made the [...]

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Gar Pardy (Ottawa Citizen) - It was 1949 when I met my first Mountie. Cpl. Earl Rose had arrived in Gander as part of the new colonial power to ensure that the forces of mayhem were kept in check as the airport town emerged into the air crossroads of the world.
A few years later, [...]

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Heather Polischuk (Regina Leader-Post) - A Saskatchewan RCMP spokesperson said Mounties in this province haven’t yet considered the option of using special constables for high-risk calls in smaller detachments.
“I’ve never heard that mentioned as an option here although we are still considering what our options are,” said Sgt. Brad Kaeding. “We’re deciding what options may [...]

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(Canadian Press) - Some facts about the RCMP, chosen as The Canadian Press Newsmaker of the Year for 2007:
- Founded in 1873 as North-West Mounted Police to bring law and order to territories that later became Saskatchewan and Alberta.
- Current strength: more than 25,000 peace officers, civilian members, public service support staff.

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(Canadian Press) - From terrorism to Tasers, from pensions to the perils of solitary policing, the RCMP have been squarely in the public eye for the last 12 months - though not for the reasons the force might wish.
The troubled Mounties are the collective choice as Newsmaker of the Year for 2007 in the annual [...]

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(Sydney Morning Herald) - The NSW Ombudsman is investigating police use of Tasers after a string of deaths linked to the stun gun overseas.
The NSW Police Force has almost 50 Tasers across three specialist units, including the Public Order and Riot Squad.
A global debate about the safety of the stun gun - which delivers 50,000-volt [...]

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Tony Van Alphen (Toronto Star) - Inter Maritime looked just like any other nondescript company with an office on Howe St. in Vancouver’s rough-and-tumble financial district in 2003.
The firm told prospective clients that it ran a big international money-management business based in Belgium and had around $5 billion in assets. It said about 95 per [...]

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Keith Fraser (Vancouver Province) - The wife and parents of a man killed when an RCMP cruiser struck his vehicle are suing for damages, claiming the police officer behind the wheel negligently drove through a red light.
Albert Haczewski, 27, and Koyo Hara, 26, died after the cruiser went through the intersection of Kingsway and Royal [...]

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