Michael Smyth, Vancouver, B.C. (Vancouver Province) – Furious over the latest RCMP scandals, B.C.’s solicitor general says the national police service may have to submit to civilian oversight — or face the consequences.
Kash Heed told the Vancouver Province he wasn’t pleased he had to learn about one of the latest RCMP scandals through the media.
“I was watching Global TV news with my daughter when it came on,” he said, referring to the RCMP officer on the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team who is now the subject of an internal investigation for allegedly having an affair with a potential witness in the Surrey Six multiple murder case.
“I had to immediately get on a conference call with my staff,” said Heed. “No one in my ministry had been informed.”
Heed said he wants the Mounties to submit to provincial civilian oversight — as do municipal forces, through the B.C. Police Complaints Commission — if the RCMP want to continue policing 70 per cent of the province.
That would mean the RCMP would have to surrender their controversial internal-disciplinary system in cases of Mountie misconduct in B.C.
“We’re very firm as a government that, in this next contract, we want to deliver the most accountable, transparent and effective police services possible — no matter what colour uniform they’re wearing,” said Heed.
And if the Mounties refuse? “Then we’ll have to consider our options,” Heed said.
Heed did not exclude as one of those options the costly idea of replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force, such as the Ontario Provincial Police or the Quebec provincial police.
The Mountie at the centre of the Surrey Six scandal, Sgt. Derek Brassington, was reassigned to desk duty in December after allegations surfaced of an “unprofessional relationship” with a potential witness in the mass murder case.
Brassington, who is married to a police officer, was one of the key investigators working on the probe into the October 2007 slaughter at a highrise in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey that left six people dead.
Meanwhile, another Mountie involved with the Surrey Six probe, Const. Steve Perrault, has been charged with fraud for allegedly submitting bogus overtime claims while working on the unprecedented gangland murder case.
“Every time you hear about these incidents, you immediately become concerned . . . and I continue to be concerned about them,” Heed said.
The incidents linked to the Surrey Six case are only the most recent embarrassments for the RCMP in B.C. The deaths of Robert Dziekanski — who died after being Tasered by Mounties in 2007 — and of Ian Bush — a 22-year-old who succumbed to a gunshot wound to the back of the head following a struggle with Const. Paul Koester at the Houston, B.C., RCMP detachment in 2005 — have left a lingering cloud over the service’s image in British Columbia.
The Alberta Conservative government recently quashed speculation it would scrap its RCMP contracts in favour of establishing a provincial police force — but its right-wing rival, the Wildrose Alliance party, supports the idea.
Please read and try to comprehend what I said NRF. I am not concerned that, nor did I reference, the genesis for the complaint against Heed. The fact remains he divulged information improperly. How that may have come to the fore is irrelevant to his conduct. The disclosure of information was totally inappropriate due to the conflict of interest the receiving individual had with the company where the accused worked.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Don’t worry about it Deepthroat. Sounds to me like Kash got angry (and the Mounties probably should have warned him about this) and shot his mouth off. By Sunday afternnon he was assuring anxious LMD mayors that he was confidant that the RCMP municipal contracts would be renewed and that he had changed his mind about the necessity of a Metropolitan Police Force for Greater Vancouver (which, all due respect to the RCMP, we need; but that’s another issue). Basically, Campbell doesn’t have the money to walk away from this deal and Harper knows it. The contract will be renewed and Kash will eat crow. Like Wally Oppal, the guy seems to fly off the handle; that is probably what got him into so much hot water with the “rank and file” officers in West Van.
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You suppose incorrectly NRF. The reference was not to the house cleaning that was and probably still is needed, and was identified by the Provincial audit. The reference was to the manner in which Heed was disclosing investigatory information to unauthorized parities. Even a newly sworn police officer knows that information respecting an ongoing criminal investigation is classified until such time as the public is made aware of it via press release/charge approval. Pandering to ones political masters is not conduct expected from ones Police Chief. Not allowing for the investigation of the allegations is not becoming of the Chief law enforcement officer of the West Vancouver District. The provisions of the Act certainly served him well.
“That closed shop attitude of self-protection was so entrenched that Heed wanted no more.”
Heed was intending on moving forward with his various reforms from car colors to uniform changes, bringing in cronies from VPD to higher ranks, distancing himself from historical agreements with the Mounties and Natives in North Vancouver, and other large changes, backed by the Mayor. His political aspirations never have been a secret, nor his long time association with Wally Oppal et al. West Vancouver Police was just a stepping stone, one that ended in doubt.
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I swear, the media is getting worse and worse. What Michael Smyth fails to point out in his bandwagon attempt to further sully the RCMP name is that they (the RCMP) have stated often and publicly that they support the idea of public oversight.
So, Kash Heed should get off his backside, stop his empty, headline-grabbing complaining and get this public oversight going.
Seriously – what is he waiting for?
Oh right – easier to beat your chest and listen to the sound of your own voice than do any work.
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B.C.’s top cop calls for public oversight of RCMP
CTV BC ctvbc.ca
Date: Saturday Jan. 30, 2010 6:40 PM PT
B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed says corruption within the ranks of the RCMP has to stop, and that the Mounties should have to answer to the public.
With cases like the Taser-related death of Robert Dziekanski, the shooting of Ian Bush and the recent Surrey Six scandal eroding public confidence in the RCMP, Heed says it’s time for the national police force to stop investigating itself.
“What’s critical in the contract we sign with the RCMP is that we have sufficient accountability,” Heed said Saturday.
Heed said the Mounties should answer to a civilian body just like B.C.’s 11 municipal police forces do under the province’s Police Act.
“We think a consistent process across the province for any police officer, regardless of the colour of the uniform, is what we need,” Heed said.
And the B.C. RCMP’s assistant commissioner Al Macintyre agrees.
“We’re for it,” Macintyre said. “We’ve said it publicly.”
But some critics feel even the Police Act doesn’t go far enough.
Rob Gordon, director of criminology at Simon Fraser University, says it may be time for an independent anti-corruption task force.
“To deal with entrenched corruption, which can come very quickly, especially in jurisdictions where a lot of money is at stake, to deal with that you need dedicated units that are looking out for this.”
That is pretty rich coming from an individual who skated out from BC’s police oversight body by retiring from the Chiefs job at West Vancouver. The Act does not allow for investigations if people resign like Heed did, before they caught up with him to hold him accountable.
But then I suppose it shows he is ready for greasy politics in the legislature. The hubris of this hack is astounding.
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