RCMP Watch

Chad Skelton and Allison Cross (Vancouver Sun) - Animosity between the RCMP and the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. resulted in the failure of a multi-million-dollar investigation into the Hells Angels, a former lead investigator with the OCABC has alleged in a wrongful dismissal suit.
The investigation, known as Project Phoenix, targeted several high-profile members of [...]

[Read more →]

Thulasi Srikanthan (Ottawa Citizen) - Veteran Citizen reporter Gary Dimmock and his former colleague Greg McArthur picked up two awards from the Canadian Association of Journalists this weekend in Edmonton for their ground-breaking piece that sparked a parliamentary review of the witness protection program.
The pair won the Don McGillivray Award for Investigative Journalism, the CAJ’s [...]

[Read more →]

(Halifax Herald) - The grieving mother of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who died after being Tasered by Mounties at Vancouver’s international airport last fall, last week told a B.C. public inquiry into Taser use that the incident has “shattered” her faith in the RCMP.
Police forces across Canada which use Tasers should be paying close [...]

[Read more →]

Neal Hall, Vancouver, B.C. (Canwest News Service) - The mother of a Polish immigrant who died after being shot with a Taser by Vancouver police told a public inquiry Thursday that her son would still be alive if they didn’t use the controversial weapon on him.
“I know my son would not die if he was [...]

[Read more →]

Gary Mason, Vancouver, B.C. ( Globe and Mail) - Someone else might have resisted the temptation, especially knowing he might be blackballed as a result. But Mike Webster has never operated that way.
And so, when the respected police psychologist testified this week at the B.C. public inquiry into the use of tasers, he didn’t [...]

[Read more →]

(Canadian Press) Vancouver, B.C. - Robert Dziekanski’s medical history, not potential skeletons in his past, was the focus of investigators who travelled to Poland to examine the background of the man who died after being jolted by an RCMP Taser, says the senior officer who led the overseas probe.
Dziekanski came to national attention last October [...]

[Read more →]

Omar El Akkad, Ottawa (Canadian Press) - The head of the RCMP has admitted the police force did not do a good job making information public about the taser controversy, and vowed that changes will be made.
“I believe we need to do a better job in assessing and factoring in the public interest,” RCMP Commissioner [...]

[Read more →]

(CTV.ca News Staff) - RCMP deputy commissioner Barbara George said Sunday that she’s being punished for refusing to apologize for something she didn’t do.
On Thursday, George became the first person in 95 years to be held in contempt of Parliament after a vote that ruled she deliberately misled MPs during an appearance before the Public [...]

[Read more →]

Chad Skelton (Vancouver Sun) - Several hours of surveillance footage recorded at Vancouver airport the night Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was Tasered and died were inadvertently erased by the Canada Border Services Agency a week after his death, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
The mistake is revealed in a series of internal CBSA e-mails on the [...]

[Read more →]

Rosie Lombardi (InterGovWorld.com) - Privacy organizations are calling for intensified scrutiny and oversight of the RCMP’s information management practices, which have failed to comply with government policy for almost 20 years.
Serious issues were brought to light in a recent audit of the RCMP’s exempt files conducted by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada [...]

[Read more →]