RCMP Watch

Chad Skelton, Vancouver, B.C. (Vancouver Sun) - Most shootings by RCMP members do not meet the force’s own standards for the use of deadly force, according to an internal RCMP report obtained by The Vancouver Sun.
According to the report, of the 30 RCMP shootings nationwide in 2006 (the most recent year for which data was [...]

[Read more →]

(CBC) - Vital communication centres that take calls from distressed people and dispatch police officers might be crippled by an earthquake or other disaster because there are no solid backup plans to keep them running, according to an internal RCMP audit.
The audit, completed last month, says the centres are also hampered by staff shortages, inconsistent [...]

[Read more →]

Chad Skelton (Vancouver Sun) - A fired biker-gang investigator warned during settlement talks last year that if his wrongful dismissal case ever got to trial it would expose the dysfunctional relationship between the RCMP and B.C.’s municipal police.
“We expect to have several senior police officers willing to testify about the inability or unwillingness of RCMP [...]

[Read more →]

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 →]

Andy Ivens, Victoria, B.C. (The Province) - Tim Shields took over his news duties as head of the B.C. RCMP’s strategic communications section yesterday promising to bring a fresh approach to a job fraught with peril.
“For me, the challenge is going to be building a better relationship with the media, one that consists of trust [...]

[Read more →]

(The Leader-Post) - Having recently spent an inordinate and increasing amount of time assisting with complaints of racism from RCMP officers, cadets, and RCMP civilian staff, we are left with extra questions when tragedies such as the recent RCMP shootings at White Bear and Muskowekwan First Nations occur.
What makes us even more uneasy is that, [...]

[Read more →]

David McKie (CBC News) - RCMP officers are likely to fire their electronic stun guns multiple times during an altercation, despite a policy that warns it may pose health risks, according to a joint investigation by CBC News/Radio Canada and the Canadian Press.
The media outlets, which analyzed the Taser-use forms RCMP officers are required to [...]

[Read more →]

RCMP News Release in response to a Globe and Mail article - William J.S. Elliott, Commissioner - Lawrence Martin suggested that my use of the title Assistant Deputy Minister in relation to the senior executive communications position the RCMP intends to establish deserves an explanation and the consideration of additional facts. I agree.
As Mr. Martin [...]

[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 →]