RCMP Watch

David Baines (Vancouver sun) - It’s curious how things work out sometimes. In late 2003, Cpl. Bill Majcher was appointed inspector in charge of the new RCMP Integrated Market Enforcement Team in Vancouver.
It was viewed as an unorthodox appointment because, first of all, it was a big leap for a corporal to make. Secondly, [...]

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Tony Blais (Sun Media) - Freedom of the press and upholding the openness of the Canadian court system has trumped the privacy issues of a cocaine-addicted former undercover RCMP officer.
An Edmonton judge today vacated a publication ban issued in an ongoing drug trafficking case and granted Sun Media access to exhibits in the proceeding.
Included in [...]

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Vancouver (Canadian Press) - A former Mountie and Vancouver police officer is facing four sex charges dating back to the early 1970s.
Sixty-two-year-old Robert Gordon Bodkin is accused of two counts of gross indecency and two of indecent assault in incidents said to have occurred between 1972 and 1975.
Bodkin was with the Vancouver police during that [...]

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Mary Moszynski, Fredericton, NB (Canadaeast News Service) - An independent report examining the infamous Kingsclear sexual abuse scandal says there is no evidence RCMP attempted a cover-up for a member of its own force who faced allegations of criminal activity.
However the report highlighted a number of shortcomings in the RCMP’s investigations, including shoddy note-taking and [...]

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Stephanie Waddell, Whitehorse Star
A former Yukon RCMP officer has been sentenced to 28 days in jail after being convicted of uttering a threat to a current member of the Whitehorse detachment.
Visiting territorial court judge Donald Luther handed down the sentence Thursday afternoon after finding Marcell Blackwell guilty of the charge.

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Suzanne Taylor, Maclean’s
Nearly seven months after Giuliano Zaccardelli stepped down as RCMP commissioner amid a swirl of controversy, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced on Friday the appointment of the police force’s new leader, William Elliott.
Elliott, who takes over from interim commissioner Bev Busson, was formerly associate deputy minister at Public Safety Canada and has [...]

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Canadian Press
A retired RCMP officer is defending two men accused of aiding and abetting James Roszko, who fatally shot four Mounties on his farm in 2005 and then killed himself.
Steve May, who worked at the Barrhead detachment for 17 years before retiring from the RCMP, said Dennis Cheeseman and Shawn Hennessey were not troublemakers.
“Our community’s [...]

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Globe and Mail
Inquest into the death of Ian Bush
• Houston, B.C., RCMP Constable Paul Koester shot Mr. Bush in the back of the head on Oct. 29, 2005, after he had been in police custody for just over 20 minutes. Mr. Bush had been arrested for obstruction.
Pension fund scandal
• Government-appointed investigator David Brown concluded that [...]

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Jeff Sallot, Globe & Mail
The RCMP’s chief financial officer, Deputy Commissioner Paul Gauvin, has resigned in the aftermath of the Mountie pension-fund scandal.Mr. Gauvin was criticized in an independent investigator’s report last week for refusing to accept responsibility for problems in the administration of the RCMP pension and insurance plans.
Despite his resignation as chief financial [...]

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Democracy Watch Press Release
Today, Democracy Watch called on the federal Conservatives and all federal political parties to approve a formal public inquiry into many RCMP actions over the past 15 years, especially the RCMP’s pension fund operations and investigations of politicians, political staff, Cabinet appointees, lobbyists, public servants and political parties.
Democracy Watch also called on [...]

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