RCMP Watch

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) today made public its 2007-2008 Annual Report, which was submitted to Parliament by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. The Chair of the Commission, Paul Kennedy, renewed his call for credible and effective civilian RCMP oversight by strengthening the financial resources and legislative mandate of the CPC. [...]

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Rod Mickleburgh, Vancouver, B.C. (Globe and Mail) - An internal RCMP investigation has cleared officers involved in an ugly melee that sent a dozen natives, including women, several children and a six-month-old baby, to hospital after police unleashed a fusillade of pepper spray against celebrants riding in a soccer victory parade.
The incident, some of which was [...]

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Linda Nguyen (Ottawa Citizen) - The RCMP officer who pepper-sprayed a group of aboriginals, including a seven-month-old baby, celebrating a soccer game victory on a Sechelt, B.C., reserve last July has been cleared of wrongdoing, an internal investigation concluded.
First Nations Summit Grand Chief Edward John, an independent observer during the investigation into the July 2, 2007, [...]

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Pieta Woolley (Straight.com) - Last year’s RCMP pepper-spraying of several Sechelt band infants, youths, and elders was “regrettable” but “appropriate in the circumstances”, according to a police report obtained by the Georgia Straight. Then-chief Stan Dixon laid a complaint into the July 2007 incident with the Sunshine Coast RCMP detachment. Of the four allegations of [...]

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Matt Kieltyka (24 Hours) - The use of Tasers needs to be restricted, according to the the chair of the body that oversees RCMP complaints.
Paul Kennedy, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP, appeared before the Braidwood Inquiry into Taser use on Wednesday and said he has a problem with the way [...]

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(CBC News) - A parliamentary committee is threatening to call for a moratorium on the use of stun guns if the RCMP doesn’t begin restricting use of the weapons by the end of the year.
The House of Commons public safety and national security committee made its report on Taser use public in the hours following [...]

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((CBC News) - RCMP members with less than five years of operational experience should be prohibited from using Taser stun guns, the force’s watchdog said Wednesday, adding that any individuals zapped by the Mounties should receive immediate medical attention.
Paul Kennedy, head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, released a final report Wednesday [...]

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(CBC News) - Hours before the scheduled release of a highly anticipated final report on the use of stun guns by Mounties, the RCMP complaints commission abruptly cancelled the Thursday event.
Spokesman Nelson Kalil said the report by RCMP complaints commissioner Paul Kennedy will be released next Wednesday instead, at the request of Public Safety Minister [...]

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Dirk Meissner, Williams Lake, B.C. (Canadian Press) - Jurors at a B.C. coroner’s inquest into an RCMP shooting death say all officers should be trained in the use of tasers.
American Donald Lewis died of a gunshot wound in August of 2006 near McLeese Lake, B.C., in an altercation with an RCMP officer.
Constable Cole Brewer told [...]

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Vancouver, B.C. (Canadian Press) Germain Quesnel sat in an RCMP cell for an hour, believing he was having a heart attack.
He had just received two blasts from a police Taser to his chest because Staff Sgt. Lorne Malkoske said he wouldn’t move away from the cell door. Quesnel, who had had two previous heart attacks, [...]

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