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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(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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Lisa Arrowsmith, Edmonton, A.B. (Canadian Press) - The head of Saskatchewan’s largest aboriginal organization is demanding a meeting with Canada’s public safety minister, to talk about what he calls “Rambo-style” policing after RCMP on Saturday shot and killed a man on a reserve southeast of Regina.
The man, identified by a close relative as Chase McKay [...]

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(CBC News) - MPs voted Thursday to find the RCMP’s deputy commissionerin contempt of Parliament, accusing her of misleading the House of Commons with the testimony she provided into the so-called pension scandal.
The motion to find Barbara George in contempt was introduced by Liberal Shawn Murphy, who heads the public accounts committee that heard her [...]

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Theophilos Argitis and Greg Quinn (Bloomberg) - Canada’s federal police may have contributed to the former Liberal Party government’s defeat in the 2006 election by disclosing its plans for a criminal probe during the campaign, a complaints body said.
“I don’t know personally if this action was the one that impacted directly upon the change of [...]

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(Vancouver Sun) - To say that Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers have been involved in a number of controversial incidents is to put it mildly.
From several questionable shooting deaths in British Columbia to the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski after being Tasered at Vancouver International Airport, these incidents have led many organizations, including The [...]

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(CBC News) - The Ontario Provincial Police will investigate whether there was any criminal misconduct involved in the management of the troubled RCMP insurance plan, the Mounties announced Wednesday.
“I have asked the OPP to conduct this investigation, and the RCMP will cooperate fully,” RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said in a press release.
The OPP have already [...]

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Vancouver, B.C. (Canadian Press) - The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says the RCMP should not disclose the existence of a criminal investigation except in certain limited circumstances.
The association has sent a letter to Paul Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, related to his probe into how the force handled its [...]

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