RCMP Watch

Paul Walton (Nanaimo Daily News) - A Nanaimo provincial court judge, in dropping a charge against a local man of assaulting police, instead blamed a Nanaimo Mountie for creating the violent confrontation.
The decision was handed by Judge Allan Gould on Monday in staying charges of assault police and uttering threats against Shane Owen, 48.
On Nov. [...]

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Anne Sutherland (Montreal Gazette) - A Laval des Rapides couple who were the first people in Canada to be charged with human trafficking have fired back at the Crown, the Laval police and the RCMP with a $5-million civil lawsuit claiming damages for wrongful arrest and mental anguish.
In May 2007, Nichan Manoukian and Manoudshag Saryboyadjian [...]

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Jesse Ferreras, Vancouver  (Globe and Mail) - UBC students are demanding a public inquiry after 19 people were arrested at a bonfire that followed a protest against campus development.
The campus group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is demanding an inquiry into “mass arrests” Friday night at Knoll Aid 2.0, a public concert and protest [...]

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Whistler (CKNW AM980) - Whistler RCMP are apologizing to a man they say was wrongly identified in a series of suspect photographs.
Last Thursday, Mounties released photos of four people wanted on warrants for offenses in Whistler.
But, one of the photos of a Michael Wilson was a picture of another, innocent person of the same name.

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Danel McHardie, Fredericton, N.B. (Telegraph-Journal) - Almost 33 years after being convicted of murder, Erin Michael Walsh will finally get a chance to clear his name after the federal and provincial ministers of justice agreed Friday that he is likely a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
This is the first time in New Brunswick’s history [...]

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Vancouver, B.C. (Canadian Press) - A Mountie reinstated after being accused of buying sex from two teenage prostitutes more than 10 years ago now is suing the Canadian and B.C. governments, as well as a high-ranking RCMP officer.
Const. Justin Harris wants compensation for what he claims is negligence, malicious prosecution and abuse of authority.
Harris was [...]

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Edmonton, Alberta (Canadian Press) - Alberta Justice Minister Ron Stevens apologized Wednesday to a former RCMP officer who was falsely accused of sexual assault.
John Hudak, 54, settled his lawsuit against the RCMP and Alberta Justice last week for an undisclosed amount of money. Part of the deal is that Hudak can’t say the amount.
He claimed [...]

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CanWest News Service, The StarPhoenix
The Edmonton Police Service employed bureaucratic stonewalling in an attempt to block Const. Joe Slemko from providing expert evidence in a court case — evidence which helped stay a first-degree murder charge — a local defence lawyer says.
“It is almost an obstruction of justice,” lawyer Bob Aloneissi said Friday. “There was [...]

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Colin Freeze, Globe and Mail
The RCMP is assuring Parliament that it has officially entered a post-Arar world.Senators asked a top Mountie this week whether dubious intelligence from Canada could ever again be used by the United States to deport a suspect to a third country to face torture.
It was precisely this scenario, in 2002, that [...]

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Paul E. Kennedy, CanWest News Service
The RCMP, as an institution, is under intense scrutiny from a number of quarters today.
Should we be concerned?
Can Canadians afford to let key institutions such as the RCMP continue to lurch from crisis to crisis?

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