The preferential treatment of natives and minorities with the unintended results are what I refer to in part. Interestingly enough an article in the paper from Vancouver today noted that the Supreme Court in the US ruled that in effect avoiding potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another. (Justice Anthony Kennedy writing)

I do not state that all members of the Native community that became members of the RCMP are substandard. I do however refer to a number that were in training for extended periods of time due to a couple of factors, one that there was no failure for them due to the political nature of the program and that training recruits now is different on account of that debacle. You incorrectly take a note from my missive that was not there.

You will get no argument from me that there are poor supervisors everywhere. In the RCMP, the “new” promotion process produced the Corporal at YVR, despite a supervisor’s recommendation that he not be promoted. I would hope that this situation would be evaluated and repaired. Given that the RCMP has had a “new” process every couple of years since 1994, and treats minorities and natives differently, does not fill me with hope.

My points on getting to the heart of the YVR matter are well explained thus far. I look forward to the recommendations of Braidwood, and the release of the details examined to make those recommendations.

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I don’t even refer to people as racists. I do define individual’s behavior as racist. (Trying to maintain dominance and control because of race.) I identify their behavior which makes it applicable to individuals not to racial groups.

I have worked in the area of Police Race Relations in some form or fashion since 1970. Part of my consulting to police organizations and minority youth is to point out the similarities between the two groups.

EG: Minority Community and Police Community:

Both have a culture.
There are negative repercussions for informing on someone who has done wrong.
Bad police officers hide within the ranks of the good police officers.
Youth commit crimes and hide within the good people of the community.
Minority youth and the Police will always be present.
Both want to go home alive and well at the end of the day.
BOTH GROUPS DON’T WANT TO BE JUDGED BY THE ACTIONS OF ONE.

The problem is that groups are becoming so entrenched in their animosity of each other that they (Police/Youth/Society) will not open their minds up to a healthy exchange of ideas.

You took my statement as a broad indictment of Canadian society. That is 100% wrong. It is an incitement of INDIVIDUALS who practice racist behavior who live in Canadian and world society.

There are a number of people who would think that you were comparing the first nations person involved in the taser incident in BC with the suggestion that the government driven aboriginal program some how produced a substandard RCMP member. The topic after all was about the “bombshell e-mile.”
I don’t know if you were making a connection. Maybe you can answer that in your response to this comment. If you were then you were saying that all first nations’ members were below standard because they all went into that program or maybe some went the regular troop training root that I observed as a Facilitator/ Instructor at Depot. I submit that there are a number of substandard supervisors in the RCMP but is not based on race. There are plenty to go round of all races, cultures, and gender.

The member’s actions in the Vancouver incident should be judged on a timely, accurate, and open as possible investigation. Then you tell the truth no matter who it helps or who it hurts.

Calvin Lawrence
CGL Consulting

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The only qualifier I would seek to this broad indictment of Canadian society is frequency.

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It is well documented that the RCMP actively tried to restrict the employment of some non-white members. There are now books and documents that support my statement. That is the reason for all the policies regarding minority hiring. The RCMP should have let people be all they could be in hiring and promotions to begin with.

The question now is, does it still go on in the refinement stage of racist behavior. (Racist behavior being established, maintained, advanced, and refined.) If you and the readers think it is still happening, fine. If you and the readers think that it doesn’t happen that’s fine also. Your perception is your reality.

What is happening is that RCMP members are being harassed to the point that they are on sick leave due to stress, collecting VAC pensions, receiving settlements, and leaving (retirements) rather than take the abuse. Everyone should stop blaming the members. It’s time people got out of their heads and started looking at the damage that is being done to the members. The sitting behind frosted glass approach, calmly examining the facts for years does not mean much to a female RCMP members that have been sexually harassed and assaulted. Delay is the worst form of denial. There are families and careers being ruined for all reasons. (RACE, GENDER, SEXUAL ORINTATION, CULTURE OR, I JUST WANT TO SCREW UP YOU CAREER TODAY BECAUSE I CAN. Take your pick. There is incompetence at all levels. The promotional process does not get the best person for the job. I am not anti-RCMP. I am pro-justice! Empathy would go a long way in these incidents because empathy absorbs tension.

The courts have stated that the RCMP can unionize because members swore to affidavits, and were willing to be cross examined by lawyers because the Div. Reps were not doing their job. If a union were to come about and they did not do their job protecting the members then members would keep looking for help somewhere else.

See how you would work in an environment where you were sexually assaulted? Would you just get up in the morning and get over it because you received a pension and transfer?

Other members are still in the RCMP because they have a right to be. Harassment free!
My perception being my reality; I stayed in the RCMP for 26 years because I loved being a police officer and I also knew that no matter what I did in or out of policing that I would be subjected to racist behavior. There are nine major areas of people activity that we encounter on a daily basis. Economics, Education, Entertainment, Labour, Law, Politics, Religion, Sex, and War. Racist behavior takes place in all these areas so I would not escape it.

What I am saying is; until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt will only be told by the hunter.

Calvin Lawrence
CGL Consulting

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In the same vein, the need for some changes in the policing of the Native reserves was identified. For some strange reason, the govt and the RCMP decided that if they hired and trained natives and put them back onto reserves, there would be better cooperation, acceptance, etc.

They soon found out a couple of things. One was that the natives that were being hired that barely made it into the Force, had a great deal of difficulty in completion of training. They found out that they could not just summarily bounce them out of training. (Discussion for a later date). Some natives were in the training facility for over a year, some approaching 18 months or 3 times the the training period and still could not make the grade, such as it was. Failure was not an option. This resulted in the beginning of the change of the training facility from being hired on as a full member to the present cadet status. (legal discussion for another time)

The second thing they found out was that a Native from Manitoba that was put on a reserve in BC was no better than anyone else, as they were still considered outsiders. Apples in some vernacular.

In their zeal to appease the government, the RCMP did not fully investigate the ramifications of the initiatives hastily put into place so that they could be seen to be acquiescing to the government demands. Bearing in mind that once somebody is hired in the RCMP (as in other organizations) , the full weight of legal and labor laws now apply. Especially with minorities. Its not as easy as it was in the old paramilitary 60’s and early 70’s when an individual could be summarily dismissed from the RCMP.

Times have changed and so have the processes. The hiring of Natives is still actively pursued, along with other minorities, to serve a quota, not excellence in selection. I dare say that this is not confined to the RCMP. It is another example of the law of unintended consequences.

The fact is, now that the shortage of applicants for all police departments is critical, the minority make up of the RCMP will be changed again. The long term question is how will the imbalance vis a vis the Canadian population be handled.

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“Maybe that is a problem eh? Maybe you should investigate the government driven aboriginal program in the RCMP recruiting venue. Could shed some light on one of the YVR 4″.

You wrote the above statement (Comment # 12).
I find that statement interesting. I respectfully request that you please elaborate so that the readers of the site may have a better understanding of what you mean.

Calvin Lawrence
CGL Consulting

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The questions I pose are the ones I feel should be answered under oath. There is no value in placing inordinate emphasis on an issue that has yet to be determined, or issuing suppositions based on tenuous underpinnings.

My point with the Federal lawyers is that you will not hear, or be able to dissect, their contributions because of the noted stance taken by them in the past.

As for the “special review”, I refer to my question number 3. Is that not clear or would you like some clarification on my query?

The RCMP higher echelons are no different than any other organizations, in that they do not at all times have a knowledgeable grasp of all the excruciating minutiae. And thus it is important to examine the email in the proper light, as in my questions numbers 1 and 2.

I have always enjoyed the duck analogy, but I sometimes substitute the word “uneducated”.

By all means NRF, take a stab at who you think that is. Your guess will probably be most instructive.

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And if you wish to, you may read my earlier post in which I freely acknowledge that the information contained in the emails is hearsay. And I suggest it is important to examine the trail under oath to confirm or refute the issues of premeditation and reliance on “excited delirium”. And I would also expect the role of the lawyer in the delay to be examined too. However you may want to pause and just breathe in and breathe out a bit.

But even if lawyerly incompetence is proved that hardly accounts for what more than just a few have observed: that the RCMP brass who exchanged emails are very unlikely to have overlooked something like this. Why did they not highlight it for special review? The information contained in it is the 800 pound gorilla in the corner of the room. Don’t take my word for it. Mr. Justice Braidwood said so himself: “I find this delay in disclosing it to the commission appalling,” an upset Braidwood said. “The contents of this e-mail goes to the heart of this inquiry’s work.”

Burying key issues in a forest of paper is not mythical. It happens all the time. Think the mounties are above that? Think again. It could have happened here. Think the mounties could never spin information for strategic gain at the expense of honourable transparency? Think again. That has been demonstrated more than once in this process to date and you don’t need a final report or a Ouija board to uncover it. You just apply the duck test: if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck…it’s a DUCK.

Remember, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…

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You would be better to ask the following questions based on the inquiry counsel’s statement:

Vertlieb acknowledged the comments on the email were clearly hearsay, but that they must be investigated because they came from senior RCMP officers, and “on its face, the email appears to tell a significantly different story.”

1. On what information/speculation/facts/rumors/reports was the email based on?

2. Did the originator have possession of the information through personal contact with the 4, or is he relying on second/third/fourth hand information, “hearsay” as it were.?

3. Having been disclosed in April of this year, some 2 months ago, to the Crown lawyers, is it the duty of the RCMP to put weight on any of the emails which could be construed as political pressure, self incriminating or absolving?

4. Who discovered that the email(s) and other documents disclosed in April on the CD, had not been disclosed and when?

5. Were they examined by another lawyer and dismissed?

6. Indeed, were they examined in the intervening time or not?

Your assertion of a mass of paper to obfuscate the reader is laughable. If it is related to to the events then it is relevant, and should be examined for weight. The fact that there are thousands of documents does not alleviate the Crown of its burden.

Do not look for the Crown to do anything about its own actions in this debacle. You decry the foibles of the RCMP who at least have some form of oversight from the CPC, the Courts and inquiries. The lawyers have no independent oversight whatsoever and have been successful (in front of their brother lawyers) to argue successfully that their actions are above being examined under oath.

So a final question to you SC, why are you not as incensed with that situation? If you are going to armchair, as is your God given right, be expansive and cover a couple of bases.

“Twenty something police recruit”? Try persons into their 50’s. There are many in their forties, and numerous in the thirties. The make up of the RCMP training troop has drastically changed over the years. Maybe that is a problem eh? Maybe you should investigate the government driven aboriginal program in the RCMP recruiting venue. Could shed some light on one of the YVR 4.

Your dichotomy example is fatally flawed.

“Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.”

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