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 captured on video, took place on the coastal Sechelt reserve north of Vancouver a year ago, as the band celebrated its youth team’s success in a Canada Day tournament.
The event sparked outrage on the reserve and embittered feelings toward police that eventually led to the ousting of Sechelt chief Stan Dixon for accepting an RCMP apology without consulting local band members.
The trouble began when an RCMP constable new to the reserve tried to halt a long parade of honking cars and trucks, after the pickup truck leading the procession, with a number of young celebrants standing up in the back, went through a stop sign.
The pickup was driven by the team’s coach, Troy Mayers, who didn’t stop for several hundred metres. He was then handcuffed, arrested and pepper-sprayed for being “combative,” police said at the time.
By this point, there were three RCMP officers on the scene. When band members angrily confronted them, they unleashed more rounds of pepper spray. Mr. Mayers’s wife was among those hit, along with her six-month-old baby and several children.
The 89-page RCMP report into what happened proposes no discipline or charges against any of the officers involved. It rejects three of four allegations, saying the officers involved did not act in an overly aggressive manner, did not make derogatory, racial and inappropriate remarks, and did not violate police procedures in pursuing Mr. Mayers’s pickup onto the reserve.
However, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Peter German said in his report that he was unable to determine whether police followed procedures in interrupting the parade. He found that the RCMP officers were correct in trying to stop the parade because of safety concerns, but that there was a “knowledge gap” in the Sechelt detachment about the parade, which had been a regular occurrence for several years.
The report said that the inadvertent and indirect pepper-spraying of children was “unfortunate … but unavoidable,” and that the use of pepper spray may have helped to disperse the crowd.
Sechelt RCMP did not return a phone call.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, who sat in on the RCMP investigation as a special observer, said he was extremely disappointed by the report’s conclusion.
“We expected something more than a circling of the wagons by the RCMP to defend its own,” he said. “There’s no question the police overreacted. There was an excessive use of force, and the officers should have been held accountable. They acted improperly and should have been disciplined.”
Mr. Phillip said the police finding illustrates again the folly of having the RCMP investigate actions of its own members. “That’s the heart of the problem, and it has to be changed. It’s wrong.”
Sports victory parades are a decades-old tradition on the reserve. There were no previous problems, and they have continued since the flare-up with no police interference.
“We’ve always had these honking parades every time we won and they’ve always left us alone. Except this time,” Mr. Mayers said. “Our kids are pretty proud when they win. They won earlier this year, and we honked in exactly the same way and took the same route we’ve been taking forever.”
Mr. Mayers was charged with resisting arrest and failing to stop for a police officer in connection with the incident. He was tried on the charges several weeks ago, but the court has not yet issued a verdict.
The band’s current chief, Gary Feschuk, declined comment but indicated the band will not let the matter rest with the RCMP report.
Mr. Phillip said the report is “absolutely the worst outcome” in terms of reconciling matters between the band and the police. “It’s the children,” he said. “That’s what was so upsetting about this incident. It involved babies and young children, who were celebrating a victory.
“They were involved in sports. It wasn’t a fight. These weren’t a bunch of soccer hooligans. For the RCMP to have reacted the way they did was really over the top.”
17 responses so far ↓
1 tracker07 // Jul 2, 2008 at 17:58
The agreement below sets out the authority of Sechelt Indian land.
*Under whose authority did the RCMP enter Indians Lands?
14 (l) (m) 17-21, 38
Link
Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act ( 1986, c. 27 )
*Sechelt Indian Government District, which shall have jurisdiction over all Sechelt lands.
LEGISLATIVE POWERS OF COUNCIL
Legislative powers of Council
*14. (1) The Council has, to the extent that it is authorized by the constitution of the Band to do so, the power to make laws in relation to matters coming within any of the following classes of matters:
*(l) public order and safety on Sechelt lands;
*(m) the construction, maintenance and
management of roads and the regulation of traffic on Sechelt lands;
SECHELT INDIAN GOVERNMENT DISTRICT
Sechelt Indian Government District
*17. There is hereby recognized the Sechelt Indian Government District, which shall have jurisdiction over all Sechelt lands.
*21. (1) Sections 17 to 20 shall come into force in accordance with this section.
Sections 17 to 20 declared in force
(2) The Governor in Council may, subject to subsection (3), on the advice of the Minister, by order, declare that sections 17 to 20 are in force and transfer any of the powers, duties or functions of the Band or the Council under this Act or the constitution of the Band to the District, except those relating to membership in the Band and the disposition of rights or interests in Sechelt lands
*38. Laws of general application of British Columbia apply to or in respect of the members of the Band except to the extent that those laws are inconsistent with the terms of any treaty, this or any other Act of Parliament, the constitution of the Band or a law of the Band.
Under whose authority did the RCMP enter Indians Lands?
2 Deepthroat // Jul 3, 2008 at 00:11
C-46 Criminal Code of Canada
section 8(1)
Application to territories
8. (1) The provisions of this Act apply throughout Canada except
(a) in Yukon, in so far as they are inconsistent with the Yukon Act;
(b) in the Northwest Territories, in so far as they are inconsistent with the Northwest Territories Act; and
(c) in Nunavut, in so far as they are inconsistent with the Nunavut Act.
RCMP Act
Peace officer
9. Every officer and every person designated as a peace officer under subsection 7(1) is a peace officer in every part of Canada and has all the powers, authority, protection and privileges that a peace officer has by law until the officer or person is dismissed or discharged from the Force as provided in this Act, the regulations or the Commissioner’s standing orders or until the appointment of the officer or person expires or is revoked.
R.S., 1985, c. R-10, s. 9; R.S., 1985, c. 8 (2nd Supp.), s. 4.
Clear enough??
3 tracker07 // Jul 3, 2008 at 13:12
• What was the criminal act that occurred?
you cut and pasted the criminal code you know
• Do all parades have to follow the same rules in
you view?
By the way, what were the contraindications you missed are you still working on those?
4 Deepthroat // Jul 4, 2008 at 17:53
You asked for the authority and there it is. The Criminal Code and the RCMP Act. In order to enforce the CCC and other acts you need to be there and this gives the RCMP the right to be anywhere on Canadian soil to “serve and protect”. You do not need to have a criminal act to be there on hand to enforce the law.
Yes I know I cut and pasted the criminal code, it says so just before the quoted passage.
All parades must obey the law and any applicable provincial or federal statutes, or local bylaws. Cops are supposed to enforce those you know.
Probably not a wise idea to encircle the cops especially if you are using your child as shield.
I did not miss any contraindications as listed in any germane reference source.
5 tracker07 // Jul 5, 2008 at 01:46
Deepthroat wrote “RCMP the right to be anywhere on Canadian soil to serve and protect”.
Lately the RCMP has been,
•Pepper spraying a baby.
•Tasering convalescing retired man in hospital recovering from heart surgery
•Tasering crippled men on government pension
•Tasering a polish immigrant at YVR that later died at YVR
Prompted the Police Complaints Commission to review the Taser use policy and make recommendations.
And now have “Tim Shields took over his news duties as head of the B.C. RCMP’s strategic communications section yesterday promising to bring a fresh approach to a job fraught with peril”
6 CstBentonFraser // Jul 5, 2008 at 14:44
tracker , judging from watching one of the posters here I think we can now see why the RCMP are having the problems they are.
The mistakes the RCMP are making are the actions of a mismanaged, unprofessional, disorganized and dysfunctional organization.
Look at just some of the mistakes.
Mistake Number #1: The total and utter incompetence of RCMP managment allowing the squad that killed Dziekanski to go back to work at their posts.
(What was this manager thinking? That Canadians are idiots??)
Mistake Number #2: The RCMP spokesperson telling the media a totally false and misrepresented version of what actually happened and then not admitting that mistake.
(We all know the version RCMP told of what happend at YVR was false and yet we have heard no apology for this false information.)
Mistake Number #3: Trying to coverup the truth and false information they told the public by trying to control a vidotape of the event.
Mistake Number #4: Not regaining the trust of the public.
(The RCMP are taking the public relations stance of a very immature and very spoiled adolescent child).
Where are the RCMP getting their managerial and public relations advice from? A 13 year old pimple faced kid. The public is generally pretty forgiving but when the public routinely sees mistakes being made and then sees complete denial and patently false versions of the situations they not only lose trust they become disgusted with the organization involved and the unfortuante part is those that are competent get lumped in with all the idiots at the helm.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that misrepresentation and lying to the public are the actions of a very desperate and very unprofessional group of morons.
Stephen Harper has also exposed his weak and limp-wristed governing style in the process. The message Stephen Harper is sending by his response to RCMP mismanagement is ;
- I am weak and inefectual
- I am not a quick thinker
- I react slowly to situations in flux
- I do not know when to intervene
- I am afriad to get involved
- I am inexperinced and cannot lead
- I do not command respect
I have heard it said that Harper wants provincial forces to take over the role of the RCMP. There are better ways of doing it then letting them mismanage their way into obsolescence, the innocent public gets harmed in the process.
If he intervened and started firing the mismangers then we would know we have leader an organization that can be fixed.
7 Deepthroat // Jul 5, 2008 at 15:24
Your list does not have the deaths and in custody deaths mentioned.
It also does not have the “attaboys” either. It is your prerogative to dwell on the negative, but it serves no progressive purpose to ignore the positive aspects.
I do not find anywhere a commitment to being perfect by any agency in the country.
Why would you encircle the cops menacingly with a baby in your arms, then whine when it gets out of hand and you get sprayed?
I would say that the review is a good thing would you not?
Are you picking on Timmy cuz he went to Inspector so quickly or are you saying the media liaison is not fraught with peril. Especially when everybody wants all the scoop perfectly right every time even before answers can or should be given? And when a mistake is made it is decried as lies and cover-up?
Paranoia will destroy ya.
Do you now understand the authorities for police activity on a reserve?
8 Deepthroat // Jul 5, 2008 at 15:30
Cst Benton Fraser for Prime Minister.
9 tracker07 // Jul 5, 2008 at 17:12
Rod Mickleburgh, Vancouver, B.C. (Globe and Mail) reporting
Excerpt
“an RCMP constable new to the reserve tried to halt a long parade of honking cars and trucks. This remark indicates it was an inexperienced RCMP that. Approached the PARADE.
PARADE (An organized public procession on a festive or ceremonial occasion)
And to state the obvious the RCMP approached the PARADE not the other way around as the Deepthroat would have people believe.
The inexperienced RCMP poorly managed the situation. How’s that working out for the RCMP and aboriginal relations?
Perhaps the Deepthroat can explain the “knowledge gap” as it relates to this incident.
“ but that there was a “knowledge gap” in the Sechelt detachment about the parade, which had been a regular occurrence for several years.” And again How’s that working out for the RCMP and aboriginal relations?
What mistakes are the Deepthroat referring to?
Deepthroat wrote
“And when a mistake is made it is decried as lies and cover-up?”
What is the Deepthroat’s raison d-etre.
Trackers reply “Too be Polemical”
Deepthroat wrote “Do you now understand the authorities for police activity on a reserve?”
Tracker’s reply; “To spray babies with pepper spray and then assault the indigenous people on their land.”
10 Deepthroat // Jul 6, 2008 at 15:01
My apologies for thinking your question of legal interpretation were legitimate and serious.
To answer my question of whether or not you understood the legalities is responded to with: “Tracker’s reply; “To spray babies with pepper spray and then assault the indigenous people on their land.”
I may be polemic but I am not childish. To insinuate that the police authority is for the purpose of pepper spraying babies is quite inane.
If you wish to color the 17000 members of the RCMP as you do that is your democratic right. If you wish to believe everything printed in the news that is your right.
If you wish to ignore the greater public policy questions posed that too is your right. If you hold the view that the police should not be capable of making mistakes like the rest of the population, so be it.
You want me to explain the knowledge gap? Once again I assume that you do not know and therefore are asking the question to get an answer. If you read the rest of the newspaper and listen to the rest of the newscasts and you believe them and even the RCMP itself when it is said that because of demographics, poor human resource planning, etc., the RCMP has a tremendous amount of newbies, so much so that newbies are training newbies. Therefore, knowledge and procedures and methodologies are lost until learned, sometimes the hard way.
You like quotes so here is one:
“What emerged was a picture of an honourable and revered Canadian institution with rank and file members struggling to do their best under a tremendous burden of an inefficient and inappropriately structured organization,” said David Brown, the Toronto lawyer at the helm of the task force.
So here is your challenge from a polemic: Of the 5000+ cops in the RCMP in BC, who come in contact with the public everyday, arrest, charge, assist, investigate every day, how many situations go awry as opposed to how many are handled properly?
Your chicken little world of the glass half empty is too evident.
11 tracker07 // Jul 6, 2008 at 16:30
So we agree, poorly trained cops marred by incompetence.
12 CstBentonFraser // Jul 7, 2008 at 14:12
“”Of the 5000+ cops in the RCMP in BC, who come in contact with the public everyday, arrest, charge, assist, investigate every day, how many situations go awry as opposed to how many are handled properly?”"
I can answer that for tracker becuase I have the RCMP’s own stats right here. Your question was, “Of the 5000+ cops in the RCMP in BC, who come in contact with the public everyday, arrest, charge, assist, investigate every day, how many situations go awry”.
“More than half of all RCMP in-custody deaths during the past five years occurred in B.C. despite the fact only a third of the force’s officers work here, an internal report prepared by the Mounties has found.
Your question was, “Of the 5000+ cops in the RCMP in BC, who come in contact with the public everyday, arrest, charge, assist, investigate every day, how many situations go awry”.
The answer is a far too high disproportionate amount, stats right from the RCMP themseleves.
Mr. Logic can also see the the distinct possibility you will argue with my answer.
Tell me about the Raven again. I forgot what you had said to me about it.
13 Deepthroat // Jul 7, 2008 at 14:20
No I do not agree with you or your broad brush negativity with respect to the RCMP, ditto your ability to actually read and comprehend what is meant by the written word.
No comment on the 10’s of thousands of contacts with the public and the discharge of their duties every day? Of course not. I am surprised you did not comment on the train incident and want the cop to pay for the car he wrecked.
14 tracker07 // Jul 7, 2008 at 23:15
Officers absolved in pepper-spray case
Remember the thread Deepthroat, this isn’t a platform to pontificate your polemic views
Deepthroat “I may be polemic but I am not childish” hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm
The trouble began when an RCMP constable new to the reserve tried to halt a long parade of honking cars and trucks.
RCMP had provided escort for it in previous years
Deepthroat remarks “All parades must obey the law and any applicable provincial or federal statutes, or local bylaws. Cops are supposed to enforce those you know”.
From David D. Schreck article “As I watched the Canada Day parade in North Vancouver last Sunday, I saw dozens of floats and trucks go by with people of all ages standing on the displays and waiving to the crowd”
Trackers “no beatings or pepper spraying babies or children here”
Deepthroat “read and comprehend what is meant by the written word”. hmm,hmm
Deepthroat You’ll get it one day keep trying. Hmm, Hmm, Hmm
From this site http://www.strategicthoughts.com/index.html
Link to article below
http://www.strategicthoughts.com/record2007/sechelt.html
July 4, 2007
From David D. Schreck RCMP’s Sechelt Mistake
As I watched the Canada Day parade in North Vancouver last Sunday, I saw dozens of floats and trucks go by with people of all ages standing on the displays and waiving to the crowd. It’s a good thing that the Sechelt detachment of the RCMP wasn’t present or a pursuit, arrest and pepper spraying incident could have happened. What’s the difference between the lame excuses offered by the RCMP for their actions in Sechelt and what everyone witnessed on Canada Day? Is a parade by aboriginal people in celebration of a soccer victory different from any other parade? CBC reported that: “RCMP Const. Annie Linteau said Tuesday police saw 10 youths standing in the back of a pickup truck, and tried to stop the vehicle.” The constable didn’t allege that the pickup truck was speeding, or being driven in a manner that was different from what you see in any parade, although that was implied.
On Global’s noon news on July 4th, another RCMP spokesperson apologized for pepper spraying children but didn’t apologize for making an arrest or pepper spraying the adults. That’s not good enough. The Sechelt people are to be commended for attempting to work with the RCMP to improve working relations, but one has to wonder whether it is possible when training appears so inadequate. In other news reports, an RCMP spokesperson admitted that the responding officers were not aware of the traditional victory parade, even though the RCMP had provided escort for it in previous years.
According to the Vancouver Province, local MLA Nicholas Simons participated in a meeting with the community and the RCMP. The RCMP are lucky that their attack on children came four days after the National Day of Action rather than before it. Premier Campbell issued a statement on the National Day of Action, but he’s missing-in-action on the RCMP’s abuse of the Sechelt people. Why haven’t the media obtained a reaction to the Sechelt incident from the Premier, the Solicitor General or the Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation?
15 Deepthroat // Jul 8, 2008 at 14:06
Give me the numbers Mr. Logic. Deaths per arrests. Arrests per contact.
Disproportionate to what? Personally I do not care even if it is “disproportionate” as unfortunate stuff happens. Unless you think that the cops deliberately put people in jail so that they can die. The underlying theme is they came into contact with authorities for some reason. Accountability cuts both ways.
What would have happened if the organizers of the parade stopped, had pulled out their permit and showed it to the cops? How many days prior to the “event” did they liaise with the cops to ensure an escort was in place and provide details of this years celebration or invite them to participate (maybe invite the cops for cancer bike crew)? Or are the cops supposed to be mind readers? No, the natives can do whatever they like whenever they like.
So when somebody fell of the truck and got run over by the vehicle behind you could decry the lack of action on the part of the cops in preventing the tragedy.
I do not have a problem with the cops trying to stop a vehicle with 10 people standing in the back. Its illegal. Some “parade”. No floats.
Remember CBF, stick to the topic, deaths in custody are not in line with this thread. tracker07 does not want us off topic. Oops, did I reply to CBF on that? Forsooth.
tracker07 for commissioner.
16 CstBentonFraser // Jul 8, 2008 at 14:14
“No I do not agree with you or your broad brush negativity with respect to the RCMP, ditto your ability to actually read and comprehend what is meant by the written word.
No comment on the 10’s of thousands of contacts with the public and the discharge of their duties every day? Of course not. I am surprised you did not comment on the train incident and want the cop to pay for the car he wrecked.”
Nothing but insults and smear tactics.
I have excellent reading and comprehension skills, my writing has been published by UBC students, and my news releases have been read by millions of people around the world.
Deepthroat, you are the very first person who has ever had a problem with my reading , writing and posting skills, the RCMP, the Vancouver Police Department as well as many other government agencies and news desks have never mentioned any problem with my reading, writing, or comprhension.
My only conclusion is you have a major dysfunction Deepthroat because in all of my years and in all of my correspondence with news desks, news wires, RCMP, my MLA, my MP, the Vancouver Police Department, an many other professional agencies no one has ever mentioned a problem with my reading, writing and comprhension.
I tend to trust their judgment over yours.
You on the other hand exhibit a disregard and a disdain for the public’s safety, accountability by the RCMP and many other issues regarding repect of the public.
17 Deepthroat // Jul 9, 2008 at 22:15
Do not flatter yourself, I was not referring to you CBF, your post was listed before mine. I was referring to tracker07 and her comments. I do not see you having a problem with reading my posts. Kinda deflates your piece I am afraid. I guess the replies should be directed as you cannot differentiate. I still await YOUR statistics though.
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