RCMP Watch

Andrew Hanon (Edmonton Sun) - An apology, says Edmonton lawyer Casey O’Byrne, would go a long way.

If the Mounties would admit that they royally screwed up the investigation into now-retired RCMP Staff Sgt. Clifford McCann and apologize to the four men who accuse him of sexually abusing them in the 1980s, it would be a huge step toward helping these guys piece together their lives, O’Byrne says.

If that comes, he says, then “everything that flows from this case after that will take care of itself.”

Of course, it’s not going to happen because O’Byrne is helping the men sue McCann, the Mounties, the federal government and the people who ran the Kingsclear Youth Training Centre near Fredericton, N.B., where hundreds of boys were sexually assaulted over several decades.

If the RCMP offer any apology now, it would only hurt the police force’s defence in the civil suit.

Although the horror actually unfolded in Atlantic Canada, the Kingsclear case has many ties to Edmonton. First, all four of the men suing McCann moved to Edmonton as adults, although at least one is now back in a jail in the Maritimes.

They launched their lawsuit while living here, and are represented by O’Byrne, who practises law here.

Most noteworthy of all is the fact that Karl Toft, one of only two people ever convicted of assaulting the Kingsclear boys — despite a potential suspect list of nearly 50 — moved here after serving a 13-year prison sentence.

The former guard, who admitted to molesting hundreds of boys over 35 years, still lives somewhere in the Edmonton area and has meticulously kept out of the media.

It should be made clear that McCann has never been charged with anything and throughout the ordeal — now into its second decade — he has steadfastly denied having any part in the appalling abuse inflicted on the boys who lived at the reform school.

But the Commission for Public Complaints’ devastating report into the RCMP’s handling of the Kingsclear scandal, released last week, concluded that while there was no plan to cover up anything, the force completely botched the investigation into McCann, who worked with the kids at Kingsclear.

The report says McCann, who was investigated by fellow New Brunswick Mounties of a lower rank than him, was afforded special treatment during two separate interviews, and that note-taking and reports were inconsistent, at times lacking critical information. And to top it off, senior RCMP brass in New Brunswick showed no leadership, direction or even interest in the case until it became a public issue.

O’Byrne’s clients complained to the commission that McCann’s colleagues were covering up for him, but the report says there’s no evidence of any conspiracy.

“Inadequacies that occur when the RCMP is investigating one of its own can become magnified when assessed through the eyes of the public,” notes the report, which argues that it’s vital to the force’s credibility to make it mandatory to hand over criminal investigations of fellow RCMP officers to outside agencies, or at the very least to Mounties from another province.

But police forces across the country have resisted handing over internal investigations for fear that they’d become politicized and people with axes to grind against cops would go on witch hunts.

But the McCann case is a perfect example of why it’s necessary. The report makes it clear that while there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him, the cops’ investigation was so slapdash that one could hardly say that he’s been cleared, either.

And let’s not forget the thousands of dedicated rank-and-file Mounties across the country, who’ve been dealt a blow to their credibility by this sad gong show.

The list of people deserving apologies, it seems, just keeps growing.