RCMP Watch

Ian Bailey (Globe and Mail) Vancouver, B.C. - The RCMP commissioner is asking for public patience with the national police force in light of a series of made-in-B.C. controversies that include the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski and recent news that a Mountie is suspected of impaired driving in a fatal collision with a civilian.

“The incidents you refer to certainly are very serious incidents. I think that it’s important for the public to keep them in context,” William Elliott told reporters yesterday, after his first speech to the influential Vancouver Board of Trade since being appointed 16 months ago.

He was also asked about the in-custody death of Ian Bush, fatally shot by a Mountie in 2005 during an alleged confrontation with the officer.

“It’s also important for the public to have faith in the independent systems we have in place to review our activities with respect to all those incidents,” he said. “We’re quite anxious to learn as much as we can and to take whatever reasonable steps we can to reduce such incidents in future.”

Mr. Elliott did not address the controversies in his prepared remarks. Nor was he asked about them in questions that members of the audience submitted from the floor after he finished his speech.

However, he was pressed by reporters afterward. He said he was concerned about any case where officers violate the “core values” of the Mounties.

“Certainly there have been instances, including recent instances, of inappropriate behaviour. We must be forthright with respect to recognizing that behaviour as inappropriate and deal with it effectively,” he said.

The first civilian commissioner in the RCMP’s history rejected a reporter’s suggestion that he was in B.C. to mend fences in light of the incidents, noting he has been in the province four times since he was appointed.

He said the RCMP were eager to testify before the Braidwood commission, which is looking into police use of tasers and the Dziekanski case in particular, and has threatened to subpoena Mounties.

“We are anxious to participate to the fullest extent possible,” Mr. Elliott said. “I think that Mr. Braidwood and others need to understand that there are some limits to what we can do, particularly prior to the provincial Crown making a decision about potential charges.”

Mr. Dziekanski died last year after officers zapped him with a conducted energy weapon during a confrontation in the international arrivals area of Vancouver International Airport - a tragedy that prompted a wide-ranging review of police use of such weapons.

Crown prosecutors in B.C. have been considering criminal charges against the officers involved in the Dziekanski incident. The RCMP has said it won’t participate in the inquiry or provide the commission with access to its files until a decision is made on charges.

That has prompted the inquiry commissioner, retired B.C. Court of Appeal judge Thomas Braidwood, to threaten to subpoena the officers to testify if the Crown has not decided on charges by Jan. 19, 2009, when the inquiry is supposed to resume.

Yesterday, Crown spokesman Stan Lowe said B.C. prosecutors have received a final expert’s report they required to make a determination on charges, and are hoping to announce a decision soon.

One of the four officers involved in the Dziekanski case is also suspected of impaired driving in an unrelated incident last month. In that event, the Mountie was driving a Jeep involved in a collision in Tsawwassen, southeast of Vancouver, that killed a 21-year-old man on a motorcycle.

The Ian Bush case involved a 22-year-old sawmill worker arrested in Houston, B.C., in October, 2005, for having an open beer outside a hockey game and giving a false name to police. He was taken to the local detachment where he was shot by an officer, who said he acted in self-defence after Mr. Bush attacked him. A coroner’s jury brought in several recommendations, including that officers not be left alone with suspects, and the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP said the officer acted in self-defence.