RCMP Watch

Jack Aubry, CanWest News Service

The RCMP ignored strong warnings in an internal audit that examined the risks of working with the U.S. Coast Guard on joint patrols of waterways shared by Canada and the United States in the period leading up to Detroit’s 2006 Super Bowl game, CanWest News Service has learned.

The audit report, obtained under the Access to Information Act, stipulated in capital letters that the RCMP participate in an operation with the U.S. Coast Guard “ONLY IF” the Mounties are adequately trained in winter marine and airboat operations.

However, the report, dated Jan. 18, 2006, concluded: “The current paucity of organizational experience and assets in this area poses considerable risk to RCMP members and to the organization. As such, there appears to be little to recommend renewed participation in the proposed Super Bowl Shiprider operation.”

Shiprider was the name given to a two-week exercise in September 2005, aimed at assessing the capacity of the two agencies to work together on waterborne patrols. While the possibility of criminals and terrorists plying the international waters around Detroit and Windsor, Ont., exists at any time, authorities were concerned that the international buzz around the Feb. 5, 2006, Super Bowl game would make the region a particularly vulnerable target.

The audit, evaluating the RCMP’s capacity for such joint operations, was especially concerned that the force lacked vessels able to operate in icy winter waters, and that it had no officers trained to work in such conditions.

“The proposed operation would take place in late January, a time when the waters between Windsor and Detroit will be either partially or fully frozen over and a time during which the RCMP would not normally mount marine operations,” the audit observed.

But RCMP Supt. Blair McKnight said the officers engaged in the project did, in fact, receive the required training in time for the Super Bowl match. The police force’s managers were aware of the audit findings with enough advance warning to take the necessary safety measures. He also said that mild weather in the area meant that the expected icy conditions were not realized.

No injuries were reported during the exercise