Times Colonist – Attorney General Wally Oppal has described the slow pace of the RCMP investigation into the death of Robert Dziekanski as “extraordinary.” He can’t have been paying attention. These kinds of delays into any case involving possible misconduct by RCMP officers are the norm.
Dziekanski’s death, after he was confronted by four RCMP officers and tasered at Vancouver’s airport, was captured in a horrifying videotape. One, it must be noted, that the RCMP initially seized and attempted to keep from the public.
The outcry, which increased in the face of initial police and government stonewalling, resulted in a number of reviews, including a provincial public inquiry into municipal police forces’ use of Tasers and Dziekanski’s death.
The latter inquiry has been postponed twice because the RCMP refuses to co-operate until it completes its criminal investigation and a decision is made on whether any charges will be laid.
More than a year after the death, that has not happened. Crown prosecutors say they could not decide on charges because RCMP investigators hadn’t provided a needed medical report. (That was apparently provided this week.)
Oppal said the delays are unacceptable, but he has done nothing to address them.
These delays are not unusual or “extraordinary.” It took more than 11 months for an RCMP investigation and a decision not to lay charges when Ian Bush was shot and killed inside the Houston RCMP detachment.
It took more than 14 months before a decision was made on whether charges would be laid in the death of Kevin St. Arnaud, shot and killed by an RCMP officer in Vanderhoof in December 2004.
And in September 2006, the province’s police complaint commissioner reported that of 17 in-custody or police-involved deaths in the previous year, not one inquest had been scheduled. The coroners service blamed the slow pace of other investigations for the delay.
These delays are unfair and damaging. For families, unanswered questions haunt them for far too long. For officers in the shootings, the threat of charges hangs over their heads far longer than is reasonable. This month, one of the officers involved in the Dziekanski death was charged with impaired driving causing death after his car crashed with a motorcycle. It is hard not to wonder if the stress of these unresolved charges was a factor.
The job of answering questions also becomes much harder when inquests are delayed and witnesses’ memories grow fainter.
And the justice system falls into disrepute. Would any other fatal shooting, for example, with a clearly identified shooter and immediate investigation of the scene, drag on for more than a year?
The problem goes deeper than simply delays. If any of these incidents had involved a municipal police force in B.C., the investigation would have been handed to senior officers from another department to avoid the appearance of special treatment or favouritism. (Even that approach has been abandoned in several other provinces, which maintain independent investigative units.)
But the RCMP will not accept external reviews. If an officer is involved in possible wrongdoing, other RCMP members investigate. The perception of conflict is unavoidable. The delays and unusual investigative techniques add to the problem. RCMP officers, for example, travelled to Poland to interview relatives and acquaintances of Dziekanski. It is difficult to imagine similar examination of the life of a possible crime victim if those involved were not police officers.
It is not enough for Oppal to complain. The current system is not working and the problems are severe. Thomas Braidwood, conducting the inquiry into Dziekanski’s death, has been forced to warn he will subpoena RCMP officers if the force does not co-operate.
If the RCMP won’t accept independent investigations in such cases, then the province should begin planning for its own provincial police force.
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