Michael Platt (Opinion, Calgary Sun) – Anyone else would have been immediately charged and likely thrown behind bars to await a trial.
But three months later, Kelowna RCMP Const. Geoff Mantler remains a free man, collecting a police paycheque as he awaits his fate for savagely kicking a citizen in the face.
It’s a delay that makes little sense, given the overwhelming pile of evidence now gathering dust on a government lawyer’s desk somewhere in B.C.
“We gave the file to Crown counsel back at the end on January, so it’s sitting with them now,” said Abbotsford police Const. Ian MacDonald.
“I can only let them speak for themselves as to why no charges have been laid — I’ll defer to the Crown on that one.”
If he’s at all frustrated by the long delay, MacDonald hides it well.
Still, you have to assume the Abbotsford police officers called in to investigate the Jan. 7 arrest of Kelowna resident Buddy Tavares must be scratching their heads.
This was no complex case requiring months of painstaking detective work and endless hours of forensic science and old-fashioned police investigation.
Just 10 days after Abbotsford’s police force was asked to independently investigate the actions of the Kelowna Mountie, officials there announced Const. Mantler would be charged with assault causing bodily harm.
“We are prepared to say publicly that we will be recommending the charge of assault causing bodily harm in regards to this incident,” said MacDonald on Jan. 17.
But charges are not up to police — they can only offer an opinion.
Ultimately, it’s up to the Crown’s lawyers to review the evidence and decide if the case will stand up for trial, and if so, the charges proceed.
In this case, there are an estimated 40 eyewitnesses, along with police records proving the location of the suspect and victim.
But that’s all gravy next to the full-colour, high-quality video shot by a Kelowna reporter, showing Mantler from the moment the Mountie approaches Tavares’ pickup truck.
Tavares is ordered out of the cab and he is seen trying to get down on the ground as Mantler points a pistol at him.
Suddenly, the officer snaps a kick at Tavares, his boot connecting squarely with the face of the victim, who collapses on the road.
You’d think the video would be a prosecutor’s dream — it clearly shows a brutal assault taking place.
Of course, Mantler deserves his day in court, as much as the public and Tavares deserve to see someone charged for the assault.
Mantler was responding to a call about a man with a gun and his defence will likely lie in his belief this was a potentially deadly suspect — alhough all charges against Tavares were dropped.
Some say there’s no excuse for a cop to kick a man in the face, ever — but that will all be sorted out in court, provided a charge is actually laid.
Generally, given excellent evidence and forthright witnesses, charges involving violence against another person are filed very quickly.
You don’t want murderers and thugs walking the street for weeks after a crime — and had it been a case of a citizen kicking a Kelowna RCMP officer in the face, it would have been instant handcuffs and immediate charges.
Mantler, arguably, is no threat to those around him so a few extra days to review the case is understandable.
But five weeks?
That’s how long it has been since the Abbotsford police handed their file over to the Crown.
In Victoria, Crown counsel spokesman Neil MacKenzie said the delay isn’t a case of special treatment for a police officer — most likely, it’s just a matter of time.
“I don’t know that there’s any specific length of time when it comes to a charge assessment — it’s a matter of how much material there is to review and what else the Crown is dealing with,” said MacKenzie.
“It’s hard to provide a timeline.”
MacKenzie does say the majority of charge assessments are complete within 48 hours, making this an unusual case, but he confirmed the review is underway.
How long that might take is impossible to say, said MacKenzie.
“It’s one of those, ‘how long is a piece of string’ type questions.”
“I imagine he was perceived….” Now there is a sound basis for conclusions.
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“There is no doubt that the Crown and the RCMP want this problem to vanish into thin air but are having difficulty with how to have that happen.”
You ascribe a direction to several independent parties that you have absolutely no foundation with which to rely upon. It is baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others (by definition, paranoia). Your conspiracy theory now encompasses the Provincial Crown. Local Crown prosecutors will not be the decision makers in such matters, so I guess the Ministry is now part of the coven eh? Please avail yourself of the following link as it will inform you of that which you lack in understanding of the various situations you comment: http://www.justicebc.ca/en/cjis/index.html
“These tactics are just another way of allowing LEO’s to get away with offences that anyone else would have been charged with immediatly.(SIC)”
Such paranoia. Your reference to the YVR incident decries the length of time to some resolution. You may be dissatisfied with that, and are probably not alone. However for the independent counsel assigned to look at the facts, I for one would like him to minutely examine all the facts, and if that takes time, so be it. Do it right and thorough? Or just speed through it and end up with the same issues identified in other items in this forum vis a vis counter suits, botched prosecutions, etc.
“Look at the charge against Buddy. How long did it take and we all know now he should NEVER have been charged.”
Yes, by all means look at him and tell us the difference. Mr. Tavares was in custody (rightly or wrongly) and he would have to be charged or let go within 24 hours. Remember D, as I have explained before, the Crown is the final say on the laying of charges in the Province of BC. Your vitriol should be directed at what exactly was before the Crown in order to make their decision. If in fact the information was scarce, incorrect, embellished or substantive, would be the questions to ask. If embellished or incorrect, then you could rightly focus your indignation in the correct direction, the police. If scarce or substantive, the direction would change to the Crown. I am sure that once you have read and digested the information available at the link I gave you, you will be able to answer most of your own questions.
Never been charged? Perhaps, but I am not privy to the information provided to the Crown. Do share. Or is that just supposition? Do not discount the weak knee factor with respect to the actions of the Crown. After all D, theses are the persons who up until most recently could not secure a conviction of Criminal Organization against any gangsters in the Province.
“So typical of the relationship between law enforcement and Crown.” Yes, and I think that they are coming to get me too.
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Do we really have a voice here or are we just allowed to think we have?
What happen to Capital Punishment and why was it abolished?
Have some of our police officers become judge and executioner in the field?
I think it was abolished years ago because someone could be unjustly accused of committing a serious crime like murder, (we are talking about the public here and not a police officer committing murder), where questionable witnesses or tactics may have been used back then to secure such a conviction or that the evidence or circumstantial evidence gathered may have been deliberately ignored, tampered with or destroyed along with witnesses which might have come forth and said; he did it he’s the one. When in fact the accused did not commit this crime and because of the internal police practices or political pressures to resolve this serious case it might have dictated that someone anyone should be charged to keep this matter quiet or give the perception to the public for whatever reasons that police were on top of things, he would have been charged, convicted and hanged without recourse.
Now we know this hasn’t happened since Capital Punishment was abolished that a court has sent a man off to be hanged but the system and how it operates which remains in place to this day has not evolved much since those dark ages and anyone can see that it is seriously broken and the ones at the top making laws, policy and reform are ignoring the cry of the people and their own inquiry reports, the judges for change. Why?
I think it’s good that we have an organization for the Aids for the Wrongfully Convicted that takes the time to go to the aid of those who are still being unjustly accused for whatever reasons by our police forces seeking charges and a conviction by our courts today when they in turn do the opposite when it comes to their own.
Let’s forget for a moment why Capital Punishment was abolished, all the internal squabbling that has continued, the public inquiries pointing to a force that is badly broken and the newspaper articles that reveal time and time again to everyone that changes (accountability) are needed but instead are still being ignored.
Does this say that we haven’t really evolved all that much since the dark ages were it was totally expectable for a police officer of the Crown to lie and for the Justice System to kill an innocent man or woman and later when what happen came out what happen to the officer? Nothing!
Let us ask the question here seriously?
Why haven’t our governments united against these serious video assaults which are being perpetrated by police officers that are called to serve and protect the public not harm them?
I find it inexcusable that these brutal attacks being inflicted on the public, which are being initially denied by police officers involved and their supervisors, only lead to those officers getting a paid vacation and then nothing seems to really happen to them, whether someone is killed or not, this mans death or assault becomes irrelevant in the police officers account of facts he says happened, hoping I guess as we have been conditioned to believe our police officers are honest and above board, that everything will eventually die?
Are we to assume that no reforms or changes are coming to the government’s police force other than building new jails to hold the public accountable and that the same treatment that is offered to a police officer caught red handed breaking the laws will not be extended to the public.
How can a justice system be perceived to be just?
It has always been that the officer’s word was believed over an individual’s but give me a break even now in the face of video evidence and a whole lot of witness the same happens. So why build new jails if all police officers get is a conditional discharge and their serious cases spoiled and thrown out of court.
Instead of letting them go because they fear they will be killed in prison, why don’t they instead build a luxury jail just for law enforcement officers since they are privileged?
Don’t they get it, that their lack of interest in these serious matters could seriously effect the public’ perception of any officer doing his or her job out there and we could be viewed no better than the countries that don’t care about human rights. Could this not effect or hinder good police officers trying to do their jobs in an unfriendly police environment and in an external degrading atmosphere where their credibility as a police officer could be seriously challenged when they give testimony in our Canadian courts of law.
I would think that what has always been needed, since Capital Punishment was abolished, was a serious internal look at why some of these reported police officers are acting this way, (why has this been ignored by the RCMP Commissioners and the Governments through the years even in the face of Commissioner Zarccardelli’s questionable resignation), and have some stop gaps in place to help them keep on track along the way.
Some serious plan of action and serious reforms are needs in place to protect the general public (no one kicks a banker in the face when he’s arrested) from brutal police officers operating under the clout and protection of the police forces and governments they so disgracefully represent before the lying and killing starts again.
Ignoring this serious issue will not help find a solution nor was the federal governments attempt to convince the public that he was acting on this issue to save the reputation of the RCMP by hiring Commissioner Elliot a solution.
Commissioner Elliot needs to fired this police officer for kicking that man so brutally in the face while he was on the ground, he could have killed him there and if you can’t because you have no powers to do so, why are you there?
I hope we don’t have a bigger problem than we thought initially. Have our leaders become to friendly with this police force and become part of the problem instead of part of the solution as they foolishly waist our tax dollars on this kind of useless police work.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Your rant is devoid of empirical facts to support it. The various legal systems at work from criminal investigations and courts, to coroners inquests and public inquires, to CPC investigations and provincial reviews have examined the various issues that you tout as non accountability. The fact that adjudications from the various bodies do not please you does not mean that the system, albeit slow, does not work for the populace.
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I was all set to weigh in here with a long rant about Mr. Platt’s apparent ignorance of the laws of the land re: arrest and detention but I’m too damn tired.
DT is correct about the likelihood that the Crown is quite properly making sure their case against Mantler is as good as it can possibly be. Trust me: its a lot of work to slog through 40+ witness statements to make sure everything hangs together and nothing was missed, especially when you also have the workload most Crowns have in this country. Lots of errors are made in investigations and prosecutions in part because the public is always screaming for instant justice. It would tragic if that happened here.
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Not even close. The recommendation for charges was forwarded by non RCMP investigators to the Crown who have charge approval in the Province of BC. Historically they scrutinize the cases involving public officials very closely, getting second and third internal and external opinions to cya. You can reference numerous cases in the recent past that reflect the methodology used in such cases. Just because there is a certain hysteria about the issue, it does little to move the Provincial bureaucracy.
The RCMP do not have a huge bank account. It is the government that pays in the end with tax dollars. The RCMP do not handle any lawsuits. Do some research. It is the PPSC formerly the DOJ that call the shots in any lawsuits and they certainly do not work for the RCMP. In the settling of lawsuits they always try and get away with the least amount of tax dollars paid out.
As for the individual keeping his job or receiving any form of punishment, we will have to see if the various statutes and case law are observed and adhered to, and what the outcome is.
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The RCMP MAKES the Crown, drag their heels on this cause the force wants people to forget what happened on that awful day. When Mantler is found guilty then the lawsuit start to come in.
The other thing is that the RCMP have a HUGE bank account, where they can afford to drag this thing out.
Whats going to happen is that Mantler will be found guilty in court, given a Conditional Sentence for 1 year. Keep his job & be promoted to a section where he’s not directly involved with the public. Sad but true.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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