Pubdate: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2005 The Sudbury Star Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) SERVING AND PROTECTING Efforts to Politicize Tragedy of Slain Officers Have Obscured the Real Issues In the broad daylight of hindsight, last week's murder of four RCMP officers at a northern Alberta farm is many things. It is as terrible a tragedy as Canadians will have to deal with on home soil this year. It is a cautionary tale of the nature of policework and of police resources. It is a reminder that Canadian society is not -- for many reasons -- as safe as we believe it to be. Unfortunately, it has also been used as a political tool to promote private agendas, especially during the Liberal Party of Canada's weekend convention. In short, what happened in Mayerthorpe, Alberta last Thursday morning was a tragedy, made all the more tragic by hollow attempts to politicize it. Hot-button issues like the federal gun registry and decriminalizing marijuana laws have been trotted out into the convention's spotlight with these four slain officers in the background. Those who have attempted to score political points this way should be ashamed. Liberal MPP Dan McTeague, a strident opponent of decriminalizing marijuana, argued those who wanted to debate the issue at the convention following the tragedy were insulting the memory of the slain officers. Conservatives, meanwhile, have argued the incident shows just how ineffective the national gun registry has become. Canadians should look past these issues, first to the facts surrounding this tragedy, and then to remedies that will minimize the odds of an incident like this happening again. First, police are sworn to uphold the law. These four RCMP constables died while doing exactly that. To judge the fitness of these laws after their deaths is to diminish their efforts in upholding them. Police say the constables -- Anthony Gordon, 28, Leo Johnston, 32, Brock Myrol, 29, and Peter Schiemann, 25 -- were staking out a property while investigating stolen car parts and a marijuana grow operation. For their sacrifice, and that of the families they leave behind, they deserve to be more than mere footnotes in a political debate. Second, the 46-year-old Roszko was a convicted child molester, a known cop hater and a community pariah. He ambushed the four Mounties with an illegal semi-automatic assault-style rifle -- gunning them down before retreating and turning his weapon on himself. Roszko was all about trouble -- his own father called him "the devil," alluding to a lifetime of his terrorizing family, neighbours, police and the community in which he lived. It didn't matter what the Mounties had been at his farm to investigate or what they did or found while there -- cretins like Roszko, who have little respect for their communities or the rule of law, can be found all across the country. RCMP officials stress that the operation that led to this tragedy was not an uncommon one for a rural detachment. If anything should resonate with Canadians, this tragedy must be acknowledged as a political failure to properly equip police in the fight against such illegal operations. Whether dealing with marijuana grow-ops or networks trading in stolen cars, at issue is the lengths to which criminals like Roszko will go to insulate themselves from the law, and the ability of police to deal with them. Our hearts go out the families and co-workers of these officers who died in the line of duty. And we implore officials to debate the safety of those in the line of duty free of political grandstanding. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake