Pubdate: Tue, 08 Mar 2005
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Allan Woods, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

CANADA'S TOP POLICEMAN BACKTRACKS ON RCMP DEATHS

Zaccardelli Says Comments Hasty Because He Lacked All The Information

OTTAWA -- Canada's top police officer said Monday that he was too quick to 
condemn a marijuana growing operation as the root cause in the deaths of 
four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers last week.

RCMP commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli said in an interview that his 
condemnation of grow-ops just hours after the shootings may have been 
inappropriate because police and politicians did not have full details of 
the particular case and the background of cop-killer James Roszko.

Zaccardelli and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, his political boss as 
the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, spoke of the 
scourge of marijuana grow operations within hours of the killings and the 
need for tougher penalties for those who operate them.

"I gave what I believed was the best information I had knowing full well 
that at that time I didn't have all the information," a contrite 
Zaccardelli said. "Clearly, there's a lot of things in there that, in 
hindsight, we will have to look at in a different perspective."

Police in Mayerthorpe, Alta., first attended Roszko's home last Wednesday 
with a court order to seize stolen auto parts. While there, they discovered 
what a search warrant said were 20 marijuana plants. They returned the next 
day -- the day of the killings -- with a warrant to search for a drug 
operation and seized 280 plants, $8,000 worth of growing equipment and a 
generator worth $30,000, the Edmonton Journal reported.

But in the days since the murders, it appears they were the work of a 
deranged man with a long criminal history, but hardly that of a gangster 
protecting his cash crop.

"None of these are simple issues. This requires some reflection and 
discussion," Zaccardelli said. "Let's honour the memory of these four 
fallen police officers and help their families get through it, and then we 
need to carry on the debate after this."

Zaccardelli's comments followed statements in the House of Commons by all 
four political parties commemorating the deaths of constables Peter 
Schiemann, 25, Anthony Gordon, 28, Brock Myrol, 29, and Leo Johnston, 32.

Opposition parties declined out of respect for the four dead officers to 
use Monday's question period to probe the initial reactions of Zaccardelli 
and McLellan.

Last Thursday night, McLellan said the officers "were killed in an 
operation involving, as far as we know at this point, an illegal grow 
operation."

She went on to speak of the great danger grow-ops pose to police officers, 
their frequent links to organized crime, and the need for stronger 
penalties for those who run them. All are positions she has held 
consistently for a long time.

McLellan would not discuss Zaccardelli's comments Monday.

"The first thing that happened was that everybody acted based on a lack of 
information," said Randy White, a tough-on-crime Conservative MP from 
British Columbia. "Yeah, they did react, but based on information they 
didn't have."

Prime Minister Paul Martin, McLellan and Zaccardelli will travel to 
Edmonton Thursday for a national memorial service. Following that, 
Zaccardelli said, he will be making a "more extensive" public statement on 
the killings.

All four political parties spoke Monday in the House of Commons in honour 
of the four dead officers.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom