Pubdate: Thu, 28 Sep 2006
Source: North Shore News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 North Shore News
Contact:  http://www.nsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311
Author: Jerry Paradis

RCMP MUST BE INDEPENDENT OF POLITICS

This is the last in a series on the RCMP, an organization that relies 
heavily on tradition to underpin its reputation. So, let's have a 
brief look at some history.

At the end of the First World War, the Royal Northwest Mounted Police 
was down to about 300 members. Its original mandate - to bring law 
and order to the frontier - had been largely accomplished and many 
who had gone off to fight in Europe declined to rejoin the force upon 
their return.

In 1919, that meager remnant of the force earned a dubious reputation 
when, to end the Winnipeg general strike, it charged into a crowd, 
clubbed two people to death and injured 30 more. It was therefore no 
surprise that there was heated debate in Parliament in 1920 when the 
proposal was made to merge the force with the even smaller Dominion 
Police (whose duties were mainly to protect Parliament Hill, provide 
bodyguards for ministers and patrol naval yards). Many MPs were 
justifiably more than a little wary of a nationwide paramilitary police force.

In the end, what saved the Mounties was dope. Canada was just getting 
into the swing of the drug prohibition business, and Parliament 
ultimately decided that a national presence was necessary to 
effectively enforce the Opium and Drug Act. The Royal Canadian 
Mounted Police was born, and today employs 60,000 men and women. That 
crucial role of drugs in the history of the RCMP is important when 
trying to make sense of some of the more intriguing actions on the 
part of its high-level decision-makers over the past couple of years.

Mayerthorpe is a good example. When Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli 
first learned about what was undoubtedly the most tragic episode in 
the force's recent history, he took the opportunity to warn darkly 
about drugs and organized crime - referring to a small grow op that 
had been found in James Roszco's Quonset hut.

It was obvious from the outset that the grow op had nothing to do 
with the shootings. On the other hand, there were serious questions 
about the planning and execution of the raid on the farm of a 
volatile, well-known and well-armed cop-hater. The investigation is 
now 16 months old and the public is none the wiser.

That episode neatly illustrates a pattern found in a number of recent 
events presumably directed from the top: political posturing, 
inordinate delay and, with one notable exception, secrecy.

The RCMP is infatuated with the idea of creating "teams" - usually 
with considerable fanfare, essentially a political gesture intended 
to convey the impression that something important is going on. 
Unfortunately, that is not always evident.

In 2004, the force created Marijuana Grow Operation Teams across the 
country. On Feb. 28 last, 18 months later, it announced the 
conclusion of their "first major operation" when, the press release 
proudly proclaimed, they "uncovered a Montreal-based criminal 
organization involved in the trafficking, importation and exportation 
of cannabis seeds."

It took 16 months of hard work by the seven dedicated men and women 
of Operation Courriel to nail a group that had been openly 
trafficking in seeds over the Internet since 1998. "Courriel" means 
e-mail in French - and that pretty much says it all. What major 
operation? What was there to "uncover"?

But that didn't deter the spokesman for the team from proudly 
proclaiming that seizure of a huge pile of seeds had prevented the 
ultimate rolling of 42 million joints - quite in keeping with the 
force's habit of making sometimes laughable claims to get attention 
while obscuring the fact that not much is going on. There are four 
other "teams" out there and it's been nearly two years. Are they 
pursuing equally challenging investigations?

Similarly, Integrated Market Enforcement Teams were formed in 2003 to 
investigate financial fraud across the country. They burst into 
public view when the Toronto team got into a snit about the Bank of 
Nova Scotia not responding appropriately (in the team's opinion) to 
court orders for the production of certain documents related to an 
investigation. The RCMP expressed its displeasure by staging a 
completely unnecessary but dramatic daylight "raid" on the bank's 
head office in Toronto's financial district. Along with the flashing 
lights of more than a dozen squad cars and a huge van to serve as a 
sort of on-site headquarters, more than 25 uniformed officers with 
"POLICE" on their jackets stormed into the building, a remarkably 
brazen piece of street theatre obviously intended to intimidate one 
of Canada's oldest and most respected financial institutions.

Apparently, that wasn't enough for that intrepid team. Shortly after, 
in the same investigation, it managed to secure a search warrant that 
included the name of the then finance minister in the Ontario 
government, Greg Sorbara. Although he was highly critical of the 
warrant, he did the right thing and resigned while protesting his innocence.

A few months ago, a judge of the Ontario Superior Court ordered that 
Sorbara's name be deleted from the warrant. In doing so, the judge 
castigated the RCMP for the "contradictory" and "doubtful" and 
"entirely unsatisfactory" evidence it put forward in the first place 
to obtain it.

Once again, a publicity stunt that yielded nothing of value while the 
nitty-gritty of the investigation went awry. Not much has been heard 
since about the investigation, now in its third year.

But in the end, the most troubling event of all is the interference 
by Commissioner Zaccardelli in last winter's election campaign, a 
move that demonstrated clearly how the force can choose not to hide 
behind silence and secrecy when it sees a political upside.

An NDP MP sent a letter in November of 2005 to the RCMP suggesting 
that there had been a deliberate leak in the Liberal government's 
finance department regarding a change in policy regarding income 
trusts. Just after Christmas, Zaccardelli replied to the MP, 
confirming that the force had launched a formal investigation into 
her allegations. He had to be aware that, in the midst of a campaign 
being fought almost exclusively on the issue of corruption, that 
letter would become public - particularly in the slow-news lull of 
Christmas week.

There is little doubt that, even considering all other factors, that 
disclosure tipped the balance in favour of the Tories. From that 
point on they surged ahead in the polls.

It doesn't much matter what Zaccardelli's motive was, although the 
fact that, so far, this government has dumped the idea of 
decriminalizing cannabis, added $161 million to the force's budget, 
and has provided funds for an additional 1,000 members and the 
refurbishing of the clubhouse in Regina might be considered dead giveaways.

The commissioner, dubbed a "consummate political operative" by 
well-connected Ottawa commentator Lawrence Martin, quite deliberately 
interfered in an election campaign. This is not just another arm of 
the bureaucracy. This is a police force, an organization we have 
empowered to regulate our lives, through the use of force if 
necessary. It is fundamental that they must remain at arm's length 
from the making of policies they are mandated to enforce. The B.C. 
Civil Liberties Association, when filing an official complaint in 
July with the Commissioner for Public Complaints about that episode, 
said it best: "Police meddling in an election is poison to a democracy."

The all-powerful FBI under J. Edgar Hoover often resorted to similar 
attention-grabbing stunts and was certainly a politically active 
organization. On the other hand, it made sure that agents in the 
field rarely became the targets of public censure or ridicule.

In any event, although Canadians are traditionally deferential to 
authority, are they really interested in replicating here that kind 
of national police presence, one that is self-perpetuating and 
apparently not subject to serious civilian control?
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MAP posted-by: Elaine