It’s been over nine months since Robert Dziekanski lost his life at Vancouver’s International Airport, killed, murdered by the RCMP and now, he’s finally been laid to rest in his Polish hometown. Taser victim Robert Dziekanski laid to rest in Poland The Province Airport Taser victim laid to rest in native Poland No one was yet been convicted for this crime too. Why?Unacceptable!
“Those heading up our national police force must be so glad people have other things on their minds these days. Otherwise, Canadians might be howling about the Mounties’ latest antics and demanding our political leaders hold them accountable. Because, as we know, our elected officials refuse to utter the least critical word about the RCMP unless there is public pressure or they fear electoral ramifications.” GARY MASON gmason@globeandmail.com
Insite revelation proves RCMP needs watching
Globe and Mail - 11 Oct 2008 Those heading up our national police force must be so glad people have other things on their minds these days. Otherwise, Canadians might be howling about the Mounties’ latest antics and demanding our political leaders hold them accountable.
Canadian group protests the ‘politicization of science’ Toronto Star
Canadian researchers call for end to ‘politicization’ of science CBC.ca
The Province - Canada.com
all 18 news articles »
‘Keep them out!’ Mounties stop media from asking Tory questions
OTTAWA — It’s a blurry, democratically dangerous no-man’s-land that governments and RCMP spokespeople do not like to publicly explore. The line between legitimate RCMP security duties and the media management imperatives of a politically sensitive Prime Minister’s Office appeared to be scuffed once again this week on the election trail. Mounties protecting Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a campaign event in Surrey, B.C., were ordered Tuesday evening to stop reporters from approaching a high-profile Tory candidate. “Keep them out,” Harper aide Ray Novak shouted at the RCMP security detail as journalists approached Dona Cadman. CTV’s Rosemary Thompson was literally yanked aside by one Mountie as she approached the retreating group – which did not include the prime minister.
Cadman, a Conservative candidate, is famous for sparking bribery allegations against her party by telling a journalist last year that her dying husband, former Reform and Independent MP Chuck Cadman, claimed to have been offered a million-dollar insurance policy to change his vote in Parliament. It’s an unresolved storyline the Conservatives, understandably, don’t want pursued during an election campaign. Cadman, who has dodged questions from the national media before in the campaign, told a local community newspaper Wednesday she’s concentrating on her own back yard. “We’re talking to the local media, which is much more important than going national or regional,” she said. The incident followed an earlier episode in the campaign’s first week when the RCMP was employed to thwart a CTV camera crew in St. Eustache, Que., on the day the Tories suspended campaign spokesman Ryan Sparrow. “I want that camera out of there,” Harper spokeswoman Carolyn Stewart Olsen told a Mountie, who somewhat apologetically obliged. But is it within the RCMP’s mandate to stop the media from doing its job?
Several officers matter-of-factly said they were acting on orders from the PMO – although the official RCMP line, delivered after the incident became a major media story, was that hotel management sought the eviction. Many on Parliament Hill believe the PMO’s use of RCMP security to thwart reporters has increased under a Harper government that is obsessed with communications control. Stories abound, for instance, of security officers stopping camera cut-away shots from non-PMO-approved positions. But the most infamous case of RCMP deploying its resources for essentially communications reasons came under the watch of former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien at the 1997 APEC summit in Vancouver. An inquiry into the pepper-spraying of protesters concluded that the Mounties had “succumbed to government influence and intrusion in an area where such influence and intrusion were inappropriate.” Testimony at the inquiry suggested government officials were consumed with the poor optics of large demonstrations. “By whatever educational or other communications means available, the RCMP must instill in its officers … that they are to brook no intrusion or interference whatever from government officials,” inquiry commissioner Ted Hughes concluded. It would appear to be an inquiry forgotten not just by the Mounties and current government, but by the Liberals in opposition.
The Liberal campaign war-room issued a news release Wednesday decrying Tory heavy-handedness. “The job of the RCMP is not to prevent the Conservative party from being embarrassed,” said the Liberal party release. “They are there to protect the prime minister against genuine physical threats and they should never be used as a political tool.” http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g6YesTXAYfsanGLSDxXgDxHF_vWw
The still Bad bad Conservatives
CALGARY – Opposition parties are demanding Calgary Conservative incumbent Lee Richardson immediately resign for controversial comments that suggested immigrants are to blame for much of the crime in Canada.
In an interview with a Calgary weekly newspaper published Thursday, Richardson is quoted as saying many crimes aren’t committed by people who “grew up next door” and immigrants aren’t as law-abiding. “Particularly in big cities, we’ve got people that have grown up in a different culture, and they don’t have the same background in terms of the stable communities we had 20, 30 years ago in our cities . . . and don’t have the same respect for authority or people’s person or property,” Richardson told Fast Forward Weekly, when asked about recent gun violence in Calgary. “Talk to the police. Look at who’s committing these crimes,” added Richardson, the Tory candidate in Calgary Centre. “They’re not the kid that grew up next door.” Richardson later said he regretted the comments and that he misspoke. Calgary Centre NDP candidate Tyler Kinch immediately demanded that Richardson resign from the campaign, or that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper fire him – a sentiment also shared by the federal Liberals. “We must expect more out of our community leaders,” Kinch told reporters on Thursday. “Mr. Richardson’s comments are hurtful, unfair, untrue and unproductive . . . Lee Richardson must resign.” Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh called Richardson’s comments “disgraceful” and urged Harper to turf him. “If Prime Minister Harper does not take action and fire his candidate one can only assume he condones such attitudes. It’s clear that the old Reform Party view towards immigration is still alive and well in this Conservative party,” Dosanjh said in a statement.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/features/decisioncanada/story.html?id=0add4a8f-03ee-48dd-9538-dd4d3762d395
The liar and the liars would falsely have you believe that there was no crime in Alberta before the immigrants came.. Rememeber that one of the first RCMP outpost in Canada historcially was in Calgary, Alberta the major home of crooks, thieves, cattle rustlers. Now it is the home of drug pushers, car thieves, white collar criminals.
The majority of Albertan citizens should resign, for supporting MP Richardson’s views, it is clear that 70 percent of Albertan are not only self centered, selfish, but yes racists as well.. while Albertan’s claim to be Albertan most of them are new immigrants from other part of Canada, the world, including the Prime Minister of Canada now himself, Stephen Harper, and they all in greed mostly have come to Alberta seeking jobs because of Alberta oil and gas supplies.. but few get rich for the cost of living is too high..
We already know what a liar, dictator, control freaks the PM and the RCMP are too is..
More crap from the Alberta Police too..Since January, RCMP and provincial sheriffs have issued more than 2,000 speeding tickets to people driving on Highway 63, including 363 tickets over the weekend. Political and labour leaders have been lobbying the Alberta government for years to twin the highway between Edmonton and the Fort McMurray area. While some work is underway, most of the money is being spent on highway work north of the oilsands capital. Bellows said the entire highway would be safe if motorists just obeyed the speed limit. “We are frustrated,” he said. “Just slow down and relax. You will get there safe.” Meanwhile, leadfoot drivers are also a problem on highways through Banff National Park. RCMP report that officers issued 115 speeding tickets over the weekend between Lake Louise and the Jasper National Park Boundary. In some cases drivers along Highway 93 were clocked going more than 60 km over the posted speed limit. ( Revenue generating ) Speed limits in the mountain parks are set with an eye toward preventing collisions with wildlife. ( and how often does that occur?) RCMP in the Peace River area said even when police warn motorists about speed traps some drivers continue to drive faster than the posted limit. ..
RCMP like to give speed tickets when you are leaving the park, not entering it too.. and I got 2 speeding tickets on the same spot in Canmore ten years apart too… and the second time I went to court and rightfully fought the dirty RCMP too.
In reality the too often self serving, money hungry, promotional and empire oriented police, and their superiors, bad justice ministers, bad politicians really do not care about the citizens good welfare but only their own
” official statistics showed that only five per cent of crashes are caused by drivers breaking the speed limit. Drivers who let their attention wander cause more than six times as many accidents.” Driver error accounted for 66 per cent of accidents.. and add the road rage, impaired, drunk drivers, bad poorly maintained vehicles to that too .. Most reasonable and reasoning people have seen the folly of speed cameras for decades now too.
“Isn’t it better to have a road that is designed to be safe from the start, rather than sticking a camera there to catch people who may or may not be driving dangerously? We treat road safety very, very seriously but we pay about £400,000 a year to the road safety partnership – money which goes straight into the Government’s pockets.
Almost half of motorists do not think speed cameras improve road safety according to new survey results from whatcar.com.
For fatal accidents the most frequently reported contributory factor was loss of control, which was involved in 35 per cent of road deaths. Failure to look properly was the most frequently reported contributory factor and was involved in 32 per cent of all injury accidents. Five of the six most frequently reported contributory factors were some kind of driver or rider error or reaction.
The money hungry Conservatives in Alberta, the Calgary and the Edmonton Police forces and the Liberals in Ontario they can all learn from this
A study of the figures in the British Medical Journal showed a gap between police and hospital data showed a wide divergence in these figures said one of the authors of the article, Mike Gill, professor of public health at Surrey University. The Police are known to lie, and they try to please their political bosses , to get a raise by generating revenue from traffic tickets.
The survey of the Canadian vital statistics database, made up of information from death certificates, shows that 97,964 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents during the past quarter-century. However, the annual number of deaths dropped 52 per cent to 2,875 in 2004 from 5,933 in 1979. Nearly three-quarters of those killed in these accidents were male, and motorists at either end of the age spectrum had higher-than-average death rates. Pedestrians accounted for 12 per cent of motor vehicle deaths, followed by motorcyclists and drivers of all-terrain and other off-road vehicles. Elderly pedestrians were also found to be more than three times likelier than the general population to be killed in motor vehicle accidents. The study does not explain why.
Rural roads proved particularly treacherous for drivers. Sixty-two per cent of fatal collisions in 2004 took place in rural areas.
Yukon had the highest death rate at 16.4 deaths per 100,000 people. Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario were the only two provinces and territories reporting a death rate lower than the national average of nine for every 100,000 people.
The study notes that while death rates have fallen, the ubiquitous use of cell phones and BlackBerrys while driving pose a danger to drivers.
do see also
