WiNNIPEG (CBC) – A Manitoba RCMP officer has been charged with assaulting his wife. Const. Dennis Hart, 44, was arrested just before 3:30 a.m. on Saturday after RCMP officers in Gimli, about 80 kilometres north of Winnipeg, were called to the Misty Lake Lodge & Conference Centre. A woman at the lodge told officers she had been assaulted by her husband, RCMP said. The woman did not require immediate medical treatment for her injuries. Hart, an eight-year RCMP member, has been charged with assault, assault causing bodily harm and choking to overcome resistance. He was released from custody on a promise to appear in Gimli provincial court on Jan. 25. Hart, who is posted at the Fisher Branch detachment, about 95 kilometres northwest of Gimli, has been placed on administrative duties pending an internal review. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/091221/canada/canada_manitoba_mb_rcmp_officer_assault_manitoba
“And the RCMP has changed, for the worse. At the headquarters level there hasn’t been a good report in years. Various inquiries have found incompetence, poor training, poor discipline, poor co-ordination and communication, and outright dishonesty. Those inquiries have used phrases like “horribly broken,” “often flawed,” “not justified” and so on.
News reports made it clear that RCMP investigations into embarrassing and fatal actions of their own members were inadequate to the point of being a coverup. At the field level there were many reports of highly dubious shootings by RCMP members, and criminal investigations into the conduct of members when off duty. Former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli resigned in disgrace after giving conflicting statements to a Parliamentary committee. ” http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/Alberta+should+renew+RCMP+contract/3498184/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
This is not a new revelation I myself now had detailed to you about 25 years ago my own experience in Canmore Alberta with the perverse RCMP where I got 2 speeding tickets on the same spot years apart and how the RCMP next also had covered up for it’s pervere buddies, and I had also entered my complaint about their perverse acts into the Canmore Queens court record as well now.One of the best way that I have discovered to get to know what a cop is really like, is work with him just for one whole day,.. and what you now saw next.. lying, bullying, control freak..https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/no-rcmp-alcoholics-it-seems/
We also do all know that most persons still tend to take an ostrich denial approach to their own faults, shortcomings still.. IT’S HARDLY A WORTHWHILE news flash that there is something inherently wrong with police investigating themselves when their actions are called into question. RATHER IS IS A PERVERSE ACT. There have been a string of events in recent years when internal police investigations have led to calls for a more independent means of reviewing police incidents. You would think the Police would have learned by now. Never a Zebra cannot change it’s stripes and Police still do lie like many of the criminals also do. RCMP have already been told by Paul Kennedy, head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, that they should not investigate incidents involving their members. Next it still does shows that the RCMP are not listening to their own rules! There lies the problem, the bad RCMP themselves, and not the rules..
-The senior on-scene RCMP member failed to take charge of the RCMP’s response.
– No meaningful attempt was made to de-escalate the situation.
– No warning, visual or otherwise, was given to Dziekanski prior to him being hit by the conducted energy weapon (CEW).
– Use of the CEW against Dziekanski was premature and inappropriate.
-The CEW was used multiple times on Dziekanski without any significant effort made to determine the need for further use.
-The RCMP members present should have more actively provided first-aid and monitored Dziekanki’s condition.
-The four RCMP members inappropriately met alone after the death of Dziekanski prior to giving their statements.
-The versions of events given to investigators by the four RCMP officers involved in the Vancouver International Airport in-custody death of Robert Dziekanski are not deemed credible by the CPC.
-The senior on-scene RCMP member should not have been present at the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) briefing held at the Richmond Detachment on Oct. 14, 2007.
-No bias or partiality toward the involved RCMP members was present in the IHIT investigation of the death of Dziekanski, but the Pritchard video should have been shown to the members before taking statements from them.
-The RCMP should have released certain information to the media which would have served to clarify information pertaining to the death of Dziekanski and corrected erroneous information previously provided without compromising the IHIT investigation.
-Kennedy has been highly critical of the RCMP during his term as commissioner, which expires at the end of December and he was not reappointed to the position by the federal government.
Dziekanski died at Vancouver’s airport in October 2007 minutes after he was stunned repeatedly with a Taser by the RCMP, who were responding to a disturbance call in the airport arrivals lounge.At a press conference in Vancouver, Kennedy summarized the key findings from the 200-page report:
While they were in the lawful execution of their duties as police officers, the four officers failed to adopt a measured, coordinated and appropriate response to Dziekanski’s reported behaviour:
No charges were ever laid in death of Dziekanski Do what’s best for Canada and show the world that Canada is a law abiding country . Place those 4 officers in jail Tasers don’t make cops bad; they just make bad cops worse.
In August, Mr. Kennedy’s watchdog agency called for a halt to the practice of the federal police force investigating its own members in cases of serious injury or death. Mr. Kennedy stopped short of recommending totally independent investigations with no police involvement. Instead, the agency proposed a middle-ground approach to ensuring the integrity of investigations into potential criminal conduct by members of the RCMP. Citing the need to appear impartial and above suspicion, Mr. Kennedy called for an enhanced civilian involvement in the investigations.
As Mr. Kennedy bluntly points out, were it not for the video images of the incident captured by witness Paul Pritchard, Canadians never would have learned about what actually transpired at the airport that day, for the only account would have been supplied by the four responding officers who got together after the fact to get their stories straight. From his finding that the officers who responded to a call about Mr. Dziekanski causing a disturbance at the airport “demonstrated no meaningful attempt to de-escalate the situation” but deployed the Taser within 25 seconds of arrival and four more times in rapid succession subsequently, to his questioning of the accuracy of the officers’ version of events to Mr. Kennedy’s finding that RCMP public relations officers knowingly gave misinformation to reporters, the report offers many reasons why Mr. Elliott should respond quickly. As Mr. Kennedy wrote, the failure to acknowledge and correct errors “perpetuates concerns that the police are not conducting a transparent and impartial investigation into its members.”
It also doesn’t help to learn that Cpl. Monty Robinson, the senior responding officer in the Dziekanski case who was singled out by Mr. Kennedy as having failed to exercise any leadership over his three junior subordinates, recently was charged with attempting to obstruct justice in a case involving the death of a motorcyclist, but not with impaired driving even though his blood alcohol readings were 0.12 and 0.10 about 90 minutes after the accident. Senior prosecutors concluded the available evidence didn’t support the criminal charge. Cpl. Robinson claimed he’d left the scene of the accident about 10:30 p.m., walked home and returned 10 minutes later after downing two shots of vodka on top of a couple of beers he’d had at a party earlier. This even though B.C. Supreme Court Judge Mark McEwen had flatly rejected Cpl. Robinson’s two-vodka explanation for the high blood alcohol reading as not credible in refusing to lift his 90-day licence suspension after the accident, and witnesses at the scene didn’t recall him leaving and returning.Cpl. Robinson’s case joins a list of others involving highly questionable conduct of Mounties that have brought discredit upon the force. The longer commissioner Elliott takes to respond and the longer the government tolerates it, the worse the tarnish grows on the RCMP. http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Official+reaction+further+tarnishes+RCMP+reputation/2323908/story.html
Report says RCMP were wrong to Taser 15-year-old handcuffed girl in N.W.T. Fri Dec 11, 8:09 PM CP YELLOWKNIFE – A report says a Mountie was wrong to use a Taser on a 15-year-old girl as she lay face down on the floor of a young offenders centre with her hands cuffed behind her back and under the control of three guards. Mounties have been censured over their Taser policy. The report found that Const. Noella Cockney wasn’t certified to use the Taser and failed to consider other options when she zapped the girl on March 13, 2007, at the centre in Inuvik, N.W.T. It was also critical of how RCMP investigated a complaint filed by the girl’s mother and called one account by a senior officer biased. Commission chairman Paul Kennedy said many of the problems found during the investigation parallel deficiencies outlined in other reports about how RCMP use Tasers, including one conclusion about police investigating police that found the RCMP’s approach to internal investigations is flawed and inconsistent. “This incident is a compelling case which ought to cause the RCMP itself to be concerned and take action,” he said in the report. “Most important among those conclusions, as they relate to this case, was the need for the RCMP to clarify to its members and to the public when it is permissible to deploy the Taser. It is clear that confusion in this area continues to reign.” The report says the RCMP improperly tried to dispose of the mother’s complaint, that officers failed to follow rules about recording it and also neglected to properly respond to her concerns. Kennedy suggests the mishandling led to delays that resulted in the destruction of evidence. He also said an internal RCMP report into the Tasering was “biased in favour of Constable Cockney” and another internal report was based on selectively reported evidence leading to a perception of bias. “The investigative deficiencies and the RCMP response to the public complaint filed by (the girl’s) mother were significant enough to leave a strong perception of bias and call into question the ability of the RCMP to investigate its own members in cases in which serious allegations of misconduct exist.” RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said he accepts most of the report’s recommendations, including a call for the force to restrict Taser use to qualified officers and to do a better job of dealing with public complaints. “The RCMP believes that the CPC plays a critically important role in investigating the actions of the RCMP and its employees.” Kennedy’s report said the girl was shot with the stun gun because she refused to go to a segregation unit and was swearing at guards at the Arctic Tern Youth Facility. Cockney warned the girl three times that if she didn’t move she would be zapped. The girl taunted Cockney and urged her to use the weapon. The constable then jolted the girl for five seconds as the teen yelled out “OK, OK, OK.” She then agreed to move to the segregation unit. Kennedy’s recommendations aren’t binding on the RCMP or the federal government.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091211/national/rcmp_taser_teen_girl
Bad apples STILL do not fall fall from the tree.. HALIFAX, N.S. – The head of a civil liberties group is accusing the police of using privacy legislation to block public scrutiny of their actions, a day after the RCMP refused to reveal details of a fatal shooting involving one of its officers. David Eby of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said he’s seeing more police agencies cite the federal privacy law as a reason for not releasing information about investigations into officers’ conduct. “It’s really not about privacy rights,” he said from Vancouver on Tuesday. “We feel they’re using it as a shield to avoid accountability.” His comments come in the aftermath of a decision by Nova Scotia RCMP to not charge an officer who fatally shot a reportedly intoxicated and suicidal man who was in his home alone in Cape Breton. John Simon died Dec. 8, 2008, after he was shot on the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve. His family argue police didn’t need to enter the residence, where Simon was reportedly sitting on the toilet when the officer is believed to have climbed in through a window. RCMP said at a news conference Monday that a probe by the Halifax police department determined the officer who fired the gun did so in self-defence. But they refused to answer questions about the incident, including why Simon was considered a threat, who made a 911 call, whether the officer was authorized to enter the house and how many times Simon was shot. RCMP Chief Supt. Blair McKnight said Monday he wasn’t “permitted to release a copy of this investigation or the details” because of the privacy law. When asked on Tuesday to explain how the law prevents the release of more details, the RCMP issued a news release reiterating its position: “Under the privacy law of Canada, the RCMP cannot disclose the specifics of any criminal investigation.” Eby said there have been other cases in British Columbia where police have cited the federal law to withhold the release of information into cases probing police conduct. “They’re taking a certain interpretation of privacy law that most benefits them in avoiding having to explain difficult circumstances,” he said. Lisa Austin, a law professor at the University of Toronto, said the federal law is so discretionary that it allows forces to use it liberally to decide if personal information needs to be protected. “That is a huge problem with the federal legislation – there’s so much discretion built into it,” she said. “You can exempt things for privacy reasons and then there’s a discretion to take into account the public interest. Well who’s exercising the discretion? The people who want to keep it hushed up.” Simon’s common-law spouse, Patsy MacKay, said police revealed some details of the case to her, but said they were limited by the federal legislation from answering all of her questions. MacKay said she still has no clear understanding as to why the Halifax police, which investigated the RCMP’s conduct, determined that the officer acted appropriately. MacKay said police told her she could file a request for the report through the federal Access to Information Act, but that it would be largely blacked out. Supt. Mike Burns of the Halifax police said the officer who entered Simon’s home fired his pistol at him “after reasonably perceiving that John Simon posed a threat of grievous bodily harm or death, and believing that he could not otherwise preserve himself from grievous bodily harm other than by using deadly force.” Eby said the case adds to a growing demand for civilian groups to be in charge of investigating police conduct rather than having officers do it themselves. Halifax police led the investigation into Simon’s death, but RCMP spokeswoman Brigdit Leger said RCMP officers were involved in the year-long probe. The RCMP would have no input into the final report or the decision to charge, she said in a news release There are several different models in place across the country to investigate the conduct of police, but provincial oversight bodies have no authority over the RCMP. Ontario created a Special Investigations Unit, made up of civilian investigators, to handle cases involving police that result in death or injury to civilians. In Alberta, cases are handled by a unit headed by a civilian director and made up of 10 active police officers and six civilians. Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landry has said he will develop a new arms-length, independent unit to investigate police actions sometime next year. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091215/national/ns_rcmp_shooting
If the RCMP Commissioner William Elliott were serious about restoring the Mounties’ image, he would fire or suspend the four immediately, and let them sue or grieve if they don’t like it.
Anglican priest arrested in Nfld. in Toronto police child porn investigation . Cyrus Pitman, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, said Mr. Barrett has been removed from his duties at a local church as the investigation proceeds. The church is co-operating with the police in the matter, the bishop said. The Anglican church in rseponse did the right thing.. what about the RCMP?
OTTAWA — The outgoing RCMP watchdog says there should be a major review of a little-known police power to break the law when trying to catch lawbreakers, which he describes as an authorization to “burn the barn” with immunity. Paul Kennedy, the commissioner for public complaints against the RCMP, said that it would have been one of his top priorities during his tenure, but that he lacked the legislative power to get relevant information from the Mounties to conduct a probe. “If Ihad an ability to do a general review, that is the first one I would put on the table to look at,” said Mr. Kennedy, whose four-year stint ends on Dec. 31. “It’s an unusual power, so you want to make sure it is being used appropriately.” Mr. Kennedy noted that the 2002 enabling legislation called for a parliamentary review three years after the law was passed, but “that still hasn’t happened.” While the Mounties are required to report to Parliament annually on their law-breaking, Mr. Kennedy said the reports are “threadbare and uninformative” because the RCMP does not reveal any information about its informants or ongoing investigations. “If I had access to all the information, we could look at that program, and be able to articulate publicly in a document without disclosing any great secrets, that this is a credible program,” he said. Despite Mr. Kennedy’s top-secret clearance, the RCMP does not have to hand over information to him involving ongoing investigations or techniques, he said. Mr. Kennedy has called repeatedly for Parliament to enhance the commissioner’s powers to enable independent investigations into the national police force, including the ability to subpoena RCMP records. Also, investigations involving national security are shielded from public scrutiny. The 2008 annual report on law-breaking activity, tabled recently in Parliament, indicated that the RCMP scaled back last year, revealing only two instances in which the Mounties authorized agents to break the law during criminal investigations. One case involved bribery of a police officer and another was an investigation into human trafficking and prostitution. Both cases were carried out by civilian agents of the police, who are typically undercover informants, rather than the police themselves. Authorizations were at their lowest since the RCMP acquired the power in 2002 to be shielded from prosecution in certain circumstances. In one case, while an agent was authorized to commit a crime, it did not happen, said the report, tabled recently in the House of Commons. While there were no reports of crimes committed by police themselves, that does not mean they did not happen. The law only requires them to report activity that would likely result in loss or serious damage to property. The power has been contentious, opposed by such organizations as the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which have said that no one should be above the law. RCMP authorizations for law breaking peaked in 2006, when police made 16 approvals, during investigations into alleged terrorism, counterfeiting, credit card fraud and passport forgery. The legislation was passed almost eight years ago following a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that said police did not have carte blanche to break the law in the line of duty, but left it open to Parliament to spell out some powers. A mandatory review began in 2006, but the House of Commons justice committee concluded that further study was needed before making any recommendations. During brief public hearings, there was no evidence the power was being abused, but the civil liberties association called for the law to be repealed, in part because of its vulnerability to abuse. The law requires that RCMP justification for law breaking is subject to “reasonableness and proportionality” when compared to the crimes being investigated. Certain types of conduct, such as intentionally causing bodily harm, violating the sexual integrity of a person and wilfully attempting to obstruct justice are excluded from the law-breaking powers. The Canadian Bar Association has called in the past for police to go before a judge to obtain authorization, just as they would have to obtain a search warrant or permission for wiretapping. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2384277
see also https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/rcmp-mounties-should-be-retired
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