RCMP

By: Chris Selley, National Post

 

Breathless news coverage this week welcomed the impending arrival of a study from the RCMP, which reportedly finds that Canada’s long-gun registry, “as a whole, is an important tool for law enforcement”; “increase[s] accountability of firearm owners for their firearms”; and is “cost effective in reducing firearms related crime and promoting public safety.” This dovetailed nicely with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police’s relaunched campaign to save the registry from potential abolition at the hands of Parliament next month. “The fact that police officers use that registry over 11,000 times a day … tells us the value of it,” said CACP president, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.

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Times Colonist

 

If the Conservative government was serious about being "tough on crime" it wouldn't tolerate a broken RCMP lab system that leaves officers routinely waiting months -- or years -- for critical results.

 

We are not talking about minor offences. In April 2009, Paul Rouxel was found dead in his Victoria apartment. Only this week, 16 months later, did police announce he was a homicide victim. Long delays in getting results from the RCMP's Vancouver forensic lab played a major role in the destructive wait.

 

That kind of delay makes solving any crime much more difficult. Neighbours and witnesses move; memories fade; the killers disappear to another province or country.

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By: John Geddes, Macleans

 

It would have been quite a news conference, and it very nearly happened. Last fall, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, after months of intense, private talks, agreed to face the media together to declare their agreement that research shows the “benefits” and “positive impacts” of supervised injection sites for intravenous drug users.

 

For the RCMP, making such a statement would have been a turning point: the Mounties would have had to distance themselves from dubious studies, commissioned by the force itself, that were critical of Insite, Vancouver’s pioneering safe injection facility. And that would have been a politically awkward move for the federal police, since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is firmly committed to shutting down Insite.

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By BRYAN TAIT, Daily Gleaner

 

In what could be a first in New Brunswick, a Hainesville man is fighting a drug possession charge on the basis of a medical certificate.

 

Todd Terrance LeClair was charged with possessing marijuana after a police search of his residence Oct. 19.

 

But LeClair is arguing he's been allowed to possess the narcotic after receiving a doctor's prescription on March 1, 2009.

 

On trial for the possession charge Friday, LeClair said he'd received his medical marijuana licence on Jan. 13.

 

That licence permitted him to store 1,500 grams in his home and carry 120 grams on his person.

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By Dustin Walker, Daily News

 

Gabriola RCMP want the public to help them crack down on drug activity on the Island, but one officer says that some people in the tight-knit community might be reluctant to turn in their neighbours.

 

RCMP have busted a number of marijuana-growing operations on Gabriola this year. Most recently, police dismantled two grow-ops at two separate homes on July 8. About 200 plants were seized from a home on Gallagher Way and five firearms and a crossbow were also found inside, police say. They arrested a man and a woman.

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National Post editorial board

 

Last Friday was another sad day for the once-respected Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Former British Columbia Appeals Court justice Thomas Braidwood released his scathing final report into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski following his confrontation with four Mounties — Monty Robinson, Kwesi Millington, Gerry Rundel and Bill Bentley — at Vancouver International Airport in October 2007.

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The Daily News (Kamloops)

 

A small group of demonstrators took their protest over the recent deportation of marijuana activist Marc Emery to the riding office of MP Cathy McLeod Monday.

 

The four protesters, aligned with the web-based protest FreeMarc.ca, were also objecting to Bill S10, legislation currently before the Senate that proposes mandatory minimum sentences for dealing marijuana.

 

With the House in session, McLeod was in Ottawa, but her staff told the protesters they could not put up posters at the riding office or prevent constituents from entering.

 

RCMP were summoned and convinced the group to take their protest outside.

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NiagaraThisWeek

 

What was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration outside MP Rob Nicholson’s office on Thursday afternoon resulted in the arrest of two men.

 

Jacob Hunter of Vancouver and Eric Compton from Toronto were both arrested by officers from the Niagara Regional Police Services outside Nicholson’s Niagara Falls office. The protest, organized by the Free Marc Emery Campaign, was targeted at Nicholson, Niagara Falls MP, because in his role as Canadian Minister of Justice, Nicholson was the person who signed the extradition order for Emery. Marc Emery is a Canadian cannabis activist and former cannabis seeds seller who was sentenced to five years in a United States prison on drug charges stemming from his cannabis seed selling business. Read more »

By Barry McDivitt, CHBC News

 

Kelowna's top cop wants the courts to get tougher on marijuana growing operations. Supt. Bill McKinnon thinks judges are too lenient when passing sentence on pot growers.

 

He researched the recent cases of 130 local people accused of cultivating marijuana. McKinnon says only 10 went to jail and that the average sentence was just nine months.

 

"We would certainly look for more of a consequence," says McKinnon. "This is a multi-million dollar business. The average person running a grow op out of a house could conceivably earn three to four million dollars."

 

The superintendent was careful not to criticize local judges when he met with reporters Monday.

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Federal NDP:

 

OTTAWA – The deaths of Whitehorse residents Raymond Silverfox and Robert Stone are fuelling calls for changes to how the national police force investigates potential wrongdoing by its members. Both died needlessly while either in jail or just after being detained by the RCMP.

 

“Public confidence in the RCMP has been seriously shaken in recent years,” said Don Davies, New Democrat Public Safety Critic. “The government owes it to Canadians and to RCMP officers to restore that confidence. Allegations of police wrongdoing must be investigated without any appearance of bias. Police should not be investigating police.”

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