Tuesday, July 09, 2013
# posted by mike @ 2:17 PM
Monday, December 31, 2007
Castles in the Air
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
# posted by mike @ 12:00 PM
Monday, October 16, 2006
Committee to probe what Zaccardelli told ministers
But questions continue on the role of former Liberal government in the Arar affair
The Hill Times, October 16th, 2006
NEWS STORY
By Simon Doyle
Following Following new requests by the House Public Safety Committee to hear from RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli and former solicitor general Wayne Easter, Mr. Easter, a Liberal MP, says "there's always a certain amount of trust and there's always a certain amount of tension, conflict" between Cabinet ministers and their senior officials.
Mr. Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.), solicitor general between 2002 and 2003 under prime minister Jean Chrétien, has come into focus after the RCMP Commissioner's testimony before the committee on Sept. 28, when he said he made efforts to fully brief Liberal government ministers on the RCMP's mistakes on the Maher Arar file–which former Liberal Cabinet ministers deny.
The House Public Safety and National Security Committee passed a motion on Oct. 3, calling a number of witnesses related to the Arar report, including Mr. Easter, officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Jim Judd, former CSIS Director Ward Elcock and CSIS deputy director of operations Jack Hooper, who are expected to answer questions on Justice Dennis O'Connor's 822-page report on the events relating to Maher Arar.
The O'Connor report, released last month and now the subject of study by the committee, cleared Mr. Arar of any terrorist links and said that false intelligence about Mr. Arar sent from the RCMP to U.S. authorities "very likely" led to his extraordinary rendition from New York to Syria in 2002.
In a much-anticipated appearance before the House Public Safety Committee on Sept. 28, Mr. Zaccardelli said that after Mr. Arar's deportation from New York to Syria he learned that the RCMP had sent incorrect information to American authorities, falsely calling Mr. Arar an "Islamic extremist," and that afterwards he attempted to correct the record.
"I learned that in that process they tried to correct what was labelled false or incorrect information with regard to Mr. Arar. That was the first time it came to my attention that there was a possibility or that we had mislabeled or mischaracterized Mr. Arar in our dealings with him in the investigation," Mr. Zaccardelli said.
He added that the RCMP "never misled Canadian authorities" and that "discussions did take place relative to that between officials in Canada. A number of discussions took place. My officials were involved in those discussions."
In an interview, Mr. Easter would not directly say Mr. Zaccardelli's statement was false, but told The Hill Times that he met often with Mr. Zaccardelli as solicitor general, and suggested that Mr. O'Connor's 822-page report is evidence that ministers were not properly briefed on the RCMP's mistakes.
"I had many briefings with Commissioner Zaccardelli. I have tremendous respect for him and the force, but we will see what the committee asks, and what did Commissioner Zaccardelli mean by those comments," Mr. Easter said. He also suggested that the relationship between senior officials and ministers is not always one of full trust, and that he did question Mr. Zaccardelli for further information.
"There's always a certain amount of trust and there's always a certain amount of tension, conflict. I know on this issue that questions were asked, so I guess one of the difficulties here, and why I refer to the O'Connor inquiry, is because that is where the best, well-documented information is," Mr. Easter said.
Mr. Easter noted that he first learned about the RCMP's mistakes through the O'Connor report, which corresponds with similar statements from former solicitor general Lawrence MacAulay (Cardigan, P.E.I.) and former Liberal Public Safety minister Anne McLellan. "Lawrence MacAulay, Anne McLellan and myself all have said that it was news to us that the RCMP screwed up. It's certainly news to me," Mr. Easter said.
A former CSIS agent, who asked not to be named, told The Hill Times that he would not at all be surprised if ministers were kept in the dark because RCMP, CSIS and PCO officials would not have wanted to divulge some secrets to ministers. He said ministers are often told as little as needed to get them through Question Period and media scrums.
"This is not a minister with a lot of clout, or power. He would have been the mouthpiece but he might not even have been kept completely in the loop. That is up to PCO," the source wrote in an email. "It's like a shell game. People keep pointing to the RCMP, to CSIS, Foreign Affairs, etc., but all along the pea is under PCO."
NDP MP Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh, Ont.), his party's justice and public safety critic, said he wants to hear from Mr. Easter at the committee to help clear up contradictions between the statements of Liberal ministers and Mr. Zaccardelli.
"We very much want to get an explanation of what information he had and when he had it around this misleading information," Mr. Comartin said of Mr. Easter.
Mr. Comartin, who previously said that if witnesses turn down the requests they could be legally subpoenaed, told The Hill Times that talking to Mr. Easter could lead to more questions for Mr. Zaccardelli when he returns before committee. For instance, Mr. Comartin said he may ask, "Do you have memos and documents where you made it clear to the political leadership that the initial information you had was false or misleading?"
Mr. Comartin said that such information should have been recorded in letters, reports, emails or other writing, and that he intends to question Foreign Affairs officials about their files. "And we'll be doing the same thing with the commissioner when he gets back on the stand," he said.
Mr. Comartin said Mr. Zaccardelli's testimony before the House Public Safety Committee will be part of the committee's preliminary study before the release of Justice O'Connor's second report expected to be released in November or early December.
Liberal MP Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering, Ont.), also a member of the committee, said in an interview that the committee hopes to have Mr. Easter and Mr. Zaccardelli appear on the same day. Although both have been invited, no date has been scheduled.
"There was some testimony given by Mr. Zaccardelli that just didn't seem to match up exactly with what we've been hearing elsewhere, so we thought if we had them both on the same day we could clarify a few items," Mr. Holland said.
"Part of it is understanding what was communicated and what wasn't communicated to the federal government and why. It appears there was a lot of information withheld from the federal government about Maher Arar, that incomplete reports were presented, misleading information was given." He said he hopes to find out why that occurred "so systemically."
"There's a feeling that we've heard, from ministers, from the Prime Minister, from people working in the Prime Minister's Office, that information was not forthcoming, that it was very difficult to extract, and clearly that's deeply disturbing because obviously that inaccurate and incomplete picture led to a lot of individuals to label Mr. Arar as a terrorist," Mr. Holland said.
Former prime minister Paul Martin's (LaSalle-Émard, Que.) executive assistant, Jim Pimblett, told The Toronto Star this month that the RCMP did not tell Mr. Martin about its mistakes and that the prime minister called the inquiry into the Arar affair because he did not believe that he received sufficient answers on the Arar file from top officials.
Mr. Holland, who as an individual has taken the position that Mr. Zaccardelli should resign, said the Liberals are waiting to hear the full story and more testimony from the Commissioner before the party takes a position on his resignation. Mr. Holland said he intends to argue his position within the Liberal caucus.
Meanwhile, at a news conference on the Hill last week, Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, said the Conservative government's promise to review the outstanding torture cases of Canadians Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin "absolutely" needs to examine the role the former Liberal government and its ministerial offices.
"I think questions do arise at all levels and within a number of policing agencies and government departments," Mr. Neve said. "That may have been staff in the embassy in Damascus, including our ambassador at the time. It certainly would have been staff in ministers' offices back here, other foreign affairs officials within the consular affairs bureau and elsewhere and even individuals within the Privy Council Office."
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla, B.C.) has promised to act on a suggestion in Justice O'Connor's report, calling on the government to conduct and independent review of the cases of Messrs. Almaki, El Maati, and Nureddin. However it is not yet clear what form that review process will take.
Mr. Neve, attended by Messrs. Almalki, El Maati and Nureddin, said, in addition to further questions surrounding Canada's intelligence agencies, there remain unanswered questions about the role of the former Liberal government in what he called "Canadian complicity" in their detainment, interrogation and torture by the Syrian Military Intelligence in Syria.
"Certainly the complicity question does extend to government and this review absolutely needs to grapple with that," Mr. Neve said. "Were they being apprised of some of the very disturbing information we now know is on the record about people being aware of the fact that, No. 1, allegations were starting to come out about torture in Syria, most notably Mr. El-Maati's early indication of that when he was interviewed in Egypt."
He added: "Was that passed on to government officials? If so what action did they or did they not take to respond to that and ensure that would guide and determine how the government was dealing with the other cases?"
Mr. Comartin said the Public Safety Committee will look more in-depth at the role of government officials and Parliamentarians in the affair after the release of Justice O'Connor's second report on how to better govern Canada's intelligence services.
Conservative MP Laurie Hawn (Edmonton Centre, Alta.), a member of the House Public Safety Committee, was not available for an interview, and Dave MacKenzie (Oxford, Ont.), Parliamentary secretary to Minister Day, did not respond to a request for comment.
sdoyle@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times
The Hill Times, October 16th, 2006
NEWS STORY
By Simon Doyle
Following Following new requests by the House Public Safety Committee to hear from RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli and former solicitor general Wayne Easter, Mr. Easter, a Liberal MP, says "there's always a certain amount of trust and there's always a certain amount of tension, conflict" between Cabinet ministers and their senior officials.
Mr. Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.), solicitor general between 2002 and 2003 under prime minister Jean Chrétien, has come into focus after the RCMP Commissioner's testimony before the committee on Sept. 28, when he said he made efforts to fully brief Liberal government ministers on the RCMP's mistakes on the Maher Arar file–which former Liberal Cabinet ministers deny.
The House Public Safety and National Security Committee passed a motion on Oct. 3, calling a number of witnesses related to the Arar report, including Mr. Easter, officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Jim Judd, former CSIS Director Ward Elcock and CSIS deputy director of operations Jack Hooper, who are expected to answer questions on Justice Dennis O'Connor's 822-page report on the events relating to Maher Arar.
The O'Connor report, released last month and now the subject of study by the committee, cleared Mr. Arar of any terrorist links and said that false intelligence about Mr. Arar sent from the RCMP to U.S. authorities "very likely" led to his extraordinary rendition from New York to Syria in 2002.
In a much-anticipated appearance before the House Public Safety Committee on Sept. 28, Mr. Zaccardelli said that after Mr. Arar's deportation from New York to Syria he learned that the RCMP had sent incorrect information to American authorities, falsely calling Mr. Arar an "Islamic extremist," and that afterwards he attempted to correct the record.
"I learned that in that process they tried to correct what was labelled false or incorrect information with regard to Mr. Arar. That was the first time it came to my attention that there was a possibility or that we had mislabeled or mischaracterized Mr. Arar in our dealings with him in the investigation," Mr. Zaccardelli said.
He added that the RCMP "never misled Canadian authorities" and that "discussions did take place relative to that between officials in Canada. A number of discussions took place. My officials were involved in those discussions."
In an interview, Mr. Easter would not directly say Mr. Zaccardelli's statement was false, but told The Hill Times that he met often with Mr. Zaccardelli as solicitor general, and suggested that Mr. O'Connor's 822-page report is evidence that ministers were not properly briefed on the RCMP's mistakes.
"I had many briefings with Commissioner Zaccardelli. I have tremendous respect for him and the force, but we will see what the committee asks, and what did Commissioner Zaccardelli mean by those comments," Mr. Easter said. He also suggested that the relationship between senior officials and ministers is not always one of full trust, and that he did question Mr. Zaccardelli for further information.
"There's always a certain amount of trust and there's always a certain amount of tension, conflict. I know on this issue that questions were asked, so I guess one of the difficulties here, and why I refer to the O'Connor inquiry, is because that is where the best, well-documented information is," Mr. Easter said.
Mr. Easter noted that he first learned about the RCMP's mistakes through the O'Connor report, which corresponds with similar statements from former solicitor general Lawrence MacAulay (Cardigan, P.E.I.) and former Liberal Public Safety minister Anne McLellan. "Lawrence MacAulay, Anne McLellan and myself all have said that it was news to us that the RCMP screwed up. It's certainly news to me," Mr. Easter said.
A former CSIS agent, who asked not to be named, told The Hill Times that he would not at all be surprised if ministers were kept in the dark because RCMP, CSIS and PCO officials would not have wanted to divulge some secrets to ministers. He said ministers are often told as little as needed to get them through Question Period and media scrums.
"This is not a minister with a lot of clout, or power. He would have been the mouthpiece but he might not even have been kept completely in the loop. That is up to PCO," the source wrote in an email. "It's like a shell game. People keep pointing to the RCMP, to CSIS, Foreign Affairs, etc., but all along the pea is under PCO."
NDP MP Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh, Ont.), his party's justice and public safety critic, said he wants to hear from Mr. Easter at the committee to help clear up contradictions between the statements of Liberal ministers and Mr. Zaccardelli.
"We very much want to get an explanation of what information he had and when he had it around this misleading information," Mr. Comartin said of Mr. Easter.
Mr. Comartin, who previously said that if witnesses turn down the requests they could be legally subpoenaed, told The Hill Times that talking to Mr. Easter could lead to more questions for Mr. Zaccardelli when he returns before committee. For instance, Mr. Comartin said he may ask, "Do you have memos and documents where you made it clear to the political leadership that the initial information you had was false or misleading?"
Mr. Comartin said that such information should have been recorded in letters, reports, emails or other writing, and that he intends to question Foreign Affairs officials about their files. "And we'll be doing the same thing with the commissioner when he gets back on the stand," he said.
Mr. Comartin said Mr. Zaccardelli's testimony before the House Public Safety Committee will be part of the committee's preliminary study before the release of Justice O'Connor's second report expected to be released in November or early December.
Liberal MP Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering, Ont.), also a member of the committee, said in an interview that the committee hopes to have Mr. Easter and Mr. Zaccardelli appear on the same day. Although both have been invited, no date has been scheduled.
"There was some testimony given by Mr. Zaccardelli that just didn't seem to match up exactly with what we've been hearing elsewhere, so we thought if we had them both on the same day we could clarify a few items," Mr. Holland said.
"Part of it is understanding what was communicated and what wasn't communicated to the federal government and why. It appears there was a lot of information withheld from the federal government about Maher Arar, that incomplete reports were presented, misleading information was given." He said he hopes to find out why that occurred "so systemically."
"There's a feeling that we've heard, from ministers, from the Prime Minister, from people working in the Prime Minister's Office, that information was not forthcoming, that it was very difficult to extract, and clearly that's deeply disturbing because obviously that inaccurate and incomplete picture led to a lot of individuals to label Mr. Arar as a terrorist," Mr. Holland said.
Former prime minister Paul Martin's (LaSalle-Émard, Que.) executive assistant, Jim Pimblett, told The Toronto Star this month that the RCMP did not tell Mr. Martin about its mistakes and that the prime minister called the inquiry into the Arar affair because he did not believe that he received sufficient answers on the Arar file from top officials.
Mr. Holland, who as an individual has taken the position that Mr. Zaccardelli should resign, said the Liberals are waiting to hear the full story and more testimony from the Commissioner before the party takes a position on his resignation. Mr. Holland said he intends to argue his position within the Liberal caucus.
Meanwhile, at a news conference on the Hill last week, Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, said the Conservative government's promise to review the outstanding torture cases of Canadians Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin "absolutely" needs to examine the role the former Liberal government and its ministerial offices.
"I think questions do arise at all levels and within a number of policing agencies and government departments," Mr. Neve said. "That may have been staff in the embassy in Damascus, including our ambassador at the time. It certainly would have been staff in ministers' offices back here, other foreign affairs officials within the consular affairs bureau and elsewhere and even individuals within the Privy Council Office."
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla, B.C.) has promised to act on a suggestion in Justice O'Connor's report, calling on the government to conduct and independent review of the cases of Messrs. Almaki, El Maati, and Nureddin. However it is not yet clear what form that review process will take.
Mr. Neve, attended by Messrs. Almalki, El Maati and Nureddin, said, in addition to further questions surrounding Canada's intelligence agencies, there remain unanswered questions about the role of the former Liberal government in what he called "Canadian complicity" in their detainment, interrogation and torture by the Syrian Military Intelligence in Syria.
"Certainly the complicity question does extend to government and this review absolutely needs to grapple with that," Mr. Neve said. "Were they being apprised of some of the very disturbing information we now know is on the record about people being aware of the fact that, No. 1, allegations were starting to come out about torture in Syria, most notably Mr. El-Maati's early indication of that when he was interviewed in Egypt."
He added: "Was that passed on to government officials? If so what action did they or did they not take to respond to that and ensure that would guide and determine how the government was dealing with the other cases?"
Mr. Comartin said the Public Safety Committee will look more in-depth at the role of government officials and Parliamentarians in the affair after the release of Justice O'Connor's second report on how to better govern Canada's intelligence services.
Conservative MP Laurie Hawn (Edmonton Centre, Alta.), a member of the House Public Safety Committee, was not available for an interview, and Dave MacKenzie (Oxford, Ont.), Parliamentary secretary to Minister Day, did not respond to a request for comment.
sdoyle@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times
# posted by mike @ 5:23 AM
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Mistakes plaguing RCMP
The Globe and Mail
October 5, 2006
Errors made in several high-profile cases raise questions about force's competence
ROD MICKLEBURGH
VANCOUVER -- The abrupt end to an RCMP disciplinary hearing into sexual allegations against a Prince George officer is not the first disconcerting event to hit the force in recent years.
The RCMP has made mistakes in a number of high-profile cases, prompting questions about the overall competence of the force in B.C.
Two years ago, for instance, errors by RCMP interrogators led to separate prosecution failures within days of each other, one in the murder case of Chinese student Amanda Zhao in Burnaby, the other in the killing of a native chief's son near Kamloops.
A few years earlier, the RCMP's own internal probe of its investigation into the sex strangling of young Mindy Tran in Kelowna concluded that police mistakes and personnel problems doomed the case against suspect Shannon Murrin from the beginning.
There are also ongoing issues such as RCMP investigations into the deaths of individuals at the hands of police or in police custody, most notably the fatal shooting last year of young Houston mill worker Ian Bush by a rookie constable.
The Mounties' E Division in B.C. is its largest in Canada, with 126 RCMP detachments across the province staffed by more than 5,000 police officers. Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd said the RCMP in this province should be cut some slack, despite the botching of some cases.
"There are some problems, but when you consider the large number of police officers in the province, I'm wary of saying the force . . . is full of rotten apples," Prof. Boyd said.
"Yes, in five or 10 pretty big cases, there have been mistakes, but considering the hundreds and hundreds of cases they are dealing with all the time, how much of a problem is that? The important thing is that they learn from their mistakes."
Just last year, the RCMP's national-security team ordered a dramatic public takedown of three natives in broad daylight on a busy Vancouver bridge. Police seized 14 rifles and a quantity of ammunition from their van. But it turned out the men had just legally purchased the weapons on behalf of an outdoor training program for native youth of the small Tsawataineuk band on Vancouver Island.
Although none of the arrested men was ever charged, police have held on to the rifles for the past 15 months.
Just this week, the band received a letter from the RCMP, pledging to pay the full amount for the seized weapons and ammunition.
Chief Eric Joseph is still miffed.
"There's been no apology from the RCMP," he said yesterday. "We would also like to have some of our legal costs reimbursed, so there's been no closure yet," he said.
"I still don't know what sparked such a high-risk takedown, and for a long time, everyone had a bad impression of us, that we were involved in terrorism or something. Their tactics got out of hand. The youth up here don't like the RCMP."
Other examples of RCMP blunders include:
Mistakenly identifying Dimitrios Pilarinos, who built the famous deck for then premier Glen Clark, as the chief operator of an illegal poker operation at the Lumbermen's Social Club, when he barely knew how to play cards.
Alleging, erroneously, that Joseph Ignace, the mentally retarded son of a key figure in the well-known Gustafsen Lake native standoff against police, fired a shot at RCMP officers. Later, the RCMP released details of Mr. Ignace's youth court record in an effort to link criminals to the standoff.
Bashing down a door and charging into a suspected grow-op within seconds of announcing their presence, prompting the presiding judge to throw out all charges against the operators, because they were not given proper time to answer the door.
A former RCMP constable in Merritt was awarded nearly a million dollars in damages this year, after she sued the force for long standing, on-the-job harassment. The decision is being appealed.
Last month, a federal court judge found RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli guilty of acting unreasonably in firing a B.C. constable.
The RCMP's public-complaints commission is currently investigating two deaths of suspects at the hands of police in the province. One is Mr. Bush; the other is Kevin St. Arnaud, who was fatally shot as he advanced, unarmed, on a young RCMP constable in Vanderhoof.
Prof. Boyd said the RCMP, like most other organizations, is taking on increasing numbers of young employees as baby boomers age and retire. "I don't doubt the police have some demographic challenges, and in that they are no different from any other sector of society," he said. "And overall, I think their training of recruits is pretty good."
© Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
October 5, 2006
Errors made in several high-profile cases raise questions about force's competence
ROD MICKLEBURGH
VANCOUVER -- The abrupt end to an RCMP disciplinary hearing into sexual allegations against a Prince George officer is not the first disconcerting event to hit the force in recent years.
The RCMP has made mistakes in a number of high-profile cases, prompting questions about the overall competence of the force in B.C.
Two years ago, for instance, errors by RCMP interrogators led to separate prosecution failures within days of each other, one in the murder case of Chinese student Amanda Zhao in Burnaby, the other in the killing of a native chief's son near Kamloops.
A few years earlier, the RCMP's own internal probe of its investigation into the sex strangling of young Mindy Tran in Kelowna concluded that police mistakes and personnel problems doomed the case against suspect Shannon Murrin from the beginning.
There are also ongoing issues such as RCMP investigations into the deaths of individuals at the hands of police or in police custody, most notably the fatal shooting last year of young Houston mill worker Ian Bush by a rookie constable.
The Mounties' E Division in B.C. is its largest in Canada, with 126 RCMP detachments across the province staffed by more than 5,000 police officers. Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd said the RCMP in this province should be cut some slack, despite the botching of some cases.
"There are some problems, but when you consider the large number of police officers in the province, I'm wary of saying the force . . . is full of rotten apples," Prof. Boyd said.
"Yes, in five or 10 pretty big cases, there have been mistakes, but considering the hundreds and hundreds of cases they are dealing with all the time, how much of a problem is that? The important thing is that they learn from their mistakes."
Just last year, the RCMP's national-security team ordered a dramatic public takedown of three natives in broad daylight on a busy Vancouver bridge. Police seized 14 rifles and a quantity of ammunition from their van. But it turned out the men had just legally purchased the weapons on behalf of an outdoor training program for native youth of the small Tsawataineuk band on Vancouver Island.
Although none of the arrested men was ever charged, police have held on to the rifles for the past 15 months.
Just this week, the band received a letter from the RCMP, pledging to pay the full amount for the seized weapons and ammunition.
Chief Eric Joseph is still miffed.
"There's been no apology from the RCMP," he said yesterday. "We would also like to have some of our legal costs reimbursed, so there's been no closure yet," he said.
"I still don't know what sparked such a high-risk takedown, and for a long time, everyone had a bad impression of us, that we were involved in terrorism or something. Their tactics got out of hand. The youth up here don't like the RCMP."
Other examples of RCMP blunders include:
Mistakenly identifying Dimitrios Pilarinos, who built the famous deck for then premier Glen Clark, as the chief operator of an illegal poker operation at the Lumbermen's Social Club, when he barely knew how to play cards.
Alleging, erroneously, that Joseph Ignace, the mentally retarded son of a key figure in the well-known Gustafsen Lake native standoff against police, fired a shot at RCMP officers. Later, the RCMP released details of Mr. Ignace's youth court record in an effort to link criminals to the standoff.
Bashing down a door and charging into a suspected grow-op within seconds of announcing their presence, prompting the presiding judge to throw out all charges against the operators, because they were not given proper time to answer the door.
A former RCMP constable in Merritt was awarded nearly a million dollars in damages this year, after she sued the force for long standing, on-the-job harassment. The decision is being appealed.
Last month, a federal court judge found RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli guilty of acting unreasonably in firing a B.C. constable.
The RCMP's public-complaints commission is currently investigating two deaths of suspects at the hands of police in the province. One is Mr. Bush; the other is Kevin St. Arnaud, who was fatally shot as he advanced, unarmed, on a young RCMP constable in Vanderhoof.
Prof. Boyd said the RCMP, like most other organizations, is taking on increasing numbers of young employees as baby boomers age and retire. "I don't doubt the police have some demographic challenges, and in that they are no different from any other sector of society," he said. "And overall, I think their training of recruits is pretty good."
© Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
# posted by mike @ 9:01 AM
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Justice Department undermining RCMP fraud squads, say documents
Justice Department undermining RCMP fraud squads, say documents
By DEAN BEEBY
Sunday, March 19, 2006
OTTAWA (CP) - The RCMP's new market fraud teams were supposed to nail more corporate thieves by bringing together hard-nosed cops, financial sleuths and savvy prosecutors.
But recently disclosed documents suggest the highly touted Integrated Market Enforcement Teams (IMETs) may have been undermined by the federal Justice Department.
When they were launched in June 2003, the teams were to include advisers and prosecutors from the Justice Department to help guide complex probes of major frauds involving Canada's financial markets.
The $120 million, five-year initiative needed the federal lawyers to give "advice and assistance regarding aspects such as wiretap applications, search warrants and disclosure advice to the IMETs during the course of investigations," according to an internal planning document.
But Justice, which was handed $17 million for its participation, initially failed to deliver these key team members.
"The purpose of this note is to express concern with respect to the lack of participation to date by the Department of Justice in the operations component of the IMET initiative," RCMP Supt. John Sliter, director of the IMETs, wrote to his counterpart at Justice almost a year after the launch.
"We are at a point in our implementation where we are in dire need of legal advisers to work along side of our investigators. They were to form an integral part of our integrated teams. . .there is a noticeable and serious lacking on each of our teams, caused by the absence of representation from the DOJ (Department of Justice)."
Sliter's note, among a group of RCMP documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, cites investigations in Vancouver and Halifax that required immediate help from federal lawyers, who had not been provided.
The document also refers to the first two IMET offices, established in Toronto and Vancouver: "Both offices have been designed to accommodate DOJ legal advisors on site. We have done so in good faith and yet none of the positions have been filled to date."
A briefing note to the RCMP commissioner seven months later suggests the Justice Department staffing issue remained unresolved, with a senior officer advising: "the situation remains far from satisfactory."
Heavily censored documents indicate that Justice Department staffing problems stemmed partly from government-wide restrictions on hiring, even though funds were specially provided for IMET work.
But beyond the red tape, Justice was also concerned about federal-provincial relations, although legislation had been passed in March 2004 allowing federal lawyers to prosecute fraud cases that would otherwise be the responsibility of the provinces.
"The other issue is $$$," says a January 2004 e-mail from a senior RCMP officer.
"Justice does not want to start a precedent whereby the Feds fund Prov. prosecutions."
The response from another senior officer: "We want our cases prosecuted and if one level can't or won't, we hope the other will."
The IMET initiative specifically earmarked $13.4 million to cover the direct costs of prosecutions by the provinces.
More than three years after it was announced, the IMET program has yet to lay charges in any of its high-profile investigations.
And earlier this month there were further indications of Justice Department staffing issues, in connection with an IMET probe of Royal Group Technologies, which involves Greg Sorbara, Ontario's former finance minister.
Sorbara's lawyer filed a court affidavit suggesting that two Justice Department officials had been pulled from the file and that the department "was no longer advising IMET" in Sorbara's case.
RCMP has declined to comment on the Royal Group Technologies file.
But a May 2005 report by Sliter suggested that Justice is taking a less hands-on role in IMET investigations as "an attempt to deal with legal concerns that participation by non-law enforcement agencies in 'management' of investigations might be seen to be an abuse of process."
A Justice Department spokesman says federal lawyers are currently assigned to two of the three Toronto IMET teams, and one to each of the other teams in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal.
Chris Girouard also rejected suggestions that IMET's work was impeded in any way by the Justice Department.
"Before the IMET advisers (from Justice) were in place, in those cities, we provided advice to the program whenever it was sought," he said in an interview.
"We've been working closely with them from the start. . .There was never any case that was delayed in the progress of any of the IMET files."
Asked whether problems of co-operation with Justice had been resolved, RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes said only that "IMETs use an integrated approach which includes members of the Department of Justice, whose mandate is to provide in-house counsel in each respective local.
"During the investigation stage, Department of Justice legal counsel play an advisory role."
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/03/19/1495730-cp.html
By DEAN BEEBY
Sunday, March 19, 2006
OTTAWA (CP) - The RCMP's new market fraud teams were supposed to nail more corporate thieves by bringing together hard-nosed cops, financial sleuths and savvy prosecutors.
But recently disclosed documents suggest the highly touted Integrated Market Enforcement Teams (IMETs) may have been undermined by the federal Justice Department.
When they were launched in June 2003, the teams were to include advisers and prosecutors from the Justice Department to help guide complex probes of major frauds involving Canada's financial markets.
The $120 million, five-year initiative needed the federal lawyers to give "advice and assistance regarding aspects such as wiretap applications, search warrants and disclosure advice to the IMETs during the course of investigations," according to an internal planning document.
But Justice, which was handed $17 million for its participation, initially failed to deliver these key team members.
"The purpose of this note is to express concern with respect to the lack of participation to date by the Department of Justice in the operations component of the IMET initiative," RCMP Supt. John Sliter, director of the IMETs, wrote to his counterpart at Justice almost a year after the launch.
"We are at a point in our implementation where we are in dire need of legal advisers to work along side of our investigators. They were to form an integral part of our integrated teams. . .there is a noticeable and serious lacking on each of our teams, caused by the absence of representation from the DOJ (Department of Justice)."
Sliter's note, among a group of RCMP documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, cites investigations in Vancouver and Halifax that required immediate help from federal lawyers, who had not been provided.
The document also refers to the first two IMET offices, established in Toronto and Vancouver: "Both offices have been designed to accommodate DOJ legal advisors on site. We have done so in good faith and yet none of the positions have been filled to date."
A briefing note to the RCMP commissioner seven months later suggests the Justice Department staffing issue remained unresolved, with a senior officer advising: "the situation remains far from satisfactory."
Heavily censored documents indicate that Justice Department staffing problems stemmed partly from government-wide restrictions on hiring, even though funds were specially provided for IMET work.
But beyond the red tape, Justice was also concerned about federal-provincial relations, although legislation had been passed in March 2004 allowing federal lawyers to prosecute fraud cases that would otherwise be the responsibility of the provinces.
"The other issue is $$$," says a January 2004 e-mail from a senior RCMP officer.
"Justice does not want to start a precedent whereby the Feds fund Prov. prosecutions."
The response from another senior officer: "We want our cases prosecuted and if one level can't or won't, we hope the other will."
The IMET initiative specifically earmarked $13.4 million to cover the direct costs of prosecutions by the provinces.
More than three years after it was announced, the IMET program has yet to lay charges in any of its high-profile investigations.
And earlier this month there were further indications of Justice Department staffing issues, in connection with an IMET probe of Royal Group Technologies, which involves Greg Sorbara, Ontario's former finance minister.
Sorbara's lawyer filed a court affidavit suggesting that two Justice Department officials had been pulled from the file and that the department "was no longer advising IMET" in Sorbara's case.
RCMP has declined to comment on the Royal Group Technologies file.
But a May 2005 report by Sliter suggested that Justice is taking a less hands-on role in IMET investigations as "an attempt to deal with legal concerns that participation by non-law enforcement agencies in 'management' of investigations might be seen to be an abuse of process."
A Justice Department spokesman says federal lawyers are currently assigned to two of the three Toronto IMET teams, and one to each of the other teams in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal.
Chris Girouard also rejected suggestions that IMET's work was impeded in any way by the Justice Department.
"Before the IMET advisers (from Justice) were in place, in those cities, we provided advice to the program whenever it was sought," he said in an interview.
"We've been working closely with them from the start. . .There was never any case that was delayed in the progress of any of the IMET files."
Asked whether problems of co-operation with Justice had been resolved, RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes said only that "IMETs use an integrated approach which includes members of the Department of Justice, whose mandate is to provide in-house counsel in each respective local.
"During the investigation stage, Department of Justice legal counsel play an advisory role."
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/03/19/1495730-cp.html
# posted by mike @ 12:00 PM
Monday, February 06, 2006
Will Harper Clean up the RCMP?
"Our mission is clear," Harper said in his release. "We will restore faith and trust in our public institutions as we keep Canada strong and united."
Yahoo
Yahoo
# posted by mike @ 12:00 PM
Friday, January 27, 2006
Harper to Move Forward on Accountability Act
It will be great to have an Accountability Act put into place.
There is NO difference in what I have asked for for five years. I went to Valeri reporting an RCMP conspiracy, wanting the RCMP to be held accountable for ineptness in their white collar investigations, causing irreparable damage to innocent Canadians, (now uncovered by MacLean's magazine).
Laws are enacted by parliamentarians. He was my MP. If he had pushed for this, my case would HAVE to have been investigated and my concept would have moved forward. Valeri did nothing. Why? Why? Why?
If Harper can push forward an Accountability Act for Politicians, then there is absolutely no reason an Accountability Act for Police could not be made law.... THAT WORKS!!??!!! And please make it retroactive!! I have to believe that by the time Maclean's reported it, Ottawa must have been cognizant of their corrupt force much, much earlier.... and if they did not, then Ottawa is more inept than I thought!!
Here's an update from today's Toronto Star on the investigations to be expected on past government corruption and scandal
_________________________________________________
There is NO difference in what I have asked for for five years. I went to Valeri reporting an RCMP conspiracy, wanting the RCMP to be held accountable for ineptness in their white collar investigations, causing irreparable damage to innocent Canadians, (now uncovered by MacLean's magazine).
Laws are enacted by parliamentarians. He was my MP. If he had pushed for this, my case would HAVE to have been investigated and my concept would have moved forward. Valeri did nothing. Why? Why? Why?
If Harper can push forward an Accountability Act for Politicians, then there is absolutely no reason an Accountability Act for Police could not be made law.... THAT WORKS!!??!!! And please make it retroactive!! I have to believe that by the time Maclean's reported it, Ottawa must have been cognizant of their corrupt force much, much earlier.... and if they did not, then Ottawa is more inept than I thought!!
Here's an update from today's Toronto Star on the investigations to be expected on past government corruption and scandal
_________________________________________________
Harper may expose Liberals' skeletons
Jan. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA—Stephen Harper is promising to pull back the curtain on yet more misspending by the outgoing government.
In his first news conference since winning Monday's election, Harper said he intends to make good on campaign pledges to open up government and launch legal action to recoup the $40 million he claims is still missing in the Liberal sponsorship scandal.
And he suggested that David Dingwall, the former Liberal cabinet minister who resigned as head of the Royal Canadian Mint, may be out of luck in his bid to get severance.
Dingwall quit his $277,000-a-year post in September after questions were raised about his expenses. He later told a Commons committee he was "entitled to his entitlements," including severance — a line that became the centrepiece of a Conservative campaign ad.
"We have never favoured paying a severance package to someone who voluntarily resigns. That's our understanding of the situation," Harper told reporters yesterday. "I'm going to be interested to see, when I get full briefings ... exactly what the legal situation is with regard to any negotiations with Mr. Dingwall."
The question for any new government is always how much to reveal of any skeletons found in the closet of the previous government.
And yesterday, Harper sounded like he was ready to throw the door wide open, starting with his promised accountability act.
That measure includes extending the Access to Information Act to cover all Crown corporations, Officers of Parliament, foundations and organizations that spend taxpayers' money, opening yet more of the government to greater scrutiny.
"There were a number of commitments in our platform and before the campaign to much further open up access to information. We're going to adopt those recommendations," said Harper, who'll take over as prime minister on Feb. 6.
He also signalled he would likely follow through on a vow to sue the Liberals to recover misspent sponsorship funds. The Liberal party has repaid $1.14 million to the government, but Harper has said up to $40 million remains unaccounted for.
"I've indicated in the past ... we intend to draw to the attention of the appropriate authorities the necessity of trying to recover the missing money," he said yesterday.
Harper also promised during the election that a Conservative government would launch an inquiry into federal spending on partisan public opinion polls.
While all this could add up to a heap of trouble for the Liberals, the Conservatives have little to gain from "picking" old fights with their political rivals, cautioned Nelson Wiseman, a political scientist at the University of Toronto.
"It wears off after a while... Piling on is a penalty in football and politics," he said yesterday.
Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
# posted by mike @ 2:00 PM
