An extract from Hansard is in the extended entry, in case we were of the mistaken notion that the Liberal government takes the murder of 4 RCMP seriously enough to effect meaningful and immediate policy change towards dangerous offenders. And why would they? As they do each 11th of November, they're just so much better at showing up for the cameras at national days of mourning to declare their "profound sympathy" and "deep gratitude for their sacrifice" .
It's not as though they have to dress for these events often enough to become a nuisance - usually it's just ordinary Canadians who are shot, beaten, stabbed or dragged to their deaths by dangerous juvenile offenders and habitual criminals. You won't see Paul Martin or Irwin Cotler at any of those services.
Sometime in the future, after their return to Ottawa from the memorial service in Alberta, they'll go through a compilation of prospective appointments and run fingers down the list looking for more appropriately left-leaning, socially sensitive, Liberal-friendly lawyers to enhance an entrenched Liberal-friendly justice system that recycles criminals like Jim Roszco back into the community as if they were so many empty pop bottles.
And why not? When it comes to election time, we'll have the Canadian Media Party manning the microphones and chanting "give us gay marriage, or give us death!". And true to their trained pony nature, Ontario voters will turn up to support them in sufficient numbers to ensure that we get both.
Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, as the days pass, more information is coming to light about last week's shooting of four Mounties in Alberta.This appears to be another example of an individual with a long history of criminal charges, complaints and convictions, but who rarely found himself in prison.
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The justice minister has said that mandatory minimum sentencing is not an option for such individuals. I wonder if this opinion is shared by the Prime Minister.
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Right Hon. Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, what occurred is obviously a tremendous human tragedy. All of us, the Leader of the Opposition, many members here and I will have the opportunity in Edmonton tomorrow to say to the families just how deeply troubled and deeply sorrowful we feel.
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As the hon. member knows, there is an investigation ongoing by the RCMP on this particular matter and we obviously should wait for the results of that.
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That being said, it does raise a number of wider issues. Those wider issues are ones that are being addressed by the minister.
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Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, all the information to this point certainly suggests that in this case the individual in question had a long history of dangerous and threatening behaviour.
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He was viewed as dangerous not just by the authorities, but he was viewed as dangerous by anyone who came into contact with him, by the entire community and by his own family. At the same time, it appears no one ever considered registering him as a dangerous offender because of the difficulty in doing so.
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Is the government prepared to look at dangerous offender legislation to see if it can be made somewhat more effective?
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Hon. Irwin Cotler (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, at the recent meeting of the federal, provincial and territorial ministers of justice, we referred the matter of dangerous offenders to a working group in that regard. They will be reporting back to us in June 2005.
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Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, let me ask one final question.
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It is self-evident that last week's multiple murder tragedy was not in any way prevented or impeded by the gun registry, although the gun registry was brought into effect primarily to deal with precisely this kind of tragedy.
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After spending $1 billion, does the government have any evidence at all that the registry would prevent this kind of tragedy in the future?
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Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, first let me say that obviously this is a very tragic event and there is a criminal investigation ongoing. As well, the RCMP is looking internally at what happened.
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It is incumbent upon all of us to await the outcome of those investigations and reviews before we start leaping to conclusions. It is unfortunate that the opposition has chosen at this time to leap to conclusions before we have all the facts.
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Very well put Kate and almost all true. The PM did show up, along with queen adrian, and If I was the families I would have had a few choice words for them.
Approx. 10k police from all over north america came as well.
Given the liberal environment, they'll be a lot of talking, and finger pointing, and at the end of the day, the laws will even be worse. If the shooter was tagged as a DA years ago, and there was min. sentences, these guys would probably still be alive.
Well, it's the exchange during QP that underlines the point. More study, more fact gathering... in the meanwhile, more business as usual, more underfunding, more cowtowing to the "offenders are victims too" wing of the left who help keep them in power.
Come on Kate, tell us how you really feel, I think your beginning to pull your punches.
So what is the population of inmates in the Canadian Penal system? Of this number how many are repeat offenders? Do you think that they have been voting for the party that supports offenders are victims to philosophy? This could be a swing vote in the next election. I am somewhat disgusted that someone who home invades a helpless senior citizen has the right to vote, and can do so in a warm building, while that same senior citizen is afraid to leave their home.
hey. some of us trained ponies have broken out of the paddock. ;)
I know. I don't mean to paint you all with the same brush... even if I did.
"Approx. 10k police from all over north america came as well."
Were they in uniform? Just curious, that'd look pretty impressive.
Hey Jay,
Yes, the procession was blocks long and they filled one of the big sports arenas here at the University. There was room for about 16K and there was a quite a few outside watching on the big screen. No estimate on them yet.
Jay,
Here ya go:
Parade of Officers
I read the article, thanks - too bad there weren't any pics but I imagine they'll show up before long.
Here's a link to the Yahoo news photo search. Lots to look at here. You're right - it is pretty impressive looking.
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=rcmp&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&c=news_photos
There's a slide show link on this page:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/rcmp_memorial
Kate,
This guy was a threatening character, know to police but was he ever convicted of anything before the tradgedy? If so, what was the sentence? Did he get early parole? DA argument aside, did the system really fail? Is there an argument here for tougher sentencing?
What doesn't make sense to me is four RCMPs dead. I could see if he took them by surprise getting one, maybe two, but four? Were they unarmed?
Part of the problem might be handing guns to cops and then in effect saying if you ever use it you'll be in big trouble - suspended, name in the paper, investigated, maybe even tried.
He had a long list of violent offenses, charges that were dropped, served time for child molestation... like 30 months. Known cop hater, had shot at residents, etc. He'd eluded them in a police chase earlier, and they found the pot plants and stolen property - stationed two RCMP to guard it ... there was another who arrived later and the fourth was off duty - dropping the third off. Roszco snuck back to the farm, ambushed them with an automatic assualt rifle. They had their sidearms, shotguns, etc. and fought back, but were no match.
Most obvious failure was by our ridiculously lax justice system. He should have been behind bars as a dangerous offender, a long time ago.
There's lots out there now on the events, if you search around.