From a reader who knows of what he speaks;
The Liberals were only interested in Perception- making sure the Musical Ride was performing well. They knew for years that a lot of experienced Officers would be retiring in a short time frame 2002 -2009 and basically did nothing about it. If the total RCMP budget didn’t have sufficient funds, they had to make difficult choices, hence a lot of their National & Federal policing units were cannibalized, including the Public Integrity unit. Who benefited? The criminal organizations are now doing $50 billion /yr.( counterfeiting & MJ are $40 billion alone). With that type of money, who can’t they buy off?
They have lost a lot of experience in the past few years and the only hope is that Veteran Officers have a full and frank discussion with the Brown Commission, top investigators are rehired or retained and that ample resources are provided. They have never been given proper resources to make up for the extra work that is needed for Charter compliance. The paperwork eats up 10 -20% more manpower- manpower that could be doing investigations or patrol work.
When the Liberals didn’t provide adequate funding, the major crooks had a field day. The major busts have been few and far between. The last were about 10 years ago with the Cuntrera/ Caruana Org and maybe a handful of others- out of 10,000 major players. That’s the real Liberal legacy. Now the chickens are coming home to roost and the anti police media are having a field day. The fact that young inexperienced officers were killed at Mayerthorpe and in the North shouldn’t be a surprise and with the bulk having less than 5 years experience, there will unfortunately be more problems that exacerbate the underfunding and understaffing.
The defence lawyers love the negative stories about the Mounties, makes it easier to get their clients off or get a reduced sentence- the credibility issue. The Liberals left these problems for the Tories- unfortunately it will get worse before it gets better unless some bold steps are taken in the short term. It’s difficult to change a major organization overnight no matter what good intentions people may have.
Check out the comments at Jack’s Newswatch – “What’s really killing the Mounties”
“The only way to effect positive change is to clean house in Ottawa.”
…gives new meaning to “when pigs fly”.
Hi Kate. I hope you don’t mind if I clear up a couple of things for your regulars.
re: The Phantom… The RCMP are not now, nor have they ever been a union shop. We are prohibited by an Act of Parliament from being unionized. There is a Constitutional challenge of that Act pending before the Supreme Court of Canada. I’m not a big union fan but if the alternative is another Zacardelli, sign me up!
re: gellen… There was a time, not too many years ago, when northern postings like this were only staffed by experienced officers (5+ years) for a variety of reasons. In policing, like in many professions, there’s no substitute for experience.
There’s a huge difference between policing in a medium or large detachment (with backup always there or at least readily available) and policing in a remote village where backup (if any) is a single person who might not be readily available.
What would an experienced officer do differently? Hard to say, since neither you nor I were there on that fateful night. This much I can tell you- I was much more “tactically aware” in my 5th year than I was in my 1st year. More cynical and less trusting as well. Would being more tactically aware have kept this young Constable alive? Hard to say but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt.
I’ve worked on reserves where I flew in and worked solo. Nearest backup? An hour’s flight away, if a floatplane is available, or 8 hours by boat. I wouldn’t say it was more dangerous than working downtown during bar closing… just different…
carlosroberto, you’re right. Take the example of Barbara George who was touted as a possible replacement for Zacardelli but ended up being placed on “administrative leave” when they started digging into the pension scandal. George joined the RCMP in 1978. After training in Regina, she was posted to Ottawa and she never left there, yet she went through the ranks, all the way up to Deputy Commissioner.
When Donald Brown described the Mounties’ internal management structure is “horribly broken’, he wasn’t kidding and he wasn’t wrong. The Task Force which was struck has a monumental task ahead. From what feedback I’ve seen so far, I don’t feel optimistic about their chances.
Unfortunately, that’s only part of the problem. Since Trudeau became PM, the federal government has systematically understaffed and underfunded the RCMP. To make matters even worse, during the 1990s, the Liberals slashed our budgets to the point that the RCMP temporarily closed down the Training Academy in Regina… just before the Boomers started retiring.
Police strength in Canada is, on average, 195 cops per 100,000 population. Areas policed by the RCMP are typically far below that average. Police strength ranges from 222 to 270 officers per 100,000 population in the United States, Australia, and England and Wales.
As I write this, Recruiting isn’t able to keep up with our attrition which means inexperienced officers on the streets, fewer numbers than in the past, facing greater challenges as the results of our liberal “justice” system keeps putting criminals back on the streets in greater numbers.
Any investigation of the troubled RCMP should have to include some answers from the governments of the past two decades at least. Who exactly were they serving, who’s best interests were being served?
This latest disgraceful incident should get things rolling. This was a poor guy who may have been dealt with by a person with a teddy bear and the ability to speak to him in his language but was taken down by four brawny cops who had options but APPEARED to choose the easiest for themselves. One would think even a warning shot, a blank, could have been tried.
His death is mourned by his family and friends and we can mourn for this country’s reputation around the world because there won’t be another video to change the perception this incident has portrayed.
Criminals have all the rights
Bad guys even have an ombudsman, while victims are reduced to an afterthought
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN
Researching a column last week about how our underfunded justice system pushes even hardened criminals back onto the streets as quickly as possible to save money, I came across a revealing government document.
It was on the Correctional Service Canada website. CSC runs federal prisons. It was a perfect example of the frustration Canadians have with the system that supposedly protects us from the bad guys.
During last year’s election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper got into trouble for observing, prophetically, that his Conservative government would be hemmed in by a generation of bureaucrats, judges and senators appointed by Liberals. Nowhere is this more evident than on Harper’s law-and-order agenda, although he was too partisan in only citing the Liberals. The old Progressive Conservative Party was just as soft on crime.
The CSC document is a 22-page paper, written near the end of the Liberal’s 12-year reign (sometime after Mach 31, 2004) entitled, “Basic Facts About the Correctional Service of Canada.”
You only have to read a few pages to realize how, over the decades, our ruling class’ obsession with the “rights” of criminals has reduced their victims to afterthoughts. …-
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Goldstein_Lorrie/2007/11/18/4664951-sun.php
The Polish government, (and world-wide media), are all over this one. Unlike the Ian Bush incident: How convenient- that the audio/video equipment was “turned off”, when this young man was taken to the RCMP station. The fact that his body was left unrefrigerated until the coroner’s inquest, THREE DAYS LATER, (by which time any previous bruising would be difficult to see)……….
But-Hey: “The public has no right to know.”
Something is realy wrong when a bunch of violent crinimals get more rights then their victims and beforew you know it the crinimals can rob a bank or shoot up a place and even rape a woman without fear of prosicution all becuase of wussietard liberal whinners
Mac, sorry I got that wrong. I just assumed since it was A) government and B) broken there must be a union involved somewhere.
Still, the OPP is completely broken and they are a union shop, so unionizing the Mounties will get y’all nowhere.
I’m a great believer in the power of the individual. If the company you’re with treats you like a dog, you LEAVE. Or you make them pay a freakin’ fortune for the privilege of your help. If you stay nice and quiet and loyal, they just kick you harder.
For myself, nobody kicks me twice. I made it a rule after one too many crappy jobs as a kid, and I make it a point in job interviews. Life is too friggin’ short. The company shows up with some honour and some integrity, or they get to spend another small fortune finding and hiring a new physio.
Why do you think doctors are paid so well? Its because nobody on earth would put up with the crap they take every day for a nickel less, that’s why. Maybe the RCMP should start getting the same treatment from constables that hospitals get from doctors. The conversation goes like this:”Either pay me double AND get out of my face, or I walk.”
Doesn’t have to be a union to have teeth y’know. People’s teeth are quite big enough without socialist collective bargaining screwing up the works. If the RCMP start losing whole detachments over legit beefs, they will change how they do things.
Or more likely they won’t because that’s what Liberal bureaucracies are all about: riding The Plan down in flames until it splatters itself all over the landscape and starts a forest fire. But all the guys who quit will be much better off and won’t care a damn.
Communities who suddenly don’t have RCMP policing will step up and hire their own guys sooner or later. Or they will just shoot the looters, shovel and shut up. No cops means there’s no cops to come and jail you for protecting your house. Or your neighbor’s house. ~:D
Problem solved.
I hadn’t thought of it that way, The Phantom, and it appeals to me since (as I said) I don’t like unions. Unfortunately, I don’t see it happening. Mounties are too dedicated to duty. We’re kinda stupid that way.
Jack (of Jack’s Newswatch) calls for FIDO policing (fark it, drive on) since police are tired of beating their heads against the wall trying to enforce laws while the government (the elected representatives of the will of the people) deliberately underfund and understaff while writing unenforceable laws and stacking the various levels of courts with judges who never met a technicality they didn’t like.
Three-quarters of people hit with RCMP Tasers were unarmed: reports
6 minutes ago
OTTAWA – Three out of four suspects stun-gunned by the RCMP were unarmed, indicates a review of 563 cases that shows Tasers are often used for compliance rather than to defuse major threats.
A Canadian Press analysis of Taser incidents reported by the Mounties reveals that more than 79 per cent of those zapped were not brandishing a weapon.
Mac says,we so dedicated to our jobs,brian says,what the facts say,which is you full of —-
“Feeling the heat of public outrage over the death of a man tasered and tackled by Mounties at Vancouver International Airport last month, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott issued a statement Saturday defending the service’s handling of the case”
Brian also says,its possible the humourous rcmp may have said “lets send the kid out on this call to settle down old clyde,tetter,tetter,ho,ho.
Mac, FIDO has been the rule for a good while now. Toronto’s Finest has been doing it that way since the 1980’s, now the OPP has picked up the torch.
Except, oddly, in Caledonia. I got dinged for “driving while White”, the boys did a full-on tactical stop complete with shotgun. First time I’ve ever seen that in Canada. Seems they really, really don’t want anybody taking an interest in the “affected areas” of the ongoing Mohawk Warrior “protest”.
But do they manage any speed traps around here? Nuh uh. Hamilton does a few, but not many. Most days I go out I never see a cop car.
That I can’t decide whether that is a good thing for me or a bad thing speaks volumes about the state of policing in Canada. Frankly that tactical stop they pulled for no legal reason (and apologized to me while they were doing it too, “Sorry we had to pull you over Mr. Phantom sir, you know how it is.”) scared me a lot more than a couple dozen armed cigarette smugglers.
…what’s happening in Caledonia there Phantom?
I try visiting the website but get a case of visual diarrhea from it.
The mounties are being held up by liberal politicians making reduclous rules QUICK CALL INSPECTOR FENWICK
Whole lot of nothing happening in Caledonia, Tomax7. Meaning the Warriors are still camped out on the DCE, and they are still running around shutting down construction sites from Dunville to Brantford.
OPP still facing their attention the wrong direction. Same old same old. This will change if and when Caledonia/Haldimand cancels their OPP contract and hires their own force. Not before.
There was some interesting business with Fantino blaming Gary McHale for all the trouble. That was mostly interesting for the scary insight that the top cop in the OPP thinks one diabetic fat guy with a web site is a bigger problem than the Mohawk Gun Smuggling Society.
And the RCMP think THEY have problems! Bwaha!
What had bilinguilism to do with killing someone with a Taser! Perhaps a “Polish mountie” would have served the call much better than a bozo armed with a deadly weapon.
So what next? We’re going to kill anyone who suffers from air rage! Sick society!!
Simple,Bilingualism in Canada means French and English.
At least I remember when white English need not apply.It is still basically the same
Leaving you with 17% of the population in Canada to chose from,to work for the feds.In every other case the less to chose from ,the poorer the hockey team.That is shown very plainly in the 10 minute video to everyone except apparently Lorne Gunter.He was killed by ineptness,and failure of amateurs to control the male ego.And as the famous saying goes,keep selling out to the French and its “you to Brutus.
where did this “french” thing come into all of this all of a sudden” if you read the posting for basically ALL govt jobs now being of Native ancestry is a MUST not should be a “must” so it is not the french that are being targetted…you are way out of touch as it has been like that for many years already but cant seem to find natives in abundance so turn to the little blondies to fill the gap/…….real “smart” move do you think…NOT
I am now going thru the Alberta gov job bank,so far all French or English.Funny,Canada been run by the French since the physco boy.
I would prefer natives any day.
Jeez,just quick checked BC and Alberta.What happened to your wages out there?Less than they were 8 years ago.Vancouver was full of struggling people then.
brian
if you prefer natives….go to the correctional centers in sask.//////75% of inmates there are your native friends
Thanks FRP.I’m assuming you are trying to protect me from danger by encouraging me to stay away from those who put them there.
But you do suggest an interesting study for someone,like why are there very few natives in jail in other parts of Canada and the U.S?
http://www.canadaawakening.com/2006%20Reports/December%202006/dvdhighlights.htm
Its like watching the 10 minute taser video.
Half way thru,your brain tells you he is dying.
Sad country.
brian
they “put” themselves in jail…..they don’t need any help…they are quite capable of that….there are more in jail in Sask possibly because there are more natives, not because we pick on them…..Indian gangs are a big problem in Sask…..
So if this country ALSO failing in the children of the privileged,imagine how it must be failing to those who we hate?
Canada failing its obligations to children: UNICEF
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 | 4:37 AM ET
CBC News
High numbers of children living in poverty, poor health and state care suggest Canada is failing to meet its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, says a new report.
http://www.blubrry.com/player/?p=1353&e=125892
Awright,we acomin to rescue em.