RCMP's image further tarnished
The StarPhoenixJune 10, 2009
Ever since the now famous brutal and fatal confrontation Robert Dziekanski had with four RCMP officers on Oct. 14, 2007, at the Vancouver International Airport, Canada's national police force hasn't missed an opportunity to shoot itself in the foot.
Such was the case this week when lawyers for the officers involved in Mr. Dziekanski's death announced they want the B.C. Supreme Court to prevent a public inquiry judge from issuing a finding of misconduct.
They argue that because they are a federal police force, a provincial inquiry and its commissioner neither have the jurisdiction to make a finding on their conduct nor the authority to do so based on the commission's terms of reference.
While the officers shouldn't be denied every legal channel to protect themselves -- particularly since the findings of the inquiry could indirectly open the way to have the members face criminal charges -- the police agency should have vigorously opposed their application for an exemption rather than allow the once proud RCMP name to be dragged through the mud.
It's certainly been a muddy journey in this case, right from the day that a British Columbia judge forced the release of a cellphone video taken by bystander Paul Pritchard. That court fight showed the RCMP would go to any length to throw under the bus justice, honour, honesty and the reputation of the force in order to protect its members.
Rather than vigorously investigate the discrepancies between the version of events related by the attending members and the videotape images of the event, the RCMP invested tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to send investigators to Poland to dig up dirt on Mr. Dziekanski.
That it would matter not a whit if the victim had a drinking problem or had been in trouble with the law when he was 17 didn't seem to be noticed by a police force whose officers apparently considered it proper to attack Mr. Dziekanski with a Taser and later allowed him to die rather than make attempts to help him.
But spending so much on aspect of the investigation that wouldn't advance the case at all wasn't the first, last or worst of the RCMP's indiscretions on this file. Its public relations officers clearly lied to Canadians about the incident in the first place, and once caught in their lie, continued to fabricate a story to match their patently unbelievable description of events.
Although the force promised a vigorous investigation into what led to Mr. Dziekanski's death, the province's RCMP commander privately was congratulating the four officers involved for their performance.
It took the amateur video and outside experts to recognize that the responding officers didn't even try to engage in conversation the would-be immigrant from Poland before they hit him with the stun gun and then continued to do so even after he went down with the first zap. Those experts found Mr. Dziekanski at no time appeared to be a threat and that the officers had made little attempt subsequently to determine if he needed medical assistance. All of this was apparently beyond the scope of the RCMP investigation whose findings were used by the B.C.'s Justice Ministry to determine the efficacy of laying charges.
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott and deputy commissioner William Sweeney both apologized for the event and promised the force would do better in the future Yet by failing to step in to quash the officers' request to suppress the results of the inquiry led by Justice Thomas Braidwood, the RCMP is sending Canadians the clear message that, when push comes to shove, the force will protect its own rather than the people it is sworn to serve.
This should be of little reassurance even to members of the RCMP. Without the confidence of Canadians, they will find it difficult to do their job.
According to the results of a Harris/Decima poll released in March, this incident has already done serious damage to that confidence. By a nearly four-to-one ratio, Canadians believed excessive force was used in this incident and 60 per cent of those polled indicated they had trouble believing the RCMP's version of events.
More than a third of Canadians indicated they thought less of the RCMP because of the way this case was handled, and one can bet that as time has passed since this poll -- and as the RCMP continued to damage itself in dealing with the inquiry -- that confidence hasn't been restored.
But for provinces such as Saskatchewan, such a challenge to the authority of a provincial commission to look into RCMP conduct is much more important than a simple condemnation of the members involved.
If the four B.C. officers win their exemption, provinces and communities that now contract the RCMP to provide local policing services surely will have to consider establishing their own police forces than having the right to delve into the workings of a force that consistently has shown it cares little about the evidence when its members are implicated in improper conduct.
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