Canadian police force not above the law? Careful Ben; I see a tasering coming on!

Well said Ben. IMO we need a new provincial police force that is accountable not only to the law, but the people of BC as well. Its long long over due.

\notice he said "brass"? Yes the force is top heavy. If you saw how many white shirts walking around ottawa without a real office to go to ...who just sit and contemplate policy, you would be astounded.

This whole thing was botched from the beginning when they marched in and tasered the man to death within a minute and a half of their arrival.

Since then it has been all downhill...who decided that this was going to be the way the RCMP would try to shrug this thing off to the bitter end?

Scary.

It's not RCMP brass that is going to the Supreme Court, it is the lawyers of the four individual members.

From CBC:

But in their lawsuit, the four RCMP officers claim they are answerable only to the federal government and are seeking an order to stop Braidwood's inquiry from finding them at fault. Their lawyers argue that the province has no jurisdiction to assess misconduct.

But Sgt. Tim Shields, the RCMP's official spokesman in B.C., said the RCMP disagrees with that position.

"The position of the RCMP is that the RCMP will co-operate fully with the inquiry and is also recognizing the jurisdiction of the inquiry as having authority," Shields told the CBC's Terry Milewski.

Asked why the lawyers for the four men were arguing the contrary, Shields said: "These lawyers are representing the four officers; they're not representing the RCMP."

While Shields acknowledged the lawyers are paid with taxpayers' money, the force itself has no power to stop them from contradicting RCMP policy, he said.

In fact, the RCMP accepted the inquiry's authority before it even began.

In February 2008, according to internal RCMP emails released under access to information laws, the commanding officer of the RCMP in B.C., Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, rejected advice from RCMP headquarters in Ottawa suggesting that the RCMP should not co-operate if the province called an inquiry.

"Frankly, I don't care what Ottawa's position on it is at this stage. The Provincial Force will co-operate," Bass wrote. "I think we should avoid any legalistic jargon which leaves any room for suggestion that we may opt out at some point or under some circumstances."

A final report by Braidwood is expected in the fall.

I don't know about you Guys, but its starting to make me rather uncomfotable when I see police officers sitting in Timmy's, or any other public place, with loaded guns strapped to their hips, and knowing that they could literally murder me if I weilded my plastic butter knife (never mind the office stapler) in a way that they felt threatened by it, and GET AWAY WITH IT SCOTT FREE !!

We all know that if no-one gets a video of the actual event (that isn't erased by one of them as was done in a recent event in the lower mainland), from then on, the truth would be suppressed by all levels of so-called law enforcement, right up to the judges, and I'd lay in the grave, forever branded a criminal from that pont on!!

Sounds like a scenario you'd expect in Nazi Germany, not my home and favoured land.

A totally moronic statement, pal.

"It's not RCMP brass that is going to the Supreme Court, it is the lawyers of the four individual members."

Thanks for the additional information, woodsman!

It's easy to assume that the RCMP brass is backing these officers all the way. They have a record of doing so.

"Sounds like a scenario you'd expect in Nazi Germany, not my home and favoured land."

There were no Tim Hortons in Nazi Germany and there weren't any in Stalin's Soviet Union or Mussolini's Italy either.

It's not RCMP brass that is going to the Supreme Court, it is the lawyers of the four individual members.

From CBC:

But in their lawsuit, the four RCMP officers claim they are answerable only to the federal government and are seeking an order to stop Braidwood's inquiry from finding them at fault. Their lawyers argue that the province has no jurisdiction to assess misconduct.

But Sgt. Tim Shields, the RCMP's official spokesman in B.C., said the RCMP disagrees with that position.

"The position of the RCMP is that the RCMP will co-operate fully with the inquiry and is also recognizing the jurisdiction of the inquiry as having authority," Shields told the CBC's Terry Milewski.

Asked why the lawyers for the four men were arguing the contrary, Shields said: "These lawyers are representing the four officers; they're not representing the RCMP."

While Shields acknowledged the lawyers are paid with taxpayers' money, the force itself has no power to stop them from contradicting RCMP policy, he said.

In fact, the RCMP accepted the inquiry's authority before it even began.

In February 2008, according to internal RCMP emails released under access to information laws, the commanding officer of the RCMP in B.C., Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, rejected advice from RCMP headquarters in Ottawa suggesting that the RCMP should not co-operate if the province called an inquiry.

"Frankly, I don't care what Ottawa's position on it is at this stage. The Provincial Force will co-operate," Bass wrote. "I think we should avoid any legalistic jargon which leaves any room for suggestion that we may opt out at some point or under some circumstances."

A final report by Braidwood is expected in the fall.

The video of the tazering I watched was that it was at the 34 second point he was tasered. Not a minute and a half. A minute and a half would be filled with a bit of yakking IMO.