The Written Word: Rafe Mair Sept 20th
By Rafe Mair
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 03:44 AM
The Maher Arar case is, or should be, of paramount interest to all Canadians especially since Mr Justice Denis O’Connor dumped all over the RCMP from a great height.
Mr Arar is a Canadian who, because of misinformation given US security folks, wound up for a year in a Syrian jail, where jail is jail and then some. The question of compensation is now before the federal government and all I can say is that if Brian Mulroney got $2 million because the RCMP had the cheek to do an investigation of his affairs, Mr Arar’s compensation ought to be in the $100 million range.
The actions of the RCMP were, to say the least, incompetence personified. It reminded one of (Chief) Inspector Clouseau though that wonderful character, played by Peter Sellers, did no harm.
We had the three “M”s convicted of Murder only to learn that the police had bungled at best, had deliberately tampered with evidence at worst. We have a kid having his head blown off by a RCMP officer who shot him in the back and, of course, there was the Mindy Tran case. Oh, yes, I nearly forgot about the brutality of the police in the APEC case.
These are isolated incidents, we’re told. In police work things are bound to go awry from time to time. However true that might be, if the RCMP are bungling the big cases what’s happening in the smaller ones?
An investigation, not by police personnel nor former prosecutors, is in order. There is obviously a bad culture seeping into police forces across the country.
Perhaps the first matter to be dealt with is the Chretien move where the Commissioner of the RCMP was no longer independent reporting to Parliament but a Deputy Minister in the Solicitor-General’s ministry and thus a political appointee.
Clearly something is wrong and the public is entitled to know what and when it will be fixedPrevious Story - Next Story
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Posted by: spanky on September 20 2006 10:09 PM