RCMP Officers Run From Long Arm Of Law

Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

The four RCMP officers who gained national, and even international, attention when they tasered and restrained Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, events which led to his death, are now asking a British Columbia Supreme Court judge to stop the inquiry from finding fault in their actions. The Braidwood public inquiry, so known after the Commissioner, Tom Braidwood, in charge of the proceedings, began on January 19, 2009, and has interviewed scores of witnesses and heard a lot of testimony, including the contradictory statements of the RCMP officers themselves. The inquiry is set to make closing submissions on June 19, 23, and 24. The officers at the centre of the inquiry are fearful that Mr.Braidwood will make any findings of misconduct against them in the death:

“We say he (Braidwood) doesn’t have jurisdiction to make findings of misconduct because it’s a provincial inquiry and these are federal officers,” said David Butcher, the lawyer for Const. Bill Bentley, the first officer to face Dziekanski at the airport on Oct. 14, 2007.

I find it reprehensible to think that the officers, who have already been exposed publicly for making very serious and severe errors in the Dziekanski case, would try to flee from the possibility of accepting personal responsibility for their actions. The public has already lost a lot of confidence and support for the RCMP and the officers in the wake of this inquiry, whether it be the dubious reasons given for the level of force used against the victim; the alleged “weapon” he was holding; the refusal to administer CPR; the multiple taser blasts; the unqualified use of that force; the list truly goes on and on and on. And now, to think that the police will now try to escape the findings of the Braidwood inquiry by going to the Supreme Court before there has even been a ruling, is really a new low for the entire proceedings. To argue the validity of the Braidwood jurisdiction at the last possible moment is tantamount to a person walking out on a game where he faces checkmate on his next move.

It’s also a rather nasty little game to play now, by arguing that the RCMP officers are not subject to provincial jurisdiction because they are a federal police force. When the officers responded to the call, they obviously did so under the jurisdiction of the province they serve in. If it were otherwise, provincial courts would never be able to hold matters of justice pertaining to federal officers. Unfortunately, such a move has typified what one has come to expect from the federal police force in this case.

The reason the RCMP are suddenly concerned about jurisdiuction is based on the fact that on April 30, the lawyer for Constable Kewsi Millington found that it is possible under a Public Inquiry to make a finding of misconduct against a person. All four officers were cleared of criminal wrong-doing by British Columbia’s Criminal Justice Branch, but findings of a misconduct could lead to further actions against the RCMP and the officers in court. That the officers will ever be held accountable for their actions remains unclear, but it seems certain that they are doing everything in their power to ensure they will not even have to admit any wrong-doing.

Omar Khadr’s Untold Story: It’s All A Big Misunderstanding

According to an article written Sunday in an “independent news” site for anarchists [that sports a banner "rightwing scum, your time has come"], prior to the events of 2002 in which Omar Khadr was captured by Americans for allegedly murdering a medic, the family was not unlike any other normal family living in Canada:

Prior to July 2002, everybody who knew the young Omar Khadr identified him as a Canadian. He liked BMWs, basketball and action movies. He named a visit to the Metro Toronto Zoo among the best memories of his life. His father earned a master’s degree from the University of Ottawa, and his grandparents owned a bakery on Toronto’s Eglinton Ave. But, like the children of Canadian diplomats, Omar had a father whose work took the family overseas for long stretches of time.

Yes, a father whose work took him overseas for long stretches of time. Such as the time his work gained him an arrest in a terrorist bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad that killed 15 people [later freed by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien]. Or how about the time his work involved him in a firefight with Pakistani forces in which he was killed?

The article’s writer, Joshua Ainslie, refers to the Khadr parents as “NGO workers”, and the father a “workaholic”. During his time abroad for his father’s “work”, Omar picked up the local languages quite well, learning to speak Pashto and Dari, as well as Arabic. Then, poor Omar ran into some trouble:

In the spring of 2002, Omar’s father, Ahmed Khadr, listened as his 15-year- old son explained his loneliness neither classmates nor siblings surrounding him anymore ­ and how he felt humiliated when his mother forced him to dress as a girl to avoid being targeted by Pakistani security forces. The elder Khadr offered his teenage son a compromise: He could move into a group home for young men if he promised to still check in regularly with his mother. The only son who had never been allowed out of his mother’s sight, Omar quickly agreed to the deal.

A month later, a family friend approached the Khadrs and explained that he had some Arab colleagues staying at a small farm a few miles outside Khost who needed a translator to interact with the locals. Since Omar spoke both Dari and Pashto, it was agreed that he could serve as their translator and guide. “We had an orphanage in Khost,” Zaynab explained, “so my brother knew the area.”

It wasn’t long before the teenage expatriate found himself in trouble. Although there weren’t supposed to be any American soldiers in the area, Special Forces were drawn to the Arabs’ homestead after one of them made a phone call that piqued suspicions, and a shootout between Omar’s new colleagues and the Americans followed.

Poor Omar, just caught in the crossfire. A typical Canadian boy who likes Batman and Lamborghinis, unfairly shot by the marauding American invaders. Not only invaders, but back-stabbing cowards:

Turning the corner, an American soldier shot the lone surviving gunman and then spied the Canadian teenager with his back to the noise, kneeling in pain against a shrub. Raising his rifle, he fired two shots into Omar’s back.

Asked for Omar’s plans when he is finally repatriated to Canada, he wants to be a “doctor”. He wants to work for charities and help people. Even a Canadian college in Alberta last year offered the young Khadr free post-secondary education, something not usually offered to Canadians who were involved in a firefight with American soldiers. Alas, that may never be, because of the Americans and… something about a sacrifice:

As Stephen Harper, then leader of the Canadian Alliance Party, summarized on the day the capture was announced in 2002, Omar represents something “dangerous to the Western alliance.” And so he rots in a foreign prison, sacrificed on the altar of Canada-U.S. relations.

This episode of Extreme Terrorist Makeover has been brought to you by Infoshop News.

Jasmine MacDonnell: A Professional At “Accidental”

Photograph by: Chris Wattie, Reuters

The obligatory and unoriginal “Raitt-Gate” has been officially dubbed today surrounding the latest controversy over Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt and a “secret tape” now circulating in which she makes some questionable observations about Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq’s capabilities. Although former aide Jasmine MacDonnell tried to issue an injunction from having the tape made public in the Halifax newspaper the Chronicle Herald, the judge denied the request, citing it as being a matter for public interest. Liberal critic David McGuinty and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, both of whom defended Stephane Dion against CTV’s airing of his notorious “do-overs” last October, were approving of having the tape released publicly. And while David McGuinty hadn’t yet heard the tape for himself, that didn’t stop him from issuing judgment based on the rumour of it’s contents.

“Unless these allegations prove to be false, it is clear that the minister has absolutely no confidence in her colleague’s ability to handle what is now a full-fledged health care crisis,” said McGuinty.

Usually in cases like this, one begins with the statement: “Until such allegations are proven to be true…” I’m rather a stickler for the rather quaint notion of the presumption of innocence, with the burden of proof being on the accuser.

The full transcript of the “secret tape” and the recording can be found at the Chronicle Herald. The comments were made to her former aide, Jasmine MacDonnell, in a conversation that “appears” to have been inadvertently recorded by Ms. MacDonnell on January 30, while the two were being driven to an event in Victoria, British Columbia. Soon after the Victoria trip, Ms.MacDonnell somehow “misplaced” the voice recorder containing the recording in a press gallery in Ottawa, and then asked The Chronicle Herald to hold it for her until she could collect it. She never showed up to collect.

I’m not going to discuss the tape, since the method with which it got into the hands of the media is really the subject I wish to address here. As this Liberal put it:

I’m still not sure how one “accidentally” records a conversation, then “accidentally” loses the recording, after having been fired for “accidentally” losing a briefing book. But I’m sure we’ll be finding out really, really soon.

If one were so inclined to believe that a professional who was also, coincidentally, the press secretary to former natural resources minister Gary Lunn during the previous Chalk River nuclear reactor crisis that led to Mr.Lunn’s demotion, could accidentally leave confidential government documents with CTV news, accidentally tape a private conversation involving the isotope issue, and then accidentally leak it to the press, then Ms.MacDonnell is either the most incompetent aide who ever walked in Ottawa, or….

Jasmine MacDonnell has worked as press secretary to two Conservative cabinet ministers, but she comes from a Liberal family.

She is the daughter of Ralston MacDonnell, who is head of a well-connected Nova Scotia engineering company, and a fundraiser for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.