Have the RCMP Thugs Met their Match?

Richard Rosenthal says he's ready to make a mark as B.C.'s first independent police monitor by investigating serious incidents involving officers in a timely and transparent way that the province has not seen before.

After repeated scrutiny over police investigating themselves, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) is set to take over criminal investigations into all on- and off-duty incidents involving police in B.C. that result in death and serious harm starting Sept. 10. Rosenthal heads the agency which is required to be led by a civilian who has never been a police officer.
The independent body was a major recommendation from the Braidwood Commission which probed the death of Robert Dziekanski who was Tasered by the RCMP at the Vancouver International Airport in 2007.
Rosenthal jumped at the chance to head the IIO but also to live in B.C. which he told The Huffington Post B.C. is “a great place to raise my kids. It’s a great place for everything, for work, for play.” He says he's even given his new chainsaw a spin already.
Rosenthal, who carried a gun while prosecuting gangsters in Los Angeles, created Portland’s first police oversight agency and then made a mark in Denver as its first independent police monitor. He left few fans within the force in Colorado with his no-holds-barred approach to investigating police brutality and calling for stiffer punishments for officers when he saw fit.
Unlike similar agencies in Alberta and Ontario, Rosenthal has ensured that only half of the B.C. office is made up of former police officers and the other half are civilians with investigative experience from places such as the coroner’s service.
Richard Rosenthal speaks during a news conference in Vancouver in December 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)
Why is it so significant that you have investigators with diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity and experience?
It’s important to have diversity in all kinds of respects. We have to make sure we conduct competent investigations so we have to have investigators with experience to conduct serious investigations.
We need people who will look at these investigations from a fresh perspective and from a perspective of ensuring that the public will have faith and integrity in the investigation and a faith that the office will be independent of the police, not just structurally but also in the way we think and evaluate investigations.
Clearly the past practice of having the police conducting the investigations into these incidents was not resulting in the level of public confidence that’s necessary in order for the police to succeed.
That "level of public confidence" — that doesn’t necessarily mean that those internal police investigations were flawed or missing information; is it just about public perception?
It can be. Obviously there were instances where police investigations had indications of bias and that seemed to be the biggest problem as opposed to them not including all of the aspects that they should. But even there, there have been past criticisms of investigations and their quality. But the reality is that no matter how competent an investigation would be or how fair, as long as it’s conducted by the police, of the police there will be a certain lack of confidence or concern about the bias that the people conducting the investigations and reviewing the incidents may have.
The high profile investigations such as the one that lead to Braidwood — the Dziekanski case — and more recently Monty Robinson. How would the independent agency have handled those differently?
I don’t want to go in to the details of how those cases were specifically handled other than they would have fallen into our jurisdiction.
I can say the one thing we would be able to do under our new statute is we’re in a position to publicly report on those cases in a more robust fashion than has been done in the past. And so part of our mandate, part of our plans are, if a case does not result in a referral to Crown, and it’s a significant case involving deaths or what have you, we will publicly report and explain why. If a case does go to Crown -- obviously we can’t issue a public report there but what we do then is we provide the support to Crown that’s necessary.
What’s been the biggest challenge in setting up the office?
The biggest challenge is the geography of the province of trying to make sure that we are both capable of investigating urban and rural incidents. And be capable of getting out to the various locations in the province in a timely fashion.

A lot of the complaints is why do these investigations take so long? Is there a target in decreasing the time it takes to get results to the public?
Yes, that’s huge. Currently it can take well over a year, even two years before an officer or the public is aware of whether or not a case is going to be referred to Crown for a charging decision. And it doesn’t serve anyone well. The officer has the Sword of Damocles hanging over their head. The family members do not know what’s going to happen and are left in the dark for extended periods of time which will lead to frustration and frankly assumptions that there’s a cover-up going on.
This is not something solely suffered by B.C. This is an issue that’s suffered everywhere including the U.S. with the big agencies. Timeliness has repeatedly been a factor in interfering with public accountability.
It’s safe to say those goals will be sooner than the one to two years that you mentioned?
My hope is frankly that people may be shocked at how quickly in some cases we are able to get it done because they’re used to it taking so long.
Is there a different approach in the US to independent police oversight versus Canada?
In the U.S. there are several large civilian-led bodies ... but they are primarily responsible for the administrative investigations and the disciplinary aspect of it, not the criminal investigations. That’s something that’s different in Canada. So that’s something where Canada is further along than the U.S.
Who’s your favourite crime-fighting hero?
(Laughs) The problem is that when you’re in the business, you just don’t really something you pay a lot of attention to. (Sighs) Can I tell you my favourite book or movie instead? Bonfire of the Vanities, the book, not the movie. And then for movie, To Kill a Mockingbird.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Sister of man shot and killed by RCMP has questions

Sister of man shot and killed by RCMP has questions

Sister of man shot and killed by RCMP has questions


VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980)

James Lewis
Email news tips to jlewis@cknw.com

9/13/2012
The sister of the man shot by the RCMP in Prince George says he was a decorated veteran, struggling with post-traumatic stress.
40-year old Greg Matters was killed Monday night, after a long stand-off with the mounties.
His sister Tracey says she has confidence in the investigation, but also has serious questions.
"Why was it necessary to use lethal force on a man, on his own property, who didn't have a firearm?
Why wasn't my brother allowed to talk to his doctor, his mother, or family friends during the stand-off... when this was requested?"

The new "Independent Investigation Office" remains on-scene.

Let us all hope the new Independent Investigation Office is not just a lot of noise like ther new commissioner.

BCCLA urges RCMP to 'get out of the editorial and media policy business'

BC



The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling on the RCMP to “get out of the editorial and media policy business” after recent media-related actions by a northern B.C. detachment.The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling on the RCMP to “get out of the editorial and media policy business” after recent media-related actions by a northern B.C. detachment.



“The RCMP has a job to police impartially and to share public safety information with media outlets impartially, even if those outlets may be critical of some aspects of their work,” said Lindsay Lyster, President of the BCCLA, in a release.



The Terrace RCMP allegedly advised the editor of Terrace Daily – a local news and blogging website – that an article “which lampooned the local mayor and RCMP Inspector had offended the force,” according to the release. The editor also alleged that the RCMP in Terrace told him “that TerraceDaily.ca would not receive news releases until they changed their editorial policies to give satirical stories that criticized the RCMP and local politicians lower prominence.”



The Terrace RCMP confirmed that they had stopped sending news releases, said Const. Angela Rabut, because “at this point, the Terrace Daily online is not a credible news source.”



The editor is “running more of a blog-site, where there’s a lot of opinion and fictional stories mixed in with credible news stories,” she said.



The detachment is also under fire by the BCCLA for a letter written by Insp. Dana Hart to the CRTC in support of a merger between Astral Media – a local TV station – and Bell Canada.



“The RCMP may well prefer the coverage of one media outlet to the other,” said BCCLA’s Lyster, “but retaliation for negative coverage by withholding public information is not acceptable, nor is using an impartial public platform to advocate for the private interests of media outlets that provide favourable coverage.”



Hart has since asked for the letter to be withdrawn, said Rabut, adding “it was not his intent to choose sides in this at all, it’s just to show support for a local [TV] station.”



“We have one TV station in town, and we work very closely with them,” she said, “and so we’ve always supported them [as] they support us.”







Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/BCCLA+urges+RCMP+editorial+media+policy+business/7168655/story.html#ixzz25XcP183ECLA urges RCMP to 'get out of the editorial and media policy business'

Sun News : Mounties can't retaliate for negative coverage, BCCLA says

Sun News : Mounties can't retaliate for negative coverage, BCCLA says
Credits: MARCO VIGLIOTTI/ HIGH RIVER TIMES/ QMI AGENCY


BYRON CHU
QMI AGENCY



VANCOUVER -- The RCMP are coming under more fire in B.C. over what critics say are ongoing attempts to squash media commentary that is critical of the force and its members.



The B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is demanding the Terrace RCMP detachment resume sending press releases to the Terrace Daily News, after delivery ceased in June.

Publisher Merv Ritchie said the media outlet was blacklisted after publishing a story and BCCLA letter critical of RCMP Inspector Dana Hart, and after two other articles critiqued and spoofed the Mounties.



Terrace RCMP spokesperson Angela Rabut wrote to Ritchie explaining, "The Terrace RCMP issues news releases to credible media outlets. The Terrace Daily does not fall in this category."



"She said we have to change the way we do our website," Ritchie said, adding she told him to take satirical pieces off the front home page.



"But that's the way we run our website. Everything goes on the front page. And that's not going to change."

Rabut did not return calls for comment on Friday. Calls to the provincial RCMP media relations department also went unreturned.



"Retaliation for negative coverage by withholding public information is not acceptable," BCCLA president Lindsay Lyster said in a media release.



Lyster also criticized Hart, a former member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's security team, for writing a letter to the CRTC on official RCMP letterhead supporting Bell Communications acquisition of Astral Media.



In the letter dated July 27, Hart wrote, "Terrace RCMP rely on our local Astral Media extensively to inform the public about issues affecting public safety "¦ BCE's acquisition will "¦ also help to ensure the production of new Canadian content."



Lyster said it's unacceptable for Hart "to advocate for the private interests of media outlets that provide favourable coverage."



Controversy has dogged the RCMP in B.C. this year over its reactions and responses to critics.



A week ago, the force raided the home of a man connected to the Re-Sergeance Alliance blog, which aimed to publish stories of corruption inside the force. The BCCLA has criticized the RCMP for obtaining the search warrant using the rare charge of defamatory libel, which the rights group said has been struck down as unconstitutional in at least three provinces.



In February, Osoyoos Times editor Keith Lacey apologized for publishing a "slanderous" editorial about the behaviour of an RCMP officer when he was pulled over while driving, after the force threatened to release video of the incident.



Simon Fraser University criminal psychology professor Ehor Boyanowsky, who is also a member of the Canadian Constitution Federation, said it's important to protect the public's democratic right to criticize the police, "even if the criticism turns out ultimately not to be true."





Defamatory libel



Courts in several provinces have ruled that S.301 of the Criminal Code is unconstitutional as it says anyone who publishes defamatory material, whether truthful or not, is committing defamatory libel, an indictable offence with a maximum penalty of two years in jail.



In 1996, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld a ruling in the case of John and Johanna Lucas, who had carried placards and posted flyers criticizing a child sexual abuse investigation. The court ruled that S.301 was not a justified limit on the freedom of expression.



Also in 1996, the Ontario Court of Justice also struck down S.301, used to charge Bradley Waugh and Ravin Gill who put up wanted posters of six Kingston Penitentiary guards implicated in the suspicious death of an inmate. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association intervened, and the judge ruled S.301 of no force and effect in Ontario.



In 2008, the Newfoundland Supreme Court ruled S.301 unconstitutional when it was used to charge Byron Prior for distributing flyers alleging a public justice official raped and impregnated his 12-year-old sister some 40 years before. The court ruled S.301 could not stand because it prevents the publishing of material even if it is truthful.



In May of this year, prosecutors in New Brunswick dropped libel charges against Charles LeBlanc for posting comments on his blog about a police officer. Director of public prosecutions Luc Labonte said that with the previous rulings striking down S.301 in other jurisdictions, "we really didn't think that any court in this province would rule against those other cases." Fredericton police had obtained a warrant for defamatory libel to search LeBlanc's house and seize his computer.



Section 300 of the Criminal Code also addresses defamatory libel with a maximum penalty of up to five years' prison, but civil liberty groups say it is much more difficult for prosecutors to achieve a conviction under that charge. Prosecutors must prove that a suspect is fully aware his statement is false, and that he published his statement with the specific intent to defame.