Who Will Bell The Cat? Relatives Of The Murdered In Nova Scotia Might Like To Know.
By Robin Mathews June 2020
Dalhousie University Law Professors focussed upon and enlarged the already very large Canadian story of 22 random murders over thirteen hours in Nova Scotia in April by calling upon the (Liberal) premier of Nova Scotia for a Public Inquiry.
They petitioned for a full examination of the (now famous) shooting rampage by 51 year old denturist Gabriel Wortman over thirteen hours on April 18 and 19 in the
Portapique area .... The petition, it would seem, was directed, in part, towards a public "opening up" of the RCMP role in the whole disastrous episode.
RCMP did not ever, for instance, order the Province-wide standard alarm, even, apparently when the suggestion was made to them. Instead, they communicated publicly on twitter, a much more limited means of reaching the public. Nor, apparently, did the Force inform the public (in any way) that Wortman was driving a replica police vehicle until twelve hours after they received the information. That knowledge itself had it been made widely public suggest observers might well have saved a number of lives.
Behind the story there are hints (probably apocryphal) that Wortman may have had, in some way, a connection or a familiarity with a member or members of the Force.
Whether or not there were mistakes and/or oversights by the RCMP in Nova Scotia, a Public Inquiry into the events would be a reasonable undertaking to provide full accounting to the people of that Province of the horrendous events. But the likelihood of an Inquiry dims as time passes. (Liberal)
Premier Stephen McNeil has suggested (on more than one occasion) that the Law professors direct their request to the (Liberal) Prime Minister of Canada since the RCMP is a federal force, and any conclusion of an Inquiry recommending legislation or action of other kinds would require federal initiative. (The petitioners seem to believe that the Province, contractor of the RCMP, has much more power in the matter than the Premier is willing to admit.)
The premier has signified his willingness to have the Province assist a federal Inquiry into the events. (The likelihood that Liberal premier McNeil and Liberal prime minister Trudeau have privately discussed the matter is not beyond possibility.)
It would appear Prime Minister Trudeau has not referred (publicly) to the matter again since his message of condolence early after the event.
At stake, one more time, is the increasingly bludgeoned reputation of the Canada's federal police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. With or without an Inquiry into the fatal hours in Nova Scotia that Force cannot escape both deepening criticism and growing unease among members of the public that the horsemen make up a police force in Canada that can (and repeatedly does) escape the close public inspection to which they, and any legitimate police force, must be constantly subject .
What is The Royal Canadian Mounted Police? It is called the National Police Force which contracts, with some Provinces to fill the role of police there, though many cities in provinces with RCMP contracts also have municipal police forces.
The RCMP is, in my judgement, a political arm of the federal Government-in-Power. (Justin Trudeau met with and appointed the present Commissioner of the RCMP without any visible All-Party or independent, public administrative body involved that I know of.) And so it is NOT a national police force, in fact. When contracted to a Province it semi-switches loyalty and becomes, I suggest, the political policing arm of the Provincial government in question, wearing at least two hats and it may be as honest or dishonest as that Provincial government.
[When, apparently, Stephen Harper Conservative forces used the RCMP to stage a wholly fraudulent Islamic Terrorist Event at the B.C. legislature grounds in 2013, it blew up in RCMP faces (as certified by Supreme Court and Appeals Court judges of British Columbia). It was a perfect disaster, and an ideal opportunity for the incoming federal Liberal government, through a long Public Inquiry to clean up the RCMP. BUT the Liberals wouldn't touch the subject because (is it possible?) the RCMP might start talking about the unsavoury political uses they have been put to by Liberal governments?]
A top RCMP officer, for instance, made clear to a Quebec journalist that every crime the Force was guilty of in the (1970s)
FLQ Crisis was ordered from very high up in (the Liberal) government. So touchy was that matter prime minister
Pierre Trudeau appointed Liberal and friend David McDonald of Alberta to undertake the most expensive Royal Commission (to that date) in Canadian history in order (I believe) to smother knowledge of the actions (and interactions) of the Canadian government and the RCMP in that Crisis.
Canada has never had as political a policing event as the so-called FLQ Crisis in Quebec. So much so that close observers are not sure who (other than the publicly accused, unnamed, unidentified FLQ members) murdered Pierre Laporte, acting premier of Quebec at the time of his kidnap (October, 1970). Was Laporte murdered by members of the military? By hired assassins? By the RCMP? (Madam Laporte rejected a large funeral, believing Pierre Laporte was dispatched by the Canadian State. Nonetheless, Pierre Trudeau held a major, public funeral for Laporte in the grand Notre Dame Cathedral of Montreal.)
In the provinces of Canada, I am very sorry to suggest, the RCMP may sometimes exist as a corrupt force when contracted. When the New Democratic Party took government in British Columbia in recent years, they discovered a major use of gambling locations for Gigantic money-laundering operations. The RCMP of B.C. reported that it didn't have the personnel to cover gambling establishments and so knew nothing of the matter. (It had been re-contracted to B.C. policing for twenty years by the Liberal government that preceded the present NDP government.)
The Law professors at Dalhousie University are correct: a full-scale Public Inquiry into the murder of the 22 Nova Scotians absolutely must he held which is the reason it will probably never be held.
Contact:
Robin Mathews
