B.C.'s solicitor general says he wants the Mounties to submit to provincial civilian oversight -- as do municipal forces, through the B.C. Police Complaints Commission -- if the RCMP want to continue policing 70% of the province......
Scandals among officers have led Kash Heed to recommendation
Michael Smyth, Canwest News Service
Published: Saturday, January 30, 2010
Furious over the latest RCMP scandals, B.C.'s solicitor general says the national police service may have to submit to civilian oversight -- or face the consequences.
Kash Heed told the Vancouver Province he wasn't pleased he had to learn about one of the latest RCMP scandals through the media.
"I was watching Global TV news with my daughter when it came on," he said, referring to the RCMP officer on the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team who is now the subject of an internal investigation for allegedly having an affair with a potential witness in the Surrey Six multiple murder case.
"I had to immediately get on a conference call with my staff," said Heed. "No one in my ministry had been informed."
Heed said he wants the Mounties to submit to provincial civilian oversight -- as do municipal forces, through the B.C. Police Complaints Commission -- if the RCMP want to continue policing 70% of the province.
That would mean the RCMP would have to surrender their controversial internal-disciplinary system in cases of Mountie misconduct in B.C.
"We're very firm as a government that, in this next contract, we want to deliver the most accountable, transparent and effective police services possible -- no matter what colour uniform they're wearing," said Heed.
And if the Mounties refuse? "Then we'll have to consider our options," Heed said. Heed did not exclude as one of those options the costly idea of replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force, such as the Ontario Provincial Police or the Quebec provincial police.
The Mountie at the centre of the Surrey Six scandal, Sgt. Derek Brassington, was reassigned to desk duty in December after allegations surfaced of an "unprofessional relationship" with a potential witness in the mass murder case.
Brassington, who is married to a police officer, was one of the key investigators working on the probe into the October 2007 slaughter at a highrise in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey that left six people dead.
Meanwhile, another Mountie involved with the Surrey Six probe, Const. Steve Perrault, has been charged with fraud for allegedly submitting bogus overtime claims while working on the unprecedented gangland murder case.
"Every time you hear about these incidents, you immediately become concerned . . . and I continue to be concerned about them," Heed said.
© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2010
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