BC Election Pablum 2009 : Campbell and James wax fatuous on the RCMP

Responding to Green Party Jane Sterk's proposal that the RCMP be replaced with a provincial police force subject to civilian oversight, NDP Carole James and LINO Gordo immediately fall into matching comas. :

Carole : "It's not a priority I've heard from the public. I think in many of our communities the RCMP are an integral part of our history[Ian Bush], and our future."

TASER™ fan Gordo : "The fact of the matter is the RCMP is the provincial police force and it does an extremely good job across the province. That doesn't mean we can't improve some of the administrative-review things."

One useful "administrative-review thing", Gordo, would be to put a stop to the RCMP running out the clock on the time under which those review things can happen at all.

The current BC contract with the RCMP runs out in 2012.



Meanwhile, over at Braidwood Inquiry, whose eventual recommendations no matter how brilliant or stringent will not be binding because BC does not have jurisdiction over the federal-based RCMP, a federal lawyer took a shot at explaining why all four Mounties' testimony into the killing of Robert Dziekanski is erroneous in exactly the same ways :

"Much time was spent attempting to highlight the fact that there were some discrepancies and suggesting that there was some nefarious explanation," Jan Brongers told the inquiry.
"My point is that other witnesses, too, have had discrepancies between what they told police, and that there is a perfectly innocent explanation."

Unfortunately Mr. Brongers did not elaborate on just what that "perfectly innocent explanation" might be.
.