RCMP slapped with second lawsuit

By Mika Rekai - Monday, July 9, 2012 at 11:11 AM - 0 Comments

Const. Karen Katz has launched a second lawsuit against the RCMP this morning. The former officer is taking the force to court over allegations of sexual harassment and humiliation dating back to the late 1980s.

The RCMP is facing a barrage of sexual harassment allegations from current and former female officers, including a class-action lawsuit that could include up to 150 women. Tales of the harassment and humiliation of female officers on the force became widespread in late 2011 after one of B.C.’s highest profile Mounties, Cpl. Catherine Galliford, told the CBC that she’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after years of sexual harassment.

In a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Const. Karen Katz alleges that since she began basic training in 1989, she has been subjected to “offensive, humiliating and demeaning comments,” including public mockery of her body and invitations to perform oral sex on male colleagues. Katz, the author of four books on the dangers of biker culture, said she has been demonized, and declared a security risk by the RCMP due to her extensive research on the gangs. She has claimed that she now suffers from a variety of health disorders, including post-traumatic stress, bulimia and severe abdominal pain because of the continual harassment and abuse.

Good news, bad news: June 1-7, 2012

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 1:55 PM - 0 Comments

Good news

Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Duty calls

Increased duty-free exemptions kicked in last week for cross-border shoppers (up to $800 for longer visits). They couldn’t have come at a better time. The price gap between U.S. and Canadian goods—up to 15 per cent in some cases—has not disappeared despite the continued strength of the loonie. Retailers have made numerous excuses for higher Canadian prices, from label requirements to import taxes. None hold water. Canada is a big and competitive market close to the U.S. border. The new rules should serve as a wake-up call to retailers, and shoppers should take advantage.

Union busting

Ottawa won a court appeal to block RCMP members from forming a union. Unions are useful tools to protect workers’ rights, but this is hardly a group in need of more protection. Given the long list of complaints the Mounties have faced (most recently accusations of sexual harassment in B.C.), it looks like an agency still in need of shaking up. The RCMP needs employees—and that includes management as much as anyone—who can be easily disciplined if found to be not living up to the high standards the red serge once represented.

Continue…

Police blotter: Pistols, bricks and blue spandex bodysuits

By Gustavo Vieira - Monday, June 4, 2012 at 4:06 PM - 0 Comments

British Columbia: A known B.C. gangster who survived a bomb attack last winter near Whistler was shot dead inside a Starbucks in Mexico last month, according to the RCMP. The man, who had received just superficial burns from the bomb explosion in a motorhome last year, died after being shot twice in the coffee shop of a Mexican tourist town.

Nunavut: The RCMP in Arviat said they shot and wounded a man who was walking around shooting at dogs with a pistol. The police say the man received non-life-threatening injuries while being arrested. The police said the type of gun he was using to target the pooches was the same as one stolen from the community’s RCMP detachment early last month.

Alberta: Police in Moose Jaw had been called to check on a man who had been spotted on the rooftop of an apartment building. They couldn’t find the man at first, but then bricks started flying their way. An unsuccesful negotiation ensued and the man climbed into a chimney, falling four storeys down, only to get stuck at the bottom. He cried out for help and police were able to talk to him through a small vent on the chimney. The man was carrying a small sword when he was eventually arrested.

Ontario: The good guys, it turns out, don’t always wear blue. Police are on the hunt for two bad guys in blue spandex bodysuits—the Morphsuits made famous by the Blue Man Group. The periwinkle pair snatched merchandise from a Strathroy variety store, then bolted; store staff saw no weapons. Police dogs and the local emergency response unit tried to hunt them down, to no avail.

Nova Scotia: A man caught in the act with a woman inside a stall in the men’s washroom at a Halifax lounge pulled out a stun gun in response to an employee’s request that the couple leave. The man fired the gun at the employee. He was eventually overpowered by staff, but managed to spit on a police officer who searched him.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at 12:05 PM - 0 Comments

The RCMP will close forensic labs in Halifax, Winnipeg and Regina. The consulate in Buffalo will be closed. The British Columbia government is unhappy with the planned closure of a Canadian Coast Guard station in Kitsilano. And a team of pollution monitors will be cut.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Budget Officer continues his quest for greater clarity.

Late last week, the government sent parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page a letter refusing to release details of budget cuts. Page said the letter, which his office will publish online today, cites privacy provisions in union contracts to say details cannot be released until long after the budget has been voted on.

Page said those same unions have told him they have no problem with details of cuts being released as long as individuals are not named. Page is now working on a public response letter. “My view is that parliamentarians absolutely need this information sooner rather than later,” Page said Monday in an interview with The Chronicle Herald. “It’s just not right for public servants or even the government to say ‘We can’t give it to you.’”

Mr. Page reports that if include planned cuts from 2010 to the present, the Harper government is reducing spending by $10.8 billion and eliminating 26,800 jobs.

See previously: The quiet cuts

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Scientists are upset that the Experimental Lakes Area program will be cut. The benefits for RCMP officers will change. Lower Fort Garry will lose costumed interpreters. Funding for regional development groups in Atlantic Canada will be eliminated. Scientists within the Department of Fisheries might be laid off.

Meanwhile, CMA president John Haggie talks to Postmedia about his speech to an NDP hearing last week.

“Ideally, I would like to think my oratory would spur the government to change its direction and reconsider and perhaps alter its approach,” he said. ”Realistically speaking, the other alternative is to mobilize everybody else on the basis that at some point, even if it comes to the ballot box in 2015, they will have to listen on the issue of the federal role in health care.”

See previously: The quiet cuts

The Commons: No questions asked

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 6:24 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. From the far southwest corner of the room, Conservative MP Wai Young wondered aloud whether New Democrat MP Rosane Doré Lefebvre had children.

“Do you have children?” she asked, loudly, of Ms. Doré Lefebvre, who stood in her spot in the opposite corner.

“Do you have children?” Ms. Young repeated.

“You don’t have children!” she concluded.

Ms. Doré Lefebvre was, at the time, attempting to challenge the Heritage Minister on his opposition to an exhibit about sex at the local science museum. Apparently Ms. Young objected to Ms. Doré Lefebvre’s criticism. Apparently Ms. Young considered the question of whether or not Ms. Doré Lefebvre was currently raising children to be somehow relevant to this discussion.

Afterwards, Nathan Cullen rose and suggested that perhaps Ms. Young’s comments were inappropriate and an apology thus in order. Eventually, and shortly after first declining to do so, Ms. Young did apologize. The House then moved on to a discussion of when and how a member might properly use the adjectives “stupid” and “ignorant.”

This seemed about right. A fine end to a brutish couple of days—yesterday and today—that capped a few weeks of futility.  Continue…

B.C. Mountie sues force for harassment

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 10:07 AM - 0 Comments

A prominent Mountie who came forward earlier this year with claims of widespread sexual harassment in the RCMP is now suing the force. Catherine Galliford claims she was sexually assaulted, harassed and abused throughout her 16-year career, according a statement of claim obtained by the CBC.

Maclean’s wrote about Galliford’s ordeal and her claims that sexism within the RCMP hampered its investigation into missing women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside late last year. From the piece:

Galliford said during an internal affairs meeting with RCMP staff this April that a senior officer “did nothing” with information that could have broken open the Pickton murders more than two years before his arrest, and attributed the flawed investigation to sexist attitudes and misogyny. In two extended interviews with Maclean’s this week, she said her examination of a file from the Coquitlam RCMP, with information dating as far back as 1997, showed the force had more than enough information by the late 1990s to obtain a warrant to search the Pickton property. Instead, surveillance on the farm was curtailed, indicative, she says, of the “indifference” that marked the investigation of the disappearance of women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and a “misogynist” attitude toward women.

She said in October 2001 she read an RCMP file dealing with the Pickton farm as she briefed herself on her assignment with the missing women’s task force. “I had one of those ‘oh, no’ moments because I saw what was already on the file. There was enough evidence there for another ITO (information to obtain a search warrant),” she said. She said the file included evidence of guns on the site of the farm, as well as women’s clothing, government identification and an asthma inhaler later tied to one of Pickton’s victims. Yet, she said there was only a cursory attempt at surveillance, which was cut short because it was impossible to see activity at Pickton’s trailer, which was set back far from the road.

Galliford has been on sick leave from the RCMP since 2007. Her lawyer says her career with the force is likely over.

The election commissioner reports 31,000 complaints

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 2, 2012 at 11:38 AM - 0 Comments

A statement from the office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

o The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections confirms that it is investigating complaints received regarding robocalls placed at the 41st general election in 2011.

o Elections Canada has received a high volume of complaints in recent days as a result of MPs and political parties calling on the public to send information to the agency. More than 31,000 contacts have been initiated with Elections Canada by Canadians. Elections Canada is reviewing these and will take action as appropriate.

o The Commissioner of Canada Elections has the authority, during periods of high volume, to contract additional resources or call upon other law enforcement agencies, such as the RCMP, to lend assistance and expertise.

o Like all law enforcement bodies, the Office of the Commissioner generally does not confirm or deny the existence of a complaint or referral, nor does the Commissioner disclose information on the investigations or reviews that he conducts.

The Commissioner’s approach to information disclosure is dictated by three important considerations having to do with the public interest:

1)      The need to protect the presumption of innocence and privacy.

2)      The need for the Office of the Commissioner to carry out its compliance and enforcement responsibilities in a manner that is consistent, effective, impartial and in conformity with applicable law.

3)      The need to maintain public confidence in the fairness of an electoral process carried out in accordance with the Canada Elections Act.

o       Elections Canada will provide a report to Parliament in due course in regards to this matter.

The office prank as evidence of RCMP dysfunction

By Ken MacQueen - Monday, February 6, 2012 at 10:10 AM - 0 Comments

Photograph by Jessica Darmanin

Dirty Bertie—yours for about $25, batteries not included—is about as rude as a plastic mechanical doll can get. “He’s disgusting, revolting and perverted!!!” promises the box. “See and hear him moan and groan until he reaches his final pant-shaking climax!” Bertie is so over the top, it gained something of a cult following after an appearance as a desktop novelty on the determinedly politically incorrect U.K. version of the TV show The Office. Now Bertie is gaining more infamy with news that two members of the RCMP explosives disposal unit in British Columbia are being sued for injuring a bomb-squad colleague with a booby-trapped Bertie.

On its surface this is a case of a prank gone awry, but the larger implications for an embattled national police force are no laughing matter, nor are the injuries suffered by bomb expert Cpl. Tyrone Hempston when, on Jan. 4, 2010, he turned on the doll only to have it blow up in his hands. The lingering damage, both mental and physical, to 44-year-old Hempston has impaired his ability to do his job, curtailed his chances for promotion and limited future career prospects outside the Mounties, according to his lawyer, Walter Kosteckyj. “You know, it’s harder to get a job when you’re damaged goods.” Kosteckyj, a former Mountie who represented the mother of Robert Dziekanski, who died at Vancouver International Airport after being tasered by Mounties in 2007, said Hempston is paying a heavy price for suing the force. “He feels some pressure both from the organization and the people involved over how this is going forward, but I think he felt that he had no other avenue to go down.”

The supposed prank raises a number of troubling issues: the cavalier handling of explosives by the elite 14-member disposal unit; the decision not to charge the perpetrators, although an independent police investigation recommended criminal charges; the fact that Hempston continues to work in a tense environment with colleagues he is suing in a bomb unit that demands teamwork.

Continue…

RCMP spied on Bob Rae at university

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:17 PM - 0 Comments

The young Bob Rae was tracked by RCMP spies in the late 1960s, according to recently declassified documents. Canadian Press, which obtained the documents from Library and Archives Canada, reports the RCMP watched the University of Toronto’s student council closely, likely amassing a dossier on Rae as one of its leaders. At the time, the force was monitoring various organizations, including unions and peace groups, looking for left-wing radicals and subversives. Many such documents were later destroyed; Rae’s records were likely kept as he proceeded into public political life. The arm of the RCMP involved in such observation was dissolved in 1984, after which time the Canadian Security Intelligence Service took over domestic spying. In an interview, Rae expressed surprise about having been spied upon, given the nature of his activities at the time: “The only thing sinister, frankly, in all of this is how much of it was being recorded and reported and presumably being put in a file somewhere.”

Canadian Press

RCMP may face class action suit over harassment

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 11:48 AM - 0 Comments

Dozens of current and former female members of the RCMP are coming forward to file a class action lawsuit against the national police force, alleging harassment and bullying. A legal team of seven lawyers from B.C. and Ontario will file the suit in B.C. Supreme Court “any day,” said Alexander Zaitzeff, a Thunder Bay lawyer working on the case, speaking with The Globe and Mail. Zaitzeff added that he has been receiving a steady stream of calls and emails from members of the RCMP detailing harassment and bullying since Corporal Catherine Galliford came forward with allegations of long-term sexual harassment within the police force. “The stories are common in terms of harassment, bullying, and oftentimes, sexual issues,” he told The Globe and Mail. “The calls are sad, hugely sad.”

The Globe and Mail

RCMP scrambled to afford fight against human smuggling

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 9, 2011 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

The RCMP is defending its decision to invest $11.4 million dollars to step up efforts to combat human smuggling after almost 500 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard the MV Sun Sea cargo ship landed on Canadian shores last years, Postmedia News reports. Private emails obtained through a freedom of information request, though, reveal that some senior RCMP officers were concerned about how the program would be paid for, given that other units were already starved for funds. The initiative involved appointing a new special advisor on human smuggling and illegal immigration and deploying special services to Southeast Asia. Costs had to be absorbed from within, meaning resources were shifted from other areas, including criminal intelligence. Immigration officer Jason Kenney, however, said that the task force was successful in stopping at least three smuggling operations in Thailand.

Postmedia News

RCMP investigating claims it waited years before searching Pickton farm

By Ken MacQueen - Friday, November 25, 2011 at 5:56 PM - 3 Comments

The RCMP is reviewing explosive claims that its members could have acted much sooner in obtaining a search warrant that may have stopped Robert Pickton’s murder spree years earlier.

The allegations, by Cpl. Catherine Galliford, once the high-profile RCMP spokesperson for the Pickton and Air India investigations, were first revealed in a story in Maclean’s Nov. 28 issue, A Royal Canadian Disgrace. The story was based on interviews with Galliford, and on the 115-page transcript of a statement she gave senior RCMP officers in April. Continue…

New allegations of mishandling in Pickton saga

By macleans.ca - Friday, November 25, 2011 at 9:54 AM - 1 Comment

An inquiry appointed in 2010 to assess police handling of Robert Pickton’s case found that the RCMP lost the first tip it received about the serial killer. The call came in to Vancouver Crime Stoppers on July 27, 1998, the Globe and Mail reports, when a caller said a woman visiting a man living in a trailer on a farm in Port Coquitlam had noticed at least 10 purses, along with female identification and women’s clothing. Though Crime Stoppers passed on the information to an RCMP corporal, it did not reach the detective investigating the disappearances of a number of downtown women in Vancouver until nine days later, when the tipper called again. Pickton was eventually arrested 3 1/2 years later, in February 2002. Separately, Cpl. Catherine Galliford, who recently said publicly she suffered years of sexual harassment from male colleagues as a female RCMP officer in B.C., said she reviewed a 1999 RCMP file on Pickton that she said contained enough information to obtain a search warrant for the killer back then.

The Globe and Mail

The Canadian Press

The RCMP: a Royal Canadian disgrace

By Charlie Gillis and Ken MacQueen - Friday, November 18, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 75 Comments

Arlen Redekop photo/PNG

A sleep-deprived Catherine Galliford is running on adrenalin and ragged nerves after a wild week that saw the RCMP corporal rock her employer with claims that she was sexually harassed and bullied by senior officers, even as she served as the spokesperson for two of the biggest investigations in the force’s history. Galliford was calm and competent on camera as the public face of the RCMP’s investigations into the Air India bombings that claimed 329 lives, and serial murders committed by Robert Pickton on his Port Coquitlam pig farm. But while Galliford’s allegations of harassment reached as far as the House of Commons this week, one of her most explosive claims is only now being made public. Galliford says the rampant sexism within the ranks of the RCMP that ruined her health and career may also have contributed to the mismanagement of the Pickton murder investigation, at a cost of many lives.

Galliford said during an internal affairs meeting with RCMP staff this April that a senior officer “did nothing” with information that could have broken open the Pickton murders more than two years before his arrest, and attributed the flawed investigation to sexist attitudes and misogyny. In two extended interviews with Maclean’s this week, she said her examination of a file from the Coquitlam RCMP, with information dating as far back as 1997, showed the force had more than enough information by the late 1990s to obtain a warrant to search the Pickton property. Instead, surveillance on the farm was curtailed, indicative, she says, of the “indifference” that marked the investigation of the disappearance of women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and a “misogynist” attitude toward women.

She said in October 2001 she read an RCMP file dealing with the Pickton farm as she briefed herself on her assignment with the missing women’s task force. “I had one of those ‘oh, no’ moments because I saw what was already on the file. There was enough evidence there for another ITO (information to obtain a search warrant),” she said. She said the file included evidence of guns on the site of the farm, as well as women’s clothing, government identification and an asthma inhaler later tied to one of Pickton’s victims. Yet, she said there was only a cursory attempt at surveillance, which was cut short because it was impossible to see activity at Pickton’s trailer, which was set back far from the road.

Continue…

Mounties get new chief

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 11:01 AM - 1 Comment

Bob Paulson, a long-time Mountie who rose through the ranks by investigating biker gangs and terrorists, became RCMP commissioner on Wednesday, the Globe and Mail reports. Paulson, the Globe notes, cuts a starkly different figure from his predecessor, career bureaucrat William Elliott, and Last year, he avoided becoming involved in an attempt by senior commanders to get Elliott ousted over his rough management style. Upon taking the reins of the RCMP, Paulson pledged to get to the bottom of the recent sexual harassment scandal that has tarnished the force’s reputation.

The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail

Standing up for victims, except this once

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 1:37 PM - 15 Comments

A note from the office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime.

Following the tabling of the Government’s proposed legislation to abolish the long gun registry, Sue O’Sullivan, Canada’s Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, today spoke out in support of the long-gun registry, urging the federal government to maintain the registry as a tool for preventing further victimization. “Our position on this matter is clear – Canada must do all it can to prevent further tragedies from happening, including using the tools we have to help keep communities safe, like the long-gun registry,” stated Ms. O’Sullivan.

According to 2002 RCMP data, long-guns are the most common type of firearm used in spousal homicides. Over the past decade, 71% of spousal homicides involved rifles and shotguns. “Though there are varying points of view, the majority of victims’ groups we have spoken with continue to support keeping long-gun registry,” explained Ms. O’Sullivan. “I have brought that voice forward to the Government by relaying those views directly to the Minister of Justice in our most recent meeting.”

The Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime helps victims to address their needs, promotes their interests and makes recommendations to the federal government on issues that negatively impact victims.

There was a grow op in my house?

By Michael Friscolanti - Friday, October 7, 2011 at 10:40 AM - 3 Comments

In a move that is part public safety, part public shaming—and part public relations—the Mounties have launched a new website that lists the addresses of former marijuana grow ops and other busted drug-cooking labs. Inspired by similar initiatives in Quebec, Toronto and Winnipeg, the online database will act as a warning for homebuyers across the country, who otherwise wouldn’t know that the property they’re about to purchase was once loaded with pot plants or crystal meth and could suffer from problems such as mould. “Illicit marijuana grow operations in our neighbourhoods and the criminal organizations that run them are a danger to us all,” said RCMP Commissioner William Elliott. “Homeowners will now have a tool that will lower their risk of being victimized.”

But here’s another warning for would-be homebuyers: don’t use the new website as your only resource. The fine print is nearly as long as the press release. “Some addresses may have been erroneously included in this list,” the disclaimer reads. “If there is an address which has been erroneously included on this list, please advise the site administrator.”

“This is also not intended to be an exhaustive list of all addresses at which the RCMP is aware that marijuana grow operations and/or clandestine laboratories have been located,” it continues. “This list should not be relied upon for such purposes. This list is for information purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon by any individuals. The RCMP will accept neither liability nor damages by any person who rely upon this information to their detriment.” Rely on this, in other words, at your own risk.

It depends on what you choose to remember

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 9:48 AM - 0 Comments

Glen McGregor notes that the police commissioner for whom the Harper government named the new RCMP headquarters left a debatable record.

The Mounties’ new shop is named for former RCMP Commissioner Maurice Nadon.  Pop open any of three volumes of the McDonald Commission reports into the RCMP’s barn burning, mail opening and other illegal activities in the 1970s, and you’ll quickly come across Nadon’s name.

Vic Toews says of Nadon that “the good certainly outweighs any criticisms he might have been put to.”

Good news, bad news: Sept. 15-22

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

Stefan Rousseau/Getty Images

General defence

Gen. Walter Natynczyk, under fire this week over reports he took $1 million worth of trips on government jets since 2008, says he will reimburse taxpayers and pay for flights if the Prime Minister asks him to. Natynczyk has proven to be a tough and reliable soldier, and there’s no doubt he will do what’s right in this case, whatever that turns out to be. Still, it appears he should be cut a break. In some cases, the planes would have been flying whether he was on them or not. And his travels around the world—whether to rally troops or attend repatriation ceremonies for dead soldiers—are all part of his weighty responsibility as the chief of defence staff.

Into the light

What a week for scientific discovery. First, dinosaur feathers were found preserved, exquisitely, in Alberta amber. Ryan McKellar, a University of Alberta paleontologist, found 11 samples in hardened tree sap—what is described by the journal Science as “the richest amber feather find from the late Cretaceous period,” some 70 million years ago. Also, astronomers found the first planet orbiting two suns. That means that at the end of every day on Kepler 16b—200 light years from Earth—there are two sunsets.

Continue…

‘Incredibly stupid’

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 19, 2011 at 8:45 AM - 13 Comments

CSIS officials both exonerate and ridicule Bob Dechert.

Senior CSIS and RCMP officers confirmed to CTV that the Chinese news agency functions as an intelligence arm of China. Officials say Rong was on their radar, but the Chinese news agency is involved in a different type of espionage than spying on political figures…

One senior security officer told CTV News that Dechert displayed a “colossal lack of judgment. He was incredibly stupid to get involved with her.” The official said Dechert should “have known better.”

Did the police help Randall Hopley get Kienan Hebert home safe?

By Colby Cosh - Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 17 Comments

It is impossible not to feel an odd gratitude toward Randall Hopley, the suspect in a child abduction case that captured Canada’s imagination last week. On Sept. 6, Kienan Hebert, a blond, plump-cheeked three-year-old with seven siblings, was tucked into bed in his home in Sparwood, a coal-mining town in B.C.’s southeast corner. When the family awoke, Kienan was gone. Suspicion quickly focused on 46-year-old Hopley, a local handyman with a record of property offences and an apparent unnatural interest in children.

Hopley was described as “borderline retarded” by one of his lawyers, yet he eluded police for days. At around 3 a.m. on Sunday, the boy was somehow returned to the temporarily unoccupied Hebert home without being detected. Kienan, found dozing in an armchair, was unharmed. He played Frisbee on his lawn the next morning.

The Heberts’ house is surrounded by empty lots, and unless “goat trails” count, there is just one road into the subdivision from either direction. It would be difficult to find a domicile more suitable for surveillance, but the police had no explanation for Hopley’s feat. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk called it “chilling” at first, but later hinted, “we facilitated [Kienan’s] return.”

Continue…

Don’t give these kids the keys

By Ken MacQueen - Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:40 AM - 13 Comments

Tom Zytaruk/Surrey Now

The 911 calls started rolling about 3:30 p.m. last Wednesday, just as the B.C. Lower Mainland’s notorious rush hour was starting to build: so many high-powered luxury cars were weaving recklessly through traffic as they raced south on Highway 99 that it looked like a Need for Speed video game come to life. A squadron of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and the like flew past anxious drivers as they streaked out of the narrow George Massey tunnel under the Fraser River toward Surrey and the seaside community of White Rock.

Lower Mainland RCMP scrambled to get a helicopter over the scene for an accurate measure of the speeds, which may have exceeded 200 km/h, but there wasn’t time, said RCMP Supt. Norm Gaumont, the officer in charge of traffic for the region. RCMP cruisers corralled some of the racers in Surrey, while the rest were pulled over in White Rock. In all, they impounded 13 vehicles worth $2 million by police estimates.

“I’ve got a Ferrari 599, I have three Lamborghini Gallardos, I have an Audi R8, I have three Nissan GTRs, I have two Maserati Turismos, I have two Mercedes SLS and I have an Aston Martin,” said Gaumont, reading through the list of cars impounded for seven days under provincial anti-street-racing laws. None of the 12 males and one female, all from Vancouver or Richmond, was older than 21. Six were novice drivers, required under B.C.’s licence system to display an “N” sign on the rear of their vehicle. “My son drives a ’94 Mazda,” said Gaumont, “and he thinks he’s pretty hard done by after this.”

Continue…

Maher Arar’s mind cannot forget

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 8 Comments

Blair Gable/Maclean's

It doesn’t take much to carry Maher Arar back to the place he least wants to be. The sight of a mustachioed policeman, any sort of filthy smell, or even the sound of a crying baby has the power to transport him to that tomb-like prison cell. Nine years on, his body has recovered from the beatings the Syrian Mukhabarat inflicted with their fists and thick strips of cable, but the psychological scars of his rendition, imprisonment and torture persist. It is worse when he travels. “When I take the plane, I’m always tense and nervous,” he says. “It just triggers a fear in me that I might be kidnapped again.”

Sept. 26, 2002, was the day U.S. authorities detained him at New York’s J.F.K. airport, as he was heading home to Ottawa from an extended family stay in Tunisia. Oct. 8 was the night he was hustled on to a CIA-leased private jet and flown to Jordan, then driven—shackled and blindfolded—to the border of his native Syria. It was early April 2003, when he next felt daylight, allowed to roam a prison courtyard for a few minutes. Freedom—and a flight back to Canada, his wife and two young children—finally came that Oct. 5.

There’s no doubt, however, of when everything really did change for the 41-year-old telecommunications engineer. On the morning of the Sept. 11 attacks, Arar was in San Diego, Calif., on business for a Boston-based client. The sun wasn’t even up when the phone in his hotel room rang. It was his friend and colleague David Hilf telling him about terrorists hitting the World Trade Center. At first, Arar thought it was a prank—he and Hilf, who is Jewish, spent a lot of their time on the road joking about their odd-couple alliance. When he was finally convinced to turn on the TV, Arar was devastated by what he saw. One of his first thoughts was of the inevitable anti-Muslim backlash. He called his wife, Monia, then pregnant with their second child, in Ottawa and warned her not to leave the house. “She’s visible. She wears a head scarf,” he says. “There might have been some crazy people trying to get revenge.”

Continue…