[LINK] "Pressure to end B.C.’s 60-year ride with the Mounties is growing "

[rfmcdonald]

After a series of scandals involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police--particularly but not only the Robert Dziekański taser incident--British Columbians (according to the Globe and Mail's Justine Hunter and Robert Matas) are considering reestablishing a provincial police force that would limit the RCMP's law enforcement duties to federal laws, leaving Criminal Code offenses and enforcement of provincial laws to the local police.

A draft contract is due to land on the desk of B.C. Solicitor-General Mike de Jong this fall, outlining the terms of a new deal that would bind the province to the RCMP for another two decades.

But forces outside of cabinet are mustering, urging Mr. de Jong to instead seize this opportunity to rethink the crazy quilt of policing that covers the province. Critics will have a chance to advance their case when a public inquiry, announced Thursday, examines how two arms of police – the RCMP and the municipal Vancouver force – botched the hunt for serial killer Robert Pickton. Already, the Vancouver police – who have long pushed for a regional force – have signalled their intent to use that forum to press for “systemic changes” to policing in the province.

That inquiry could colour the final stages of negotiations for a new RCMP contract. The squeaky-clean national force that took over community policing in British Columbia in 1950 – abruptly replacing the B.C. Provincial Police – is now facing a crisis of public confidence.

[. . .]

The Vancouver Police Department’s internal report on the Pickton case, released last month, painted an unflattering picture of competing priorities and jurisdictional squabbles that hampered the investigation into scores of missing women.

It capped off a summer of bad press for the Mounties. In June, the force’s conduct in the Air India case, Canada’s worst mass murder, was condemned in an inquiry that uncovered errors, incompetence and jurisdictional bickering. Next, the commission looking into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, tasered at the Vancouver International Airport, concluded with a harsh denunciation of the behaviour of four Mounties.

Mr. Heed believes B.C. should, at the very least, demand that the 2,300 RCMP officers serving in provincial roles in B.C. fall under the authority of the B.C. Police Act, so that issues such as use of force are consistently upheld across the province. He also would like to see an early escape clause, keeping the door open for an alternative such as a provincial police force if the RCMP continues to stumble.

That’s why, under Mr. Heed’s watch, the province produced an internal report on what it would cost to re-establish a provincial police force.