Tag Archives: RCMP

Justice

RCMP introduce body-worn cameras this winter

Editor’s note: Body cameras might have invaluable in cases like the shooting of Jared Lowndes in Campbell River or the logging protests at Fairy Creek. Of course the next step is rectifying the situation in a way that restores public trust.

By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In effort to increase transparency in policing and improve accountability, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada’s federal police force, will soon be equipped with body-worn cameras.

Frontline general duty officers that work in the communities of: Ucluelet, Ahousaht, Tofino, Mission, Prince George, Cranbrook and Kamloops will be amongst the first to start recording evidence from the first-person perspective or point of view (POV), according to B.C. RCMP, or “E” Division, senior media relations officer Staff Sgt. Kris Clark. 

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Justice

Restorative justice program growing after three-year hiatus

By Lubna El Elaimy, Burnaby Beacon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After nearly two decades, the Burnaby RCMP’s restorative justice program experienced disruptions in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Restorative justice started in Burnaby in 2001 as a community-based program called the Burnaby Restorative Action Group. Staff changes during the pandemic contributed to the program’s disruption. 

In the spring of 2023 the City of Burnaby hired new staff to take over the restorative justice program. Staff members who work on the program are municipal employees, but their offices are located within the Burnaby RCMP detachment, and they work closely with RCMP members. 

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Justice

Burnaby anti-racism organization welcomes RCMP race-based data collection

Editor’s Opinion: As Chief Darren Blaney told Cortes Currents after the shooting of Jared Lowndes in Campbell River in 2021, 6 months training is not sufficient to equip the RCMP with intense situations. “There is a lot of emphasis on physical training and physical fitness, but not policing with social problems and mental health issues. Escalation and racial bias are not really examined during the training period.”

In Lowndes case, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) determined that the RCMP actions were not justified. Chief Civilian Director Ronald J. MacDonald, KC, stated that reasonable grounds exist to believe that three officers (a dogmaster, and the two officers who gunned Lowndes down when he defended himself against the attacking animal) may have committed offences in relation to various uses of force.

By Lubna El Elaimy, Burnaby Beacon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In late March, the RCMP announced the start of its race-based data collection pilot in Burnaby. Since the beginning of April, Burnaby RCMP has been collecting information about the interactions RCMP members have with racialized people.
The pilot project comes after two years of research and discussions with communities throughout Canada. With over 50% of Burnaby residents born outside of Canada and no ethnic majority, Burnaby was selected as one of five Canadian cities to join the project in its first year.

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Energy, Indigenous Nations

Frustrated with government, Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs wavering on support for B.C. pipeline

Editor’s note: The Wet’suwet’en Nation is about 300 miles due north of Campbell. While there is no statistical data to show how widespread this sentiment is, a number of local residents have expressed sympathy for their struggle against the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline. Max Thaysen, the current Alternate Director for Cortes Island, was a legal observer when the RCMP ‘invaded’ Wet’suwet’en Territory on February 7, 2020. There were protests in support of the Wet’suwet’sen on Cortes Island and in Campbell River. Many Quadra Island residents participated in the latter. When former MLA Claire Travena held a BC Ferries meeting on February 28th, 2020, she was forced to devote the first 20 minutes to a discussion of the Wet’suweten crisis.

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

On a bitterly cold morning in early March, Gitxsan Simgiigyat (Hereditary Chiefs) stood outside the provincial  Supreme Court building in Smithers, B.C., their regalia fending off the  icy air.

“Our way of life has been subverted by the  Canadian government,” Simogyat (Chief) Molaxan Norman Moore told a  gathering of supporters and observers, his voice reverberating off the  drab concrete building.

Inside, proceedings continued for a Hereditary Chief of the neighbouring Wet’suwet’en Nation, who was found guilty of criminal contempt  in February. The Simgiigyat organized the demonstration to show their  support for Dinï ze’ (Hereditary Chief) Dsta’hyl, who was arrested in  October 2021 after decommissioning Coastal GasLink machinery at pipeline construction sites on his Likhts’amisyu Clan territory. 

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Communications

CityWest’s Cable Cut In Whaletown

The West Connect Infrastructure (WCI) crew had just finished laying CityWest’s main cable in Whaletown, when one  of the workers noticed that a line had been cut. They immediately informed the RCMP, whose press release states they were initially informed of three cuts to the cable. 

Scott Simpson, Senior Marketing Manager at CityWest explained: “On the evening or night of Thursday, March 21st,  there was some vandalism done to the fibre optic network that was being constructed for the service to the community of Whaletown. Crews noticed some damage to the network. Upon further investigation, we found that 17 different sites have been damaged along about a 1.5 kilometre stretch on Whaletown Road. So, 17 different sites that had been cut with multiple cuts at each site, quite a bit of restoration work. We’re looking at an estimate of about $40,000 worth of damage overall. That would include materials and the labour to fix everything.”  

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