OTTAWA (CP) - RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli should be fired for flouting key parts of a Mountie watchdog report that found excessive force was used at the 2001 Summit of the Americas, says New Democrat MP Svend Robinson.
Zaccardelli has refused to apologize, and rejects the finding of undue force by the independent but toothless Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP. He agreed with several other points made in a final report released Wednesday. That didn't satisfy Robinson, who made the complaint that led to the probe.
"To hell with you," is how Robinson described the Mounties' general response.
"Police fired over 500 rubber bullets and over 3,000 tear gas canisters," he said of the force used against mostly peaceful demonstrators, including himself.
"This is not a police state," said Robinson, who held up a spent tear gas canister from the protest. "This is a democracy."
Robinson is also suing the RCMP for assault after suffering a leg injury at the Quebec City summit almost three years ago.
Robinson called on Public Security Minister Anne McLellan to force Zaccardelli to fully implement the commission's recommendations or be fired.
"I'm not going to comment on that," McLellan said when asked if Zaccardelli should apologize. "The commissioner has made his views clear."
The minister said she had just reviewed the final report and had not decided whether to follow up with Zaccardelli.
In an interim report last fall, the commission said police gave inadequate warnings before firing tear gas to disperse demonstrators.
Commission chairwoman Shirley Heafey also said the RCMP tactical squad's use of a Taser stun gun against a lone protester was a clear abuse of authority. The man was "not struggling and represented no threat to the members, to himself, to the public or to property," she wrote.
Similarly, the force used by officers who fired upon four well-dressed, unarmed men - and the fact they made fun of one of the men - was "inappropriate and oppressive," Heafey said. "The four civilians were not aggressive and posed no threat."
In her final report, she again stressed: "One young man is clearly struck with a projectile of some sort, and is subsequently mocked by troops, even as he asks, first in French and then in English, to speak with the officer in charge."
Zaccardelli conceded that "remarks made by members concerning the linguistic abilities of the protesters, together with attendant laughter by these same members, were inappropriate and discourteous," says the report.
The RCMP has agreed with the commission's call to investigate the incident.
But it has refused to probe the other troubling attack in which a Mountie, caught on videotape, stuns a passive protester with a Taser gun as he awaits arrest.
Zaccardelli also rejected commission calls to clarify the RCMP's warning policy so that protesters would know how long they have to clear an area before force is used. Zaccardelli said that commanders need to continually assess situations, and that unruly protesters weren't likely to listen anyway, says the report.
The commissioner "largely supported" many of the report's other findings and was "professional" in helping to place them in context, Heafey wrote.
Most protests at the April 2001 summit were peaceful, though some demonstrators tossed rocks and bottles at police, and tore down a section of a large chain-link fence set up to protect delegates.
It's not the first time the complaints commission has rebuked the Mounties for roughing up peaceful protesters.
In March 2002, the commission concluded several people were "adversely affected by the inappropriate conduct" of RCMP officers during a 1997 meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Vancouver.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.