Officers who were slammed in a report for using "excessive and unjustified" force to disperse protesters at an international summit should be fired, says an MP who is suing the force for assault.
NDP MP Svend Robinson called the scathing report by the RCMP Public Complaints Commission a "shocking document" and a vindication of those who said the force had abused its power at the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.
He and other critics of the RCMP tactics also demanded the government issue a public apology to all protesters, and compensate those harmed by police actions.
The RCMP officers' "conduct was an assault on the most basic rights of peaceful protest," Mr. Robinson, who was tear-gassed and shot with a plastic bullet at the protest, said yesterday in an interview.
The report said the RCMP used "oppressive" force, a violation of the Criminal Code and the Charter of Rights.
Among other things, it said the RCMP violated its own procedures by giving inadequate warning before using tear gas, rubber bullets, a "flash bang" grenade and a Taser gun -- which emits a strong electrical charge -- to scatter crowds at the protest.
Solicitor General Wayne Easter, who is responsible for the RCMP, said it was too early to raise an alarm but that the government and RCMP take the public complaints commission reports very seriously."
A spokesman for RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said he would "take the appropriate time to review the recommendations" and then reply to Shirley Heafey, who heads the commission.
"We will have to analyse this report," Mr. Easter said. "I know that certainly the direction from the commissioner (Zaccardelli) and myself is certainly that the laws be applied.
"The bottom line is, I think, as solicitor general, we're always concerned that the mandate and the law and the ministerial directives be followed by the RCMP and those agencies that are under our authority."
Mr. Robinson said Mr. Easter must fire officers deemed to have used excessive force and also put procedures in place to ensure it doesn't happen again.
However, Mr. Robinson said he is not optimistic Mr. Easter will act, given his refusal to get to the bottom of what happened to Maher Arar. Mr. Arar is the Syrian-Canadian who was incarcerated in Syria for almost a year and is demanding an independent inquiry into whether Canadian authorities played a role in his deportation to Syria from the United States.
Clayton Ruby, a human rights crusader and the lawyer representing Mr. Robinson, said the commission's report will be useful when the MP's assault suit goes to trial.
The report also increases the pressure on the government to "arrange compensation for all the other people at the demonstration who were illegally gassed," Mr. Ruby said.
Jean-Yves Lefort, a trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians, said a government apology to protesters would send a needed message to the RCMP.
"The RCMP gets its orders from the government," he said. "The tone is set by what the government does and says. So there definitely needs to be some (government) reaction."
Eduardo Sousa, who was in Quebec City at the time of the protest, said Ms. Heafey's report brought back a flood of memories of being gassed.
Mr. Sousa, an Ontario organizer for the Council of Canadians, said the report's blunt findings illustrate the need for a public inquiry.
"We're on a slippery slope," he said. "We have to look at this."
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