|
Newsbrief:
Four
Canadian
Mounties
Killed
Raiding
Marijuana
Grow
3/4/05
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/377/mounties.shtml
In a bloody incident certain
to raise the decibel level as Canada grapples with marijuana law reform,
four members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were shot to death
Thursday morning as they investigated a marijuana grow in remote northwestern
Alberta. The shooter is also dead, apparently at his own hand, Reuters
reported.
Unlike the United States,
lethal violence against police is relatively rare in Canada. Stunned
RCMP officials harkened back more than a hundred years in attempting to
find parallels. "The loss of four officers is unprecedented in recent
history in Canada," said the RCMP commanding officer in Alberta, Bill Sweeney.
"I'm told you have to go back to about 1885 in the RCMP during the Northwest
Rebellion to have a loss of this magnitude," he told reporters in the town
of Mayerthorpe, 90 miles northwest of Alberta. "It's devastating."
The RCMP lost five officers
in 1958 when their boat sank in Ontario and four officers in a 1963 plane
crash in the Yukon, but it is not since the Metis and Indians rebelled
in western Canada 120 years ago that so many Mounties were shot and killed.
According to Reuters and
Canada Press, the officers were part of a team that had staked out a large
metal hut where a grow op was suspected. They entered the building
Thursday morning and didn't come out. When the officers didn't respond
to radio calls, the RCMP called in SWAT teams and armed forces personnel
carriers, but when police stormed the building in mid-afternoon, they found
the officers and the shooter dead.
Grow ops in Alberta have
been under pressure from police crackdowns in recent months, and now police
are raising the alarm. "The issue of grow-ops is not a ma-and-pa
industry as we've been seeing for a number of years. These are major
serious threats to our society and they are major serious threats to the
men and women on the front line who have to deal with them," RCMP Commissioner
Giuliano Zaccardelli said in Ottawa.
The killings come as the
minority Liberal government in Ottawa is pursuing a decriminalization bill
and Liberal party members in conference are considering a resolution calling
for the legalization of cannabis and the cannabis trade. Such moves
are opposed by Canadian police organizations, as well as US officials.
-- END --
|
Issue #377
-- 3/4/05
The
Ignorance
and
the
Damage
Done
|
International
Harm
Reduction
Battle
Heating
Up
|
National
Drug
Control
Strategy
Taking
Lumps
from
All
Sides
|
Under
New
South
Dakota
Anti-Meth
Law,
Drug
Use
Equals
Child
Abuse
|
DRCNet
Needs
You
to
Write
the
Senate
|
DRCNet/Perry
Fund
Event
to
Feature
Rep.
John
Conyers
and
Kemba
Smith,
March
9
in
Washington,
DC
|
Coasters
to
Stop
the
Drug
War
|
Events
and
Conferences
Coming
Up
for
Drug
Reformers
--
Come
Out
and
Be
a
Part
of
It
|
Newsbrief:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Newsbrief:
Four
Canadian
Mounties
Killed
Raiding
Marijuana
Grow
|
Newsbrief:
Legalize
It,
Says
Business
Week
Columnist
|
Newsbrief:
Washington
State
Drug
Reform
Coalition
Launches
Campaign
|
Newsbrief:
Texas
Racial
Profiling
Study
Finds
No
Progress,
Calls
for
Ban
on
Consent
Searches
|
Newsbrief:
Arkansas
Bill
That
Would
Have
Cut
Methamphetamine
Sentences
Defeated
|
Newsbrief:
Utah
Treatment
Not
Jail
Bill
Dying
For
Lack
of
Funding
|
Newsbrief:
Colombia
Guerrillas
Demand
Return
of
Commander
Extradited
to
US
|
Newsbrief:
British
Opposition
Promises
Tough
New
Drug
War
if
Elected
|
Newsbrief:
As
British
Parties
Embrace
Student
Drug
Testing,
Research
Report
Flashes
Caution
Light
|
Newsbrief:
"The
Marijuana-Logues"
Tour
Cancelled
After
Parole
Officer
Forces
Tommy
Chong
to
Quit
|
A
Drug
War
Carol
Now
Available
in
Spanish
and
French
|
This
Week
in
History
|
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
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