final credits - alberta RCMP deaths - political reaction
political reaction - thursday, march 3, 2005
As events unfolded and truths were revealed about what precipitated the events at Mayerthorpe, Alberta, some statements made by politicians were called into question. Recorded here are those early statements.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein said he was saddened "beyond words" that such a tragedy would occur in a quiet farming community. "Maybe it says something about how the criminal mind is changing . . . to move from big cities so perhaps they won't be noticed as much as they would in a larger centre,'' he said. In a statement, Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin said: "On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to express my condolences to the families of the officers who were killed as they carried out their duty in enforcing the law and protecting the public. At this moment of difficulty and loss, you are in our thoughts and prayers."
Police have been cracking down on illicit marijuana "grow-ops" that have sprung up rapidly across Alberta in recent years. Many of the operations targeted by the so-called police "Green Teams" are said to be connected with organised crime. The federal government has angered police organisations and U.S. officials by planning to introduce legislation that would decriminalise marijuana possession. Canada's Public Safety Minister, Anne McLellan, held a news conference to say she will consider tougher penalties for grow operations in the government's proposed marijuana decriminalisation bill. McLellan said she and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler will "want to take a look at whether we have the right resources being used in the right ways and whether we have the right laws" to deal with illegal grow-ops, which she called a fast-spreading "scourge."
In Ottawa, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli stated, "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." Alberta's Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko said "This issue was senseless in the fact that four officers were killed with regard to a grow operation. [It] goes to the seriousness of the fact that organised crime, illegal cultivation of marijuana or the illegal production of crystal meth is all around us in the province."
Public and political attention later shifted to the question of how a man long-known to be a threat to public safety could remain free and have access to deadly weaponry.