The Braidwood Chronicles: RCMP end-run?

The unmitigated torrent of RCMP sleaze continues.

Those who have been following the twists and turns of the Braidwood Inquiry into the killing of Robert Dziekanski by RCMP officers don't, as they say, need a weatherman to know which way the wind has been blowing. The officers have made a spectacle of themselves, lying in perfect unison, wriggling and dancing on the stand. There were further attempts made to smear the reputation of their victim, with one mouthpiece attempting to bring decades-old records into evidence. There was a last-ditch attempt, using a questionable "expert," to tell us that we didn't see what we saw when we viewed and reviewed the Pritchard video.

There had been false statements given to the media. There had been a cover-up lasting for months. There had been evidence of rot from the very top, as Commissioner William "Bubbles" Elliott (and BC Premier Gordon Campbell), publicly contrite, sent private words of encouragement to the officers while Dziekanski's mother was still raw with grief.

It has been a sickening tale.

Think it couldn't get any worse? Oh, ye of little faith. If there's a dark corner to crawl into, the RCMP will assuredly find it. And so this morning we learn that the RCMP lawyers have gone to the British Columbia Supreme Court to head off the Braidwood Inquiry, asking it to enjoin Justice Braidwood from making any findings of misconduct against the Four Horsemen.

That would be improper, says David Butcher, the lawyer for Constable Bill Bentley. The Inquiry is provincial. The officers come under federal jurisdiction.

Is this yet another straw being grasped by that sorry gang of ill-trained cowboys, drowning in their sea of lies and excuses--or is it a lifebuoy? Only time will tell. Because we always seem to have a ready supply of the latter when police misbehaviour is dragged, squinting, into the light.