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Monday Mar. 6 2006 |
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Whose credibility is on the line?
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
"We have full confidence in the Mexican police and in their ability to carry
out this investigation in the proper fashion.To date, there has been full
cooperation.” As soon as Raf Souccar, assistant commissioner of the Federal
and International Operations of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, made that
statement last week referring to the slayings of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero
in Cancun, Mexico, at an all-inclusive resort, the question of credibility
was no longer about the Mexican police anymore, but about the RCMP.
You might agree with the
first part of Mr. Souccar’s statement about the “full confidence in the
Mexican police,” but to extend this confidence to “their ability to carry
out this investigation in the proper fashion” is questionable, at the very
least.
“There are traces of blood
on the key slot, the remote control, the refrigerator, the bathroom taps,”
Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, attorney general for the state of
Quintana Roo, told CTV last week. However, he also conceded that he doesn’t
know who the fingerprints belong to.
Mexican authorities
immediately said that the killings were perpetrated by “professionals” and,
they were so professional in carrying out the slayings that they left so
many traces that the only thing missing was their business cards.
And, their “forensic”
investigations led to two single mothers of Thunder Bay, Ont.
Canadians are confused and
concerned about what happened in Mexico two weeks ago and they were
expecting answers from the federal government and, mainly, from the RCMP. We
were hoping that during last week’s press conference that the RCMP was going
to address those concerns. Instead the only people who were reassured by the
Mounties were the Mexican investigators.
I’ve heard that they had to
say something public because the day after, which was last Friday, March 3,
the Mexican minister for Foreign Affairs was in Canada and we had to be
nice.
Oh yeah! I forgot, politics.
The RCMP is very sensitive when we talk about politics.
They were so sensitive that
the income trust case and possible investigations involving the federal
Department of Finance reached the media right in the middle of a federal
campaign. Paul Martin’s Liberals had only themselves to blame for the defeat
in the last election, but the RCMP definitely contributed to the political
debate.
In another example, the RCMP
was so sensitive that TV cameras reached then-B.C. Premier Glen Clark’s
house before the RCMP investigators did back in March 1999.The nightmare for
Clark and his family eventually ended when he was finally acquitted of any
criminal charges, but the RCMP inquiry destroyed a political career and had
ramifications on British Columbia politics for many years.
Then there was the RCMP
fumbling of the ball in the Brian Mulroney case and the Airbus saga. The 007
work of the RCMP cost millions of dollars for Canadian taxpayers and the
RCMP came up with nothing.
Then there was the RCMP
investigation last year that provoked the resignation of former minister of
finance of Ontario Greg Sorbara. Mr. Sorbara offered full cooperation in
order to speed up the process. The RCMP, as usual, dropped the bombshell and
left it there. In the meantime, Sorbara’s political career was destroyed,
the political process derailed and justice was put on hold.
“At this point we don’t
exclude anybody, we don’t include anybody,” the diplomatic Souccar said last
week talking about the Ianieros’ investigation.
Well, I hope that RCMP will
exclude at least Mother Theresa of Calcutta and the Virgin Mary. |
