Failure to rush to Alberta at once a major misstep by RCMP boss

By Christie Blatchford

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

MAYERTHORPE, ALTA. -- There was a remarkable little story in the Edmonton Journal a couple of days ago.

Theoretically, it was about Prime Minister Paul Martin's expected attendance, shortly thereafter confirmed, at the memorial service for the four young murdered Mounties in Edmonton on Thursday.

But in the body of the piece, it was also duly noted that Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli definitely would be coming west.

It was a stunning bit of business, actually, to realize that the RCMP boss wasn't already in Alberta, making his way from the two small towns here most affected by the massacre to the other places in the province from whence the four slain officers hail, offering condolences to stricken families and showing his face to the young men and women who have lost their friends and colleagues and who have been reminded in the harshest of ways of the dangers of the work they do.

To be perfectly fair, Commissioner Zaccardelli did personally phone each of the officers' families, and if the reaction a few days ago of Don Schiemann, the father of Constable Peter Schiemann, one of the slain, was typical, it was a gesture that was hugely appreciated.

An RCMP media spokeswoman, Corporal Monique Beauchamp, explained yesterday that the force has had two very senior officers, including assistant commissioner Bill Sweeney, "on the ground" in Alberta since shortly after the tragedy.

In addition, she pointed out that "there are some things that need to be done out of Ottawa," and gave an example the Commissioner's presence yesterday in the House of Commons, to formally receive sympathies from the country's political leaders. And, Cpl. Beauchamp said, "honouring the fallen members" has been part of Commissioner Zaccardelli's every day; the four have been in his thoughts, and he has been personally involved making sure their colleagues are being properly supported and in organizing the Thursday service.

But for all that "it is an emotional and very trying time," she said, the Commissioner must also continue to deal with "all the other emerging issues."

For those, like me, accustomed to seeing police chiefs drop everything and race to hospital whenever one of their own is injured or killed, the Commissioner's failure to immediately come to Alberta was nonetheless a significant misstep. As justice must not only be done but manifestly be seen to be done, so must leadership at time of crisis not only be real, but be seen to be real.

For politicians, prime ministers and presidents, such a decision -- do I go or do I stay? -- is properly laced with pragmatic concerns.

A head of state, appearing at the scene of a great natural disaster or enormous crime such as the terrorist downing of the Twin Towers, may be perceived as exploiting a situation if he does attend, and his presence, complete with travelling press corps and handlers, may actually impede work that needs to be done. Yet if he doesn't go, or doesn't go soon enough, he may find himself criticized for being slow off the mark. Recent experience may suggest that it is always best for a national leader to err on the side of going, but it is a delicate balancing act, not without political risk.

But Commissioner Zaccardelli is not a politician, rather the head of the national police force and its 22,239 members, no fewer than about 10,000 of whom bear the same rank as the young men -- Constables Schiemann, Lionide (Leo) Johnston and Brock Myrol from the small Mayerthorpe detachment, Constable Anthony Gordon from the slightly larger office in nearby Whitecourt -- who were slaughtered in James Roszko's Quonset hut last Thursday morning.

In my view, the Commissioner's serving men and women -- not only those who were intimately affected but also those who were watching the events unfold -- needed to see that their boss reacted like the police officer he was once, decades ago, when he went on the job. They needed to know that his instincts were the same as theirs and that his heart was as sore and stricken as their own.

Policing is a para-military game, and as with the military, it is important that the senior command show itself to be composed of the same stern stuff as those on the front line. Policemen, like soldiers, go most readily into danger when they believe that those commanding them would do the same thing if only they had the chance. They need to believe that they are not lions led by donkeys, as an old British Army slogan casts it, but rather lions led by lions.

The truth is, Commissioner Zaccardelli's absence here is revealing, and says much about the top-down, bureaucratic nature of the modern RCMP.

As a for instance, I learned yesterday that 'O' Division, which encompasses much of Ontario, appears to be filling the seats on its small divisional plane with members of the brass, not the rank-and-file -- a situation that has not gone unnoticed among those, as one of them put it yesterday, who "have mud on their boots" and have either served themselves in rural Alberta, and know many of those hit hard by the massacre, or feel compelled to attend the service solely out of respect for their brother officers.

Many of them are coming anyway, at their own expense, but it grates that those occupying the seats on the division plane are paper-pushing command officers, and not operational cops in the field.

"All we're looking for is a bit of leadership," one veteran Mountie said yesterday. The constable believes that one or another of Canada's airlines would have been happy to offer flights at cost to Mounties across the country who want to attend the service.

And that's probably true: Don Schiemann went out of his way on the weekend to thank WestJet for the compassion and generosity the airline showed the night he found out his middle son had been killed. He was returning from Winnipeg, where he had been on business, when he got the news, and said the airline's personnel were wonderful.

Not every Mountie can be at the service in person, of course. That's why every division will have its own smaller memorial for the four officers on Thursday. But the man who represents them all, I think, could have given the House of Commons and all the other issues a bye, and left Ottawa days ago.

It's funny, but Mr. Schiemann, a Lutheran pastor, was asked the other day what he would say to the other stricken families, who, it was suggested, might look to him for guidance and wisdom because of his position.

"My position," Mr. Schiemann said, "is that of a father who's lost his son, and I know," and here he wore a look of horrified wonder, "I actually know what they're going through."

The chance to demonstrate that very thing is the opportunity Giuliano Zaccardelli let slip through his fingers.

cblatchford@globeandmail.ca

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