Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro is calling on the federal government to fire RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, saying her continued tenure is damaging to the national police force. (CBC)

Anyone remember the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Not so long ago, the Charter — as the shorthand for it goes — was looked upon as Canada’s most important, close to sacred, document — something like how the British think of the Magna Carta, or the Americans of their Declaration of Independence. (National Post)

An RCMP officer was fatally stabbed Tuesday in Burnaby while helping city staff check on a homeless camp. Police said they were called to an “unfolding incident” on Canada Way between Boundary Road and Willingdon Avenue on Tuesday morning. Two people were taken to hospital. (Vancouver Sun)

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Suspect in Mountie slaying has been in and out of custody on assault charges

By Bob Cooper  “I think Canadians will understand that cabinet confidence is a critical part of our cabinet governance system,” said Attorney General David Lametti. So the waiving of cabinet confidence is extremely rare,” he concluded.  Invoking the Emergencies Act should be even rarer.   Like the Privacy Act, which allows the police to wiretap and intercept private communications, it should only be used when 'all lesser means have been tried and failed, or will fail'.  Both Acts specifically say so.    The Privacy Act only infringes on the liberties of specific individuals for very specific reasons that have to be approved by a judge and later tested in court.  The Emergencies Act removes the liberties of the entire country and is done totally in secret.  The requirement that an inquiry be held any time the act is invoked was designed to remind governments of the seriousness involved as well as provide for accountability after the fact.  The government’s actions make a sham of both.  The government has appointed Mr. Justice Paul Rouleau of the Ontario Court of Appeals as Commissioner and some have expressed concerns regarding his past links to the Liberal Party.  I’m willing to wait and judge the judge on his performance firstly because I want to be fair and secondly, I doubt you could swing a cat in any courthouse in Ontario without hitting Liberal supporters, equally divided among judges, counsel, and those in custody.  The initial handling of the Truckers’ convoy broke every rule in the book.  They tried nothing.  No engagement,...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his entourage of cabinet ministers and photographers have returned from their week-long European vacation and photo-op tour.  What was accomplished? Well, nothing discernible. He certainly isn’t leading in these troubled times. And neither, for that matter, is the President of the United States, Joe Biden. The war in Ukraine rages on and the west is being implored by Ukrainian President Zalensky to establish a “no fly” zone over the Ukraine. They have also asked for planes (Mig 29s) from Poland, a member nation of NATO which has the planes Ukranian fighter pilots are familiar with. Thus far NATO has not responded as a group, but the message from the White House is that the west doesn’t want to do anything that might escalate into World War III. According to President Biden, a a couple of dozen fighters from Poland would be seen as “escalatory.” Although the U.S., Canada and a dozen other countries are supplying the Ukraine with weapons of war including Stinger anti-air missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles. What the difference is between land-launched weapons of war and air-launched weapons of war is not clear to this observer.  There are so many things going on in the world that potentially impacts the national security of the west in general, but Canada and the U.S. in particular.  Yet, last week Biden held a national security video conference between major NATO members which included the U.K., France and Germany. Canada? Um, not so much. Trudeau was not invited. Even...

Whatever else we may have learned from the truckers’ convoy protests in Ottawa is that Justin Trudeau is an incredibly weak leader. Not that much of a surprise I know, but he managed to remind us and to underline it in the starkest of terms.  In the first instance, the Prime Minister said when he triggered the Emergencies Act that after three weeks the government had run out of options and therefore he had no choice but to take that action. The Emergencies Act is a mid-80’s replacement for the War Measures Act used by his father in October of 1970 to fight against the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ).  For three weeks the truckers blocked Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill. The protest was marked by horn honking, singing and things like bouncy castles and BBQs. It was more like a block or tailgate party that lasted three weeks. Families were drawn to the area and no significant incidents occurred at all.  Contrast this to October of 1970 when there were dozens of bombings across the Island of Montreal and its suburbs. The bombings occurred over a period of weeks in mailboxes frightening Montrealers half to death. The FLQ then kidnapped the British High Commissioner (Ambassador) James Cross and then the provincial Finance Minister Pierre Laporte.  Laporte’s dead body was found in the trunk of a car at the airport in St. Hubert on the South Shore. With no sign of Cross and one dead cabinet minister, then Prime Minister...

By Bob Cooper It's Day 6 of the protest in Ottawa where truckers have blocked streets around Parliament Hill with their rigs and effectively paralyzed the downtown area. They are protesting the federal mandate requiring truckers (and pretty much anyone else) to be vaccinated before crossing the border. Apart from some bad behavior on the weekend, the protest has been peaceful and I mean really peaceful as opposed to the "mostly peaceful" phrase that CNN & MSNBC anchors used to characterize the riots that rocked American cities for months in the summer of 2020. Despite there not having been one act of violence, the Chief Constable of Ottawa, Peter Sloly, went on TV today and suggested the Army might be called in to clear the blockade, an idea so stupid that even Justin Trudeau recognized it and jumped in front of the cameras to say it just wasn't happening. The only intelligent thing he's done. Like ever. This isn’t about vaccines per se or whether or not it’s a good idea to get vax’d. I weighed all of the pros and cons and made the choice to get double-vax’d along with the booster. A few of my close friends chose not to get vax’d and I respect their decisions as they respect mine. The issue here is choice and whether the government should have the power to force its’ citizens to be injected with medication. If you believe the polls, only about a third of Canadians support the truckers and most people in...

Some folks I know have a place in Scottsdale, Arizona, a getaway they have used for many years to get refuge from the rain, damp and chilliness prevalent in winters on the West Coast.  With the exception of last year with the COVID travel restrictions, they have gone down to the desert every winter for the last twenty years or so. This year they bought their air travel tickets to go down there.  They have been dutiful in getting their two vaccine shots and registered for the B.C. government’s digital proof of vaccination. When they booked their tickets they were told they needed to provide proof of vaccination. No problem, they thought, they have followed all the rules thus far. Then they were told they also need a negative COVID test just before flying. At a cost of $200 each.  Wait. What? They have been vaccinated and could prove it to the standards set by the government. So, what gives? Why a negative test in addition to their provable vaccination  status? This whole COVID situation has now truly gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.  It started out with the government telling us about the onset of the virus and saying we just needed two weeks to “flatten the curve.” The idea was to ensure we did not overwhelm our healthcare system with COVID cases until they could prepare for it.  Okay, we were prepared to accept that situation. But that two weeks has become 19 months and the restrictions are beyond onerous.  We endured months...

In the late evening hours of Monday evening, residents of Maple Ridge, B.C. were treated to the sight of a man wielding an axe against another man in the downtown area.   The RCMP were called and separated the two men. Apparently, the RCMP determined the incident was “consensual” and no charges were laid.  Consensual? How in the world does the man being chased consent to a fight with a man with an axe? There is citizen journalist video of at least part of the incident and it is clear the man who “consented,” according to the RCMP, was running away from the man with the axe, evidently not consenting. It is also clear that when the men were in close proximity the man with the axe was swinging it in an apparent attempt to hit and injure the other man. I failed to see the “consent” as he endeavoured to ward off the blows.  “Police responded to a report of two men fighting on Monday night in the 222000 block area of Lougheed Hwy. Upon police attendance it was determined the fight was consensual between two men known to each other. No significant injuries occurred and an axe was seized. Both parties were uncooperative with police and not interested in police assistance,” said RCMP Insp. Adam Gardner to the media. It’s hard to know where to start with that bit of nonsense. A number of charges in the Criminal Code apply in this case not in the least being in possession of a...

Unless you are a voracious consumer of the news, you have likely not heard of one of the biggest national security failures to have ever occurred in Canada. The RCMP are investigating, but they won’t say much about any of what it is they are doing or the dramatic exposure to Canada.  In July 2019, Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng were removed from Canada’s only Level 4 microbiology lab in Winnipeg for what was described as a policy breach. In January of 2020 they were officially terminated from the lab and their security clearance, the highest available in Canada, was removed.  A level 4 biomedical virology lab is equipped to deal with and research the most serious and deadly diseases to affect humans and animals.  What we do know is precious little considering the implications. Dr. Xiangguo Qiu sent several specimens of viruses including the frightening ebola virus to the microbiology lab in Wuhan, China.  We know that Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband are Chinese nationals and are believed to be back in China, beyond the reach of Canadian justice. The national security implications are enormous yet the RCMP while admitting their investigation, isn’t telling the country what the exposure is, not only to Canada, but to the world.  Iain Stewart, President of the Public Health Agency of Canada which runs the lab in Winnipeg, appeared before the Parliamentary Special Committee on Canada/China relations in March. Let’s say he was less than forthcoming with answers to the committee. He was given until April 20,...