Where is Canada's Investigative Press on This Story?
Any journalist who has an ounce of integrity left should be on this story. If there had been whistle blower legislation RCMP Sgt. Stenhouse and Cpl. Read would still be working -- and probably promoted. Stenhouse was turfed for going to the press when his investigative concerns were put on the back burner. The senior level of the RCMP claimed he was interfering in some grand national plan to deal with organized crime that they were working on and he supposedly tipped off the crooks by going to the press. Well it's several years later and most of the major crooks are still operating their businesses so the master plan hasn't been that effective. Maybe they should have followed his ideas for tackling them instead.
EDMONTON (CP) - A former Mountie who lost his job after leaking police anti-biker strategy may get a chance to question his old boss after a court ruled his disciplinary hearing was unfair and ordered a new one.
"I would like to have the opportunity to cross-examine (RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli)," said former staff sergeant Bob Stenhouse, who wiped tears from his eyes Friday as he talked about his five-year fight with the RCMP.
"I would like to have the opportunity to cross-examine some very senior executives."
A March 12 judicial review from the Federal Court found that while the verdict in Stenhouse's 2001 hearing was fair, the punishment he received may be tainted.
It was wrong for Zaccardelli, who was closely involved with the prosecution of the case, to rule on the penalty, the court said.
"The decision of the commissioner is unreasonable with respect to bias, and must be set aside," wrote Justice Michael Kelen.
As well, the court found RCMP lawyers failed to produce documents that suggested senior officers may have ignored Stenhouse's concerns.
A 2000 memo from then-assistant commissioner Rob Leatherdale calls one memo that Stenhouse received "a strong signal that he had identified his frustrations and nobody listened."
Stenhouse, 42, then a much-decorated, 18-year veteran of the force with extensive undercover experience, landed in hot water in 1999 when he disclosed RCMP plans for outlaw biker gangs to a journalist. Stenhouse said that strategy left him frustrated and angry.
"I committed my life to fighting evil," he said. "I saw the ultimate bully, the Hells Angels, getting away with a lot of crime, a lot of murder, and yet I saw our response being more of a public relations response."
He immediately apologized to his superiors and colleagues when the documents appeared in Yves Lavigne's book Hells Angels at War.
But at his disciplinary hearing, he remained sharply critical of RCMP anti-gang tactics.
[. . . . ] "I believe that the RCMP overreacted to what I had done," he said. "I knew there was some influences that were probably inappropriate, so I thought I couldn't just roll over and die. I had to take this as far as I could.
[. . . . ] Stenhouse's status with the force is also being discussed, Marsh said.
[. . . . ] Stenhouse says that RCMP anti-gang tactics have changed, often along lines that he proposed years ago. [. . . .]
