Juno News - December 19, 2020


The OPP investigation into the RCMP has ramped up


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

140.14911

Word Count

589

Sentence Count

31


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We first told you in August about the OPP conducting a criminal investigation into senior
00:00:10.280 members of the RCMP on allegations of obstruction of justice brought by two of the four members of
00:00:16.940 the YVR-4 who attended the YVR International's arrival area in October of 2007 to respond to
00:00:24.420 a disturbance call. They were confronted with an out-of-control Polish traveler Robert Zakansky
00:00:30.600 and a taser was deployed. Zakansky ultimately died from the interaction. This week OPP investigators
00:00:39.580 were in BC conducting interviews with a number of people as they try and unravel the allegations
00:00:45.860 to make a determination. One of the folks interviewed was Shirley Hefe, the former director of the RCMP
00:00:53.080 Civilian Review Board. Hefe spent five years in that role fighting with the RCMP and learned
00:01:00.060 at first hand the frustrations trying to get information out of that moribundant secretive
00:01:06.100 organization. What became clear to her was the lengths the RCMP as an organization would go
00:01:14.100 to obstruct her investigations as she tried to respond to complaints. Hefe's interview lasted
00:01:20.640 for two and a half hours with the OPP. Also this week we learned of the resignation of Brenda
00:01:27.540 Butterworth Carr as the director of police services for the province of BC. Butterworth Carr had not
00:01:34.420 been in the job for long. She only had been in the position for less than two years. She took the job
00:01:40.560 after retiring as the deputy commissioner of the RCMP responsible for E Division, BC, the West and the North Coast
00:01:48.160 area. Butterworth Carr, in her letter of resignation, cited all the usual platitudes. The minister she reported to, Mike Farnworth,
00:01:58.160 also mused about his own resignation in the same week. To be fair, Farnworth has been in office for more than 25 years.
00:02:06.160 The timing, however, is what is suspicious. The Vancouver Sun tried to write the resignation off as driven by a photo
00:02:16.160 that was published of a member of the newly formed Surrey Police Board who posed with members of the Hells Angels.
00:02:23.160 As distasteful and stupid as that was, it is not a reason for Butterworth Carr to resign.
00:02:29.160 Normally, it would require she demand the resignation of the police board member and move on. But resign?
00:02:38.160 No, there's much more to all of this than meets the eye.
00:02:42.160 If we look at the OPP investigation, dubbed Project Eastbourne, the timeline primarily goes back to when the two YVR members
00:02:51.160 who leveled the allegations of obstruction of justice began trying to pry documents they knew would exonerate them from the RCMP and the obstruction started.
00:03:02.160 Cooperation was virtually non-existent. The members, Constable Jerry Rundle, a still serving member,
00:03:10.160 and Corporal Monty Robinson, retired, began their fight for documents from the RCMP in 2013.
00:03:18.160 The Deputy Commissioner responsible for the RCMP in BC at the time was Brenda Butterworth Carr.
00:03:25.160 She remained in that position for several more years, and looking at the allegations being investigated by the OPP,
00:03:32.160 she certainly has the most exposure. Others have exposure as well, but none as much as Butterworth Carr.
00:03:40.160 It is not known at this point if the OPP tried to interview her when they were here on the west coast,
00:03:46.160 which may have precipitated her resignation from government. We can speculate ad infinitum, but we cannot know for sure at this point.
00:03:56.160 What is clear is that the OPP investigation has ramped up and has zeroed in on several targets.
00:04:04.160 One can only assume that Butterworth Carr is one of them.
00:04:08.160 For True North, I'm Leo Knight.