RCMP: 'Intelligence sharing'

The Hamilton Spectator
(Aug 2, 2006)

Inkster says the same sort of call-up happened after 9/11 when staff were summoned from many units to handle immediate needs. Ontario has more specialists than in the Prairies or the Maritimes, where RCMP officers do community police patrols.

It is not clear how many federal or provincial politicians knew about the extent of the combined forces readied for the raid. At the provincial level, ministers have said repeatedly the matter has been entirely in the hands of the OPP.

In Ottawa, area cabinet minister, Diane Finley of Haldimand-Norfolk, was among federal officials briefed about the RCMP presence.

"She knew they were there in an observation capacity," said Finley's spokesperson, Colleen Cameron.

Records show that throughout May, RCMP officers remained involved in intelligence work in Caledonia, including one officer who claimed on May 10 that he couldn't take a meal break because of "continuous surveillance performed."

Paulson says the RCMP no longer have officers supporting the OPP in Caledonia, although Mounties doing intelligence are working across Ontario on various projects all the time. The OPP have always declined to talk about their own operations, but as late as June it is known they were still "intelligence sharing" with American officials, including the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

At least one ATF agent was in Caledonia during a June 9 melee when a vehicle was allegedly swarmed by native protesters. The agent from western New York was an expert in tobacco diversion and illegal firearms trafficking.

The Spectator asked the OPP for the same type of information it asked for from the RCMP, covering the same time period. The RCMP provided more than 250 pages of documents quickly at no cost. The response to the request for OPP documents, sent yesterday, was that it would take almost 200 hours of research time at a total cost of $5,550 to supply The Spectator with the records. The period covered by the RCMP documents is limited to April and May. The Access to Information request does not cover the current period.

But in April and May, the RCMP clocked more than 3,350 hours of overtime that could be worth anywhere from $116,500 to $188,000, depending on how much seniority the officers have. There was $42,000 in expenses filed by those officers during those two months. Officers who stayed in Caledonia also got $17.30 a day in incidentals, $12.50 for breakfast, $12 for lunch and $33.60 for dinner.