OPPOSITION URGES PROBE OVER RCMP INFORMANT

Day Said Aware Of The Issue

OTTAWA - Opposition parties are calling on the Conservative
government to answer "disturbing questions" over allegations of
potential abuse of the Witness Protection Program by an RCMP agent,
as well as concerns over its secrecy and lack of accountability.

"We don't know if there's systemic issues here, or if it's isolated,"
Liberal public safety critic Sue Barnes said yesterday. "I think it
raises some disturbing questions about the operations of the Witness
Protection Program."

NDP public safety critic Joe Comartin wants the federal government to
launch an independent inquiry into the case of an
informant-turned-agent alleged to have supplied false information and
later committed murder as a protected witness.

Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Stockwell
Day, said he was aware of the issue.

"Minister Day is looking into these reports and has asked for a full
briefing. Tackling crime in all its forms is a priority of this
government," she said in an e-mail.

The concerns come in the wake of a CanWest News Service article that
details the story of Richard Young, who is alleged to have provided
false information about a major Victoria drug dealer while acting as
an informant. The man was later promoted to a paid agent, despite
doubts that had been raised about his credibility by a police
polygraph specialist.

The RCMP has ordered a thorough review of the facts in the case.

After participating in an RCMP-initiated drug "buy and bust" in 2001,
Young was put in the Witness Protection Program. He was later
convicted of murder, but because he's a protected witness, no details
of the case can be published or released.

Now, opposition parties are speaking out about what they say are
indications the Witness Protection Program is too secretive and may
be rife with abuses the public is never told about.

"I think a number of us for a long time have felt uncomfortable with
the fact it's just a the police services that makes the decision on
whether somebody's going to be allowed in this program and feel that
we need an oversight," Mr. Comartin said. He said the protection
program, which costs between $2-$3-million a year, is not accountable
and must be altered to include the participation of judges, so police
forces aren't solely responsible for choosing who is allowed in the
protection program or promoted from RCMP informant to agent.

"Oversight in itself is not sufficient. We need actual intervention
by judicial authorities as the process is ongoing -- not after the
fact," Mr. Comartin. "I want to prevent the abuse and the only way
you can do that is to have the intervention before the process starts.

Both Mr. Comartin and Ms. Barnes said they plan to raise the issue at
the House of Commons public safety committee in order to determine
whether there are widespread problems within the Witness Protection
Program. Ms. Barnes said she wants officials from the program to
appear before the committee.