MAYERTHORPE -- 21 MONTHS LATER

Friday brought word that the RCMP has completed an internal
workplacesafety investigation into the deaths of four Mounties killed
on March 3, 2005, near Mayerthorpe, Alta. According to an e-mail sent
by a deputy commissioner, the investigation found the cause of the
incident to be "[a] premeditated and intentional act by [James]
Roszko, who deliberately planned and executed the murder" of the four.
Which, it must be said, is pretty much what we knew about the incident
as of March 4, 2005.

The Mayerthorpe incident produced the largest Mountie death toll in a
single operation since 1885. But with the second anniversary of the
shootings just around the corner, the RCMP has not yet completed the
police investigation into the circumstances surrounding the murders;
and as a consequence, the public inquiry that would ordinarily follow
has not yet begun. The people of Lac Ste. Anne County and the front
line officers of the force have been patient while they awaited final
answers -- or, more accurately, the mere commencement of a process
leading to final answers.

It goes without saying that no effort should be spared in finding out
who assisted Roszko, if anyone did. And those who did so, knowing of
the killer's intentions, should be pursued down every avenue known to
the law. But it is awkward, to say the least, that the murders should
remain veiled in mystery when the man known to have perpetrated them
has been dead for 21 months.

Rival interpretations of photo evidence from the scene have been
batted back and forth in a void of information -- other than the
meagre details supplied by the police, who fought against an effort by
the CBC to have the original search warrants against Roszko unsealed.
After the CBC won its case, the RCMP complained that the release of
the information could potentially hinder their investigation.

That was in October, 2005. By that time, the shootings had already
been used a thousand times over to damn drugs and drug laws, guns and
gun control, rural life, the province of Alberta, capitalism and
everything else under the sun. Individual Mounties have even cited the
deaths of their comrades as a data point in arguing they are
"outgunned" by contemporary bad guys.

It is an argument they are entitled to make, by virtue of the risks
they take on behalf of the citizenry every day. But meanwhile the
clock continues to tick while the public wonders how one man could
accomplish what an entire body of tactical doctrine for police
professionals is designed to prevent -- which is to say, ambush and
kill Peter Schiemann, Anthony Gordon, Lionide Johnston and Brock Myrol
as the officers were seizing property on Roszko's farm.

Automatic weapons have been around for a long time, and James Roszko
was a pathetic pedophile recluse, not some comic-book supervillain. If
the visit to his home was executed by the book, a public discussion of
how our cops can be better protected seems essential -- ideally,
sooner rather than later. And if something procedural went wrong, the
need to study the incident and absorb the lessons would seem all the
more urgent.