MAKE NOISE FOR REAL JUSTICE

Jubilee Shootings Latest In Litany Of Violence Against Police

Last week's shootings left three Winnipeg police officers -- Curtis
Penner, Don Murray and Jeremy Cull -- seriously wounded. It hit home
for cops across the country, and me. I know two of them.

I worked extensively with one and watched his contagious enthusiasm
as he busted his rear end working three shifts in a cruiser car.
Watched his corny impersonations for whoever would watch.

His propensity for joking, though, pales in his dedication to the
job, his colleagues and the public he serves.

I watched as he filtered up to detective work. As he gained that
experience he just became better and better. He's currently assigned
to the street crime unit, the latest incarnation of the highly
touted, much welcomed Clean Sweep project.

Clean Sweep came into existence as the result of last year's
senseless killing of Phillipe Haiart, shot dead by a stray bullet
intended for someone else. Success is Clean Sweep's mark. Ironically,
the circumstances that now mark that unit are as insane as its raison d'etre.

Really, though, is anybody surprised? They shouldn't be. The levels
of violence perpetrated against others across this country are beyond
serious. Violence toward cops is out of control.

But as Winnipeggers hear, read and talk about the shootings their
message is clear. This is the catalyst for change in Canada's justice
system. A catalyst. Yeah, right.

How about Schiemann, Johnston, Myrol and Gordon? I thought those four
Mounties from Mayerthorpe lit the fuse of change in 2005. Closer to
home, Strongquill from western Manitoba was supposed to mean
something in 2001. Or Portage la Prairie's Templeton, shot in the
face, left to die at the side of the road in 2002. All vehicles to
inspire change.

A switch to a Conservative government has brought strong efforts
toward a long-overdue shift. Changes that would put some teeth and
guts back into our jelly-like system.

So where are those changes today? Where else? Held up by
parliamentary committees and hindered by opposition parties that
won't support them. In their zeal to get elected last time around,
Liberals and the NDP promised the moon and pledged a new era of
"get-tough," but as usual instead of stepping up to the plate,
they've withered.

Federal Liberal Anita Neville's riding covers the Jubilee Avenue
shooting scene. I wonder what she thinks of her party's record on
such issues. Deep down. Where's her post-shooting commentary?

The Clean Sweep initiative and the wounded officers are pretty clear
and compelling evidence of the Winnipeg Police Service's dedication
to the community. Why are so many others in the system, charged with
making the community safe, quite content to fiddle in ivory towers
while everything around them burns? The dangling threads of this
investigation, if followed, will lead to those negligent places of
power. Such neglect is reckless and irresponsible. And it must end. Now.

This story is about alleged drug dealing that was ongoing from the
comfort of a home in an average neighbourhood, where legal
consequence translated to "who cares." And ends with a will to kill
in the name of protecting the business. A shotgun ambush.

It's nuts. Absolutely maniacal. Extreme levels of violence are used
with rapidly increasing frequency on innocent victims and cops alike.
The Winnipeg Police Service and Winnipeg Police Association have been
beating that drum for a long time.

The injuries sustained by our officers are life altering. For them,
their families and their squad.

Winnipeg is bigger than Mayerthorpe. We should be able to make more
noise. Penner, Murray and Cull should hear that noise on their long
painful road of recovery. And it should be heard all the way to Ottawa