MCLELLAN UNDER FIRE FOR GROW-OP COMMENTS

OTTAWA - Opposition critics are calling on Public Safety Minister Anne
McLellan to retract comments linking the shooting deaths of four police
officers to marijuana grow operations and suggesting a government review of
police procedure should be called.

Conservative MP Peter MacKay spoke Tuesday after RCMP Commissioner Giuliano
Zaccardelli told CanWest News Service he was too quick to suggest the four
Mounties in Mayerthorpe last Thursday were killed by a man defending his
grow-op.

"I think it would be appropriate (that) the minister retract or at least
acknowledge that she was quick off the mark ... when she made this link to
grow-ops," said MacKay, the Tory critic for public safety and emergency
preparedness.

"Saying it was the root cause and suggesting somehow that grow-ops were to
blame for these deaths is overstating it and it was said pre-emptively. It
was said before all the facts were gathered."