TOP COP REGRETS SHOOTING FROM LIP

Canada's top police officer said Monday he was too quick to condemn a
marijuana grow operation as the root cause in the deaths of four RCMP
officers last week.

RCMP commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli said his condemnation of grow
ops just hours after the shootings may have been inappropriate because
police and politicians did not have details of the case and the
background of cop-killer James Roszko.

Zaccardelli and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, his political
boss as the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness,
spoke of the scourge of marijuana grow operations within hours of the
killings and the need for tougher penalties for those who operate them.

"I gave what I believed was the best information I had knowing full
well that at that time I didn't have all the information," a contrite
Zaccardelli said. "Clearly, there's a lot of things in there that, in
hindsight, we will have to look at in a different perspective."

Police in Mayerthorpe first went to Roszko's home with a court order
to seize stolen auto parts. While there, they discovered what a search
warrant said were marijuana plants and a smell "consistent of a
marijuana grow operation."

Police returned the next day -- the day of the killings -- with a
warrant to search for the drug outfit.

But in the days since the murders, it appears they were the work of a
deranged man with a long criminal history, but hardly that of a
gangster protecting his cash crop.

"None of these are simple issues. This requires some reflection and
discussion," Zaccardelli said. "Let's honour the memory of these four
fallen police officers and help their families get through it, and
then we need to carry on the debate after this."

Opposition parties declined out of respect for the four dead officers
to use Monday's question period to probe the initial reactions of
Zaccardelli and McLellan.

Last Thursday night, McLellan said the officers "were killed in an
operation involving, as far as we know at this point, an illegal grow
operation."

She went on to speak of the great danger grow ops pose to police
officers, their frequent links to organized crime, and the need for
stronger penalties for those who run them.

McLellan would not discuss Zaccardelli's comments.

"The first thing that happened was that everybody acted based on a
lack of information," said Randy White, a tough-on-crime Conservative
MP from British Columbia. "Yeah, they did react, but based on
information they didn't have."

Zaccardelli said he will later be making a "more extensive" public
statement on the killings.

All four political parties spoke Monday in the House of Commons in
honour of the four dead officers.

There were hints that McLellan and the country's national police force
could come under heavy scrutiny in coming days.

"All Canadians are asking, why? Those answers will have to wait for
another day," said NDP Leader Jack Layton.

"The time is coming to understand the implications of their deaths and
the public policy involved," said Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.