CANADA'S TOP POLICEMAN BACKTRACKS ON RCMP DEATHS

Zaccardelli Says Comments Hasty Because He Lacked All The Information

OTTAWA -- Canada's top police officer said Monday that he was too quick to
condemn a marijuana growing operation as the root cause in the deaths of
four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers last week.

RCMP commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli said in an interview that his
condemnation of grow-ops just hours after the shootings may have been
inappropriate because police and politicians did not have full details of
the particular 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, Alta., first attended Roszko's home last Wednesday
with a court order to seize stolen auto parts. While there, they discovered
what a search warrant said were 20 marijuana plants. They returned the next
day -- the day of the killings -- with a warrant to search for a drug
operation and seized 280 plants, $8,000 worth of growing equipment and a
generator worth $30,000, the Edmonton Journal reported.

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."

Zaccardelli's comments followed statements in the House of Commons by all
four political parties commemorating the deaths of constables Peter
Schiemann, 25, Anthony Gordon, 28, Brock Myrol, 29, and Leo Johnston, 32.

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. All are positions she has held
consistently for a long time.

McLellan would not discuss Zaccardelli's comments Monday.

"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."

Prime Minister Paul Martin, McLellan and Zaccardelli will travel to
Edmonton Thursday for a national memorial service. Following that,
Zaccardelli said, he will 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.