TEXAS RANGER CAPER DEEP-FRIES B.C. MOUNTIES

Bogus Bust: RCMP's Drawling Texans Another Example of Police Excess

'Scuse me, pardner, but could y'all produce your driver's licence and
registration?

Those were the words, approximately, that greeted a Vancouver motorist
waved off the road by police some months ago near Hope.

Strange lingo for a Mountie, even one in plain clothes with Dukes of
Hazzard reruns blasting through his head.

The motorist, riding with his two-year-old son in the vehicle, is
immediately suspicious. To him the tall stranger sounds much more like a
Texas Ranger.

"Who are you with?" the motorist asks.

"With them," replies the stranger, pointing to a gaggle of Mounties.

The motorist gives his licence and registration to the RCMP officers, who
ask to search his car. Having done nothing wrong, the motorist says no, but
volunteers a scrap of paper containing his realtor's telephone number and a
sketch of a crocodile by his two-year-old.

This looks consistent with a drug courier's map, says the Mountie, but
lacking any evidence whatsoever, lets the astounded motorist go.

What the hell?

A minute or so down Highway 3 and damned if another Mountie with another
drawling stranger again haul the motorist aside.

They ask him when he last drank alcohol, then say he's under investigation
for smoking marijuana, and would he please step out.

He is given two drug "tests" -- counting to 30 backwards, and an
"observation" by the Mountie and the stranger, who declare that his eyelids
fluttered and therefore he's driving under the influence of pot.

The motorist, Vancouver police Const. David Laing, then pulls out his badge.

Well, where we're from, the stranger says, we've got lots of cops, lawyers
and judges smuggling drugs.

And where would that be? Good ol' Texas, where the longhorn cattle feed on
the lowly jimson weed.

They then search the vehicle, refusing to allow Laing to remove his
two-year-old, who cries all through the search.

Nothing is found and Laing is sent on his way. Furious, he launches a
private citizen's complaint with the RCMP and gets nowhere.

Laing then hires lawyers to launch a claim for wrongful search and
detention with the federal Justice Department, which acts on behalf of the
Mounties.

Vancouver lawyer Marilyn Sandford wins a settlement outside court and the
matter is now closed.

Or is it? A whole raft of questions stemming from this caper remain
unanswered, feeding into the widening suspicion that police everywhere need
much stronger civilian oversight.

Sandford notes that Texas Rangers, who were apparently here to train our
boys in the fine art of drug detection, have no jurisdiction in Canada. Why
did the Mounties illegally allow the Texans to flag folks off the road?

She also observes that there is no driver's "test" yet for marijuana, and
setting up roadblocks for drug smuggling -- under the guise of a "vehicle
check" -- is not allowed.

Public trust in our police is vital. Why are they behaving like Texans?