RCMP TOO KEEN ON INFORMANT'S LIES

Richard Young was a familiar hanger-on around Victoria bars, long on
big talk and short on cash. No one took him seriously. Or no one did
until he had the idea of taking his dreams of a big score to the RCMP.

Young called up the local drug squad in 2000 and convinced the
officers he should be put on the payroll as an informant. The RCMP
paid him a large amount of money, covered $130,000 of his debts and
mounted massive operations on the strength of his lies. Eventually,
the force even gave Young a new identity in the witness protection
program.

Under that new identity, Young moved on from petty crime to murder.
Who did he kill? That's a secret, the RCMP says. So is the location of
the murder, the punishment Young received, or anything else about the
case.

The case raises -- again -- troubling issues of RCMP competence and
accountability. Young's own family describe him as a chronic liar,
keen to say anything that would get him money or make him appear
important. Yet he easily found work as an RCMP informant and, after
developing a relationship with a man suspected of significant heroin
trafficking, as a valued one.

Young's handler was inexperienced and had no training in managing
informants. Young's stories -- of death plots against police and
prosecutors -- sparked major investigations and security details. An
RCMP expert raised questions about Young's tales, suggesting they
might be false. His handlers and their superiors never followed up.
And they continued to use Young's allegations as evidence in seeking
warrants and wire taps.

The house of cards collapsed after charges were laid against the
trafficker, who was subsequently acquitted. The court found Young not
credible. His fraud even extended to hiring young Asian men to follow
RCMP officers around; he then told his handlers he had discovered
Asian gangs had them under surveillance. Despite all that, Young was
handed his new identity in the witness protection program.

The entire affair -- including the murder -- was revealed by newspaper
reports last year. The police have refused to release any information.
Even the murder victim's family doesn't know their loved one died at
the hands of someone given a new identity by the police.

Now the RCMP has completed an internal review and concluded officers
could not have known Young might become a killer. The officers did
make mistakes, the report found, including failing to disclose Young
was a sexual abuser before he was accepted into the witness-protection
program.

There is a basic problem: The probe was conducted by other RCMP
officers, not independent investigators. And the evidence of the last
12 months suggests the RCMP culture places a priority on protecting
the force's public image.

Once again, a lack of accountability and transparency is undermining
the credibility of Canada's national police force.