TOO QUICK TO BLAME GROW-OP, TOP MOUNTIE SAYS

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

RCMP commissioner Giuliano 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 "mature" marijuana
plants, "several pots containing dirt with stems coming out of them
numbering close to 100," and a smell "consistent of a marijuana grow
operation."