SOMBRE MINUTE OF SILENCE

Manitoba comrades express grief, shock

WHEN they learned four of their comrades had been shot dead in Alberta,
everyone stopped.

Then the cellphones came out. From the locker-room in the Highlander Arena,
they called home to find out if colleagues knew who had been killed.

It didn't take long for everyone playing in the RCMP Western Hockey
Tournament to grasp the enormity of the situation.

"Before we started playing, all the players lined up at centre ice and we
had a minute of silence," referee and Winnipeg River detachment Sgt. Steve
Saunders said yesterday, a day after the event.

"Then everyone took their black hockey tape and wrapped it around their
left arms in remembrance. The left is the side your heart is on. We wear
our medals on the left side."

Thursday's tournament of RCMP players from Alberta, Saskatchewan and
Manitoba continued, although in a cheerless air. News of the shootings came
as they laced up their skates, and continued to filter in the rest of the
day. "It was very sombre that morning," Saunders added. "It was a good
diversion once the puck dropped. It gave everyone else something to think
about for a little bit."

Saunders and other officers, including Winnipeg police Chief Jack Ewatski,
expressed dismay yesterday at the loss of the four officers.

The four were ambushed Thursday morning as they guarded a suspected grow
operation at a farm. The gunman, armed with a carbine assault-style rifle,
later killed himself.

Privately, some Manitoba police officers said the shootings were the work
of a madman with little or no relation to marijuana use or gun control.

"I think this is about, instead, a reasonably routine operation in which
the officers came into contact with some horribly embittered police-hater
and he shot them," University of Winnipeg criminologist Doug Skoog said.

Saunders said the deaths came almost 19 years to the day Const. Robert
Thomas died when he was shot in the back at a Powerview gas station March
6, 1986. The 6th annual Rob Thomas Hockey Tournament takes place in
Powerview this weekend. RCMP spokesman Sgt. Steve Colwell said the mood was
solemn among all officers in Manitoba.

"It's just so tragic," Colwell said. "No one has seen this in their lifetime."

Colwell said sympathy cards and flowers can be dropped off at the front
counter of the Mounties' headquarters building at Portage Avenue and
Dominion Street. A book of condolence will also be at the front counter.

Colwell also said the deceased officers did not have family ties to Manitoba.

Winnipeg police Chief Jack Ewatski said their deaths should serve as a
reminder to all police officers never to take even the most routine
assignment for granted.

At the same time Ewatski said police officers should not let paranoia guide
their actions in dealing with the public.

"This becomes very personal when a police officer loses their life in the
line of duty," he said.

"We always question our own mortality when we hear of these incidents. We
are in a profession where we could be hurt and we could be killed.

"(But) we should not let a sense of paranoia enter into our minds." Ewatski
said he was speaking on behalf of the city's 1,200-officer police service
in sympathy for the families of the slain junior RCMP officers.

He said the killings in Mayerthorpe also demonstrate the dangers posed by
lucrative marijuana grow operations, which have become the bane of police
agencies across Canada.

The grow operations, frequently found in homes, are often set up by
organized-crime groups and sometimes booby-trapped.

"Obviously, people will use force to guard this valuable commodity,"
Ewatski said.

He said he supported proposed tougher penalties from Ottawa against
large-scale marijuana growers.

But he declined to speak to some commentary calling for full legalization
of marijuana to remove the threat of criminal involvement.

He said that would not be a panacea to the use of drugs in society.

If any good is to come out of the Mayerthorpe killings, it's that Canadians
will speak more objectively about the dangers of recreational drug use and
the role of police, he said.

Police drug squad Sgt. Rick Guyader said marijuana grow operations have
sprung up across Canada and are largely run by organized-crime groups to
smuggle harvested pot into the United States. Guyader said indoor pot farms
flourish in Canada because of lax court penalties.

He said in each drug raid, officers do thorough risk assessments of the
locations and suspects before police go in.

"We certainly take every warrant we execute seriously," he said. "We make
it as safe as we possibly can."

Police in Canada have computer access to background information on most
suspects -- criminal records, convictions, court prohibitions and whether
the suspect is a "cop-hater."

Guyader said, in his experience, he and other officers have never been shot
at when raiding a marijuana grow operation. He also said he never
encountered a booby-trapped grow operation nor could he supply any
information on gun seizures at marijuana grow operations.

U of W's Skoog said the majority of police raids on grow operations in
Canada are relatively safe assignments.

"Most of the people involved in this business are in it for the money,"
Skoog said. "They understand the risk. They understand police could come in
at any time and they understand the penalties are not that severe."

What is more common, Skoog said, are drug ripoffs. Criminals will raid a
grow operation to steal pot and any cash they can grab.

In some instances, the growers arm themselves to protect their crop and profit.