DEVASTATING TRAGEDY

The RCMP has to go back to the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 to find a
calamity comparable to the murder of four of its members in rural
Alberta yesterday. It was murder on a scale that doesn't fit the
Canadian landscape.

The four Mounties were conducting a raid on a grow operation near
Rochfort Bridge, a village of about 60 people some 130 kilometres
northwest of Edmonton.

They apparently were shot by a single gunman, who reportedly then took
his own life.

The killing of one police officer in the line of duty is a harsh blow
struck against society and a cause for community-wide mourning. It
devastates the officer's immediate family and colleagues and hits home
with men and women everywhere who put their lives on the line to serve
and protect. We saw that in Manitoba when RCMP Const. Dennis
Strongquill was gunned down in Russell on Dec. 20, 2001, after
pursuing a stolen car.

Multiplied by four, the human devastation wrought by this tragedy is
painful to contemplate.

Predictably, news of the tragedy sparked an immediate response by
politicians in Ottawa. Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said she
was prepared to consider tougher penalties for marijuana grow
operations and, together with Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, will
review the proposed marijuana decriminalization bill to see whether it
goes far enough.

"Do we have the right laws in place?" McLellan asked.

Many will argue that decriminalization itself should be scrapped in
light of this calamity; that relaxing the laws against marijuana
possession while vowing to crack down on the "scourge" of grow ops, as
McLellan described them yesterday, is a dangerously contradictory
position for government to take.

Others will insist that prohibition itself is the problem, putting
marijuana production and distribution in the hands of criminal
elements and ultimately creating nightmare scenarios such as
yesterday's calamity.

It's an issue that divides Canadians.

For now, however, and for all of us, the appropriate response is to
pay homage to the fallen.

At press time, we don't even know their names. We don't know what
parts of the country they grew up in or whether they were men or women.

What we do know is that they were doing their duty, enforcing the law,
and for that they paid with their lives.

We extend our heartfelt sympathies to their loved ones and their
colleagues.