I have always wondered why only two provinces have a provincial police force and the rest apparently have been satisfied with Canada’s national force serving as provincial police.  Is it because they wanted to appear above popular scrutiny or is it because a provincial police force allows provincial revenue to be spent on interests that can be artificially labelled as heritage and more important than law enforcement?  I do not know, but, despite the rationales and historic perspectives, I smell a rat. 

Where’s that rodent?

A mass shooting in Nova Scotia opens up a door into the culture of both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Nova Scotia NIMBY attitude.  Who would have thought that Canada’s superlatively picturesque region could be so violated by senseless violence as to have the region terrorized for hours by a lone gunman! “Not in my back yard” is an unfounded pride. If cities can have large budgets for an ever-increasing range of police services I wonder why a province with anti-authority sentiments, such as Alberta, wants us to think that they can have Canada’s national police force covering the needs of such a population. Maybe those provinces with no provincial police force want us to believe that with the federal authority as police force citizens have no need to be concerned about law enforcement going off the rails.

Who is being observed? The rodent or the lab assistant?

As a result of the inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass shooting we are hearing that the RCMP cannot be trusted because of political entanglements. We are hearing that the RCMP cannot be trusted because of Interpol ising culture that does not really help the citizens. Is the rodent being observed or is the rodent the researcher? Should we not have expected the RCMP to be on watch to prevent crime, and what shall we say has become of the cop-on-the-beat safeguarding citizens in their homes and in their communities? Maybe you do not smell a rat, but the absence of a clear narrative from law enforcement about how thousands of children disappeared while in the care of religious and educational organizations and women disappearing from our communities amounts to a smell one can hardly ignore. Maybe you smell a a fish? Carrion of some sort?