RETIRED MOUNTIES EXPOSE BIG PROBLEMS AT RCMP LABS
“This is where they should be spending $100 million a year – Not the gun registry!”

Ottawa – Today, two retired RCMP officers with 70 years collective experience blew the lid off the whole DNA backlog cover-up at the RCMP forensic laboratories. Retired forensic scientists, Dave Hepworth and Gary Mcleod delivered a scathing report on the status and effectiveness of the RCMP forensic laboratories to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice. Their testimony and the evidence provided in their report contradicted the statements made to the committee on March 22nd by RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli and Deputy Commissioner Peter Martin.

Saskatchewan M.P. Garry Breitkreuz, Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice moved the motion that approved the appearance of the two former RCMP scientists. Breitkreuz’s motion was opposed by the Liberal members on the Justice Committee.

Here are a few contentious points raised in the Hepworth and Mcleod report:

• The performance of the RCMP labs do not compare favourably with other labs;
• The evidence does not support the claim that there are no DNA case backlogs;
• DNA case response times are not acceptable;
• Efficiency and effectiveness of the RCMP labs have not improved;
• RCMP laboratories are not adequately funded; and
• Organizational changes were not in accordance with recommendations in the Auditor General’s 2000 report.

“I’ll be moving another motion before the Committee to have the Auditor General conduct another independent review of the RCMP labs to see which of the conflicting testimony was factual and which was not,” declared Breitkreuz. “I’m concerned that the testimony before the Justice Committee by the two most senior officers of the RCMP may have been misleading.”

Breitkreuz continued, “While I’m concerned about the possible misleading evidence by the RCMP Commissioner and his Deputy, what I found most disturbing about the Hepworth and Mcleod report was how much public safety could be improved and how much money and police investigation time could be saved by investing just a few million in the RCMP forensic laboratories. It’s a crime that the Liberals pour a hundred million a year into the useless gun registry and leave the RCMP laboratories short-changed, front-line police investigators waiting, and repeat sex offenders on the street. If the Liberals don’t see the logic in these misguided priorities, then it’s time to elect a government that does,” concluded Breitkreuz.

RCMP Forensic Laboratory Services: “Truth, through science and integrity”
By David G. Hepworth and Gary H. Mcleod
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/JusticeCommitteeBrief_HepworthMcleod_may2005.doc

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Le 3 mai 2005 AGENTS À LA RETRAITE DE LA GRC RÉVÈLENT D’EXISTENCE DE GRAVES PROBLÈMES DANS LES LABORATOIRES DE LA GRC