NEWS RELEASE

April 19, 2004                                                                                                    For Immediate Release

PROVINCES AND PARLIAMENT MISLED ABOUT RCMP FORENSIC LABORATORY CUTS

“RCMP’s own reports show NO ‘heavy pressure’ and NO ‘increasing efficiency’ as claimed.”

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights, exposed another fabrication in the RCMP’s story about why it discontinued providing firearm forensic services to the provinces for Wildlife Act contraventions.  “Last December, we uncovered documents showing that the RCMP forgot to mention in its letter to the provinces the nearly half-million-dollar budget cut to the Forensic Laboratory Services (FLS).  Now, the RCMP’s own statistics show that its firearms forensic unit wasn’t under heavy pressure at all.  In fact, the data shows the opposite,” reported Breitkreuz. 

On August 28, 2003, the RCMP officer in charge of the six RCMP forensic laboratories across the country, Assistant Commissioner Joe Buckle, wrote to the provinces: "Unfortunately, due to the heavy pressure on our firearms services, FLS can only continue to provide analysis in those instances where there is associated criminal activity.  As an example, firearms analysis of exhibits associated with Wildlife Act and Regulation contraventions can no longer be accepted.”  Other RCMP documents obtained by Breitkreuz showed that these cuts also affect prosecutions by Fisheries and Oceans, Parks Canada and enforcement of the Federal Migratory Birds Act.  “So much for the Liberal government’s concern about protecting Canada’s wildlife,” said the Saskatchewan MP.

Mr. Dave Hepworth, a forensics expert and a former RCMP staff sergeant at the Regina lab, analyzed the RCMP documents obtained by Breitkreuz under the Access to Information Act.  His analysis included comparisons with other internal FLS reports and revealed the number of cases received annually by the firearms forensic units across Canada dropped by 30% (from 2,238 in 1996/97 to 1,572 in 2002), and the number of completed cases dropped by 68% over the same 5-year period.

1996/97             - 2,238 cases received and most completed;

1997/98             - 2,168 cases received and most completed;

1999/2000         - Statistics not provided by RCMP;

2001                  - 1,565 cases received, 1,100 completed, 465 cases in backlog;

                          - 55 percent were completed within corporate diary dates in effect at the time;

2002                  - 1,572 cases received, 717 completed, 855 cases in backlog;

                          - 27 percent were completed within corporate diary dates in effect at the time.

The RCMP documents also contradict Solicitor General Wayne Easter’s statement in the House of Commons on October 7, 2003, in which he claimed that the RCMP was “increasing the efficiency of the system.”  Breitkreuz observed, “Only in a Liberal Cabinet Minister’s mind can increasing forensic backlogs be considered evidence of increased efficiency.  This is also more evidence of the RCMP Commissioner becoming a political lapdog for the Liberals.  Believing anything this Liberal government tells us is getting harder and harder.  But the questions we need answered are:  Why did they deceive us on this issue, and why did they cut forensic laboratory services?” concluded Breitkreuz.

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