RCMP taser probe reveals a vindictive culture in the bureaucracy

“I'm embarrassed to be associated with organizations that taser sick old men in hospital beds and confused immigrants who are arriving in the country,” Mike Webster, a respected police psychologist who recently testified at the BC taser inquiry.

If it were part of a television police drama, the testimony offered up in the BC inquiry into the use of tasers by police agencies in the province would have been punctuated with one of those Law and Order "Da Dum's". In this case an indication that a key piece of testimony had just been delivered, that the facts might just be getting a little clearer and the image of a federal police force is a little more tarnished.

Mike Webster, a veteran psychologist who has assisted the RCMP in a number of high profile cases over the course of his 30 year career, claims he was given veiled threats by the force over his outspoken testimony over the taser death of Robert Dziekanski last October.'

At the time Mr. Webster offered up the opinion that the handling of the Dziekanski situation was "a disgraceful display of policing", comments which Webster says resulted in his being told that some members of the force were of the opinion that he shouldn't be awarded any more contracts for work with the national police force.

Webster made more news this week with his reaction to that development, by his comments that the culture of the RCMP seems to be more in line with the way of life in Vladimir Putin's Russia than the behaviour of a national agency that is tasked with serving the public good. “Being a member of the RCMP today is like being part of Putin's Russia; they don't tolerate any opinion that doesn't reflect the party line.”

The latest fallout from the taser inquiry won't do much to boost the image of the RCMP across the nation or the impressions that there are any changes in accountability on the way for the federal force.

Gary Mason of the Globe and Mail provided an indepth look at Webster's interaction with the Mounties and the continuing problems that seem to plague the internal workings of the RCMP.

The Vancouver based journalist for the Globe has been following the various controversies that have befallen the RCMP in BC over the last few years, providing some well researched articles that tend to become a burr under the saddle of the famed police force.

His latest article with Mr. Webster as the subject is sure to generate more controversy about the nature of the federal policing organization and their ability to provide a transperent and accountability process to explore suspected wrongdoing.

If Mr. Webster's concerns are any indication, there hasn't been much of a culture shift from the old days of circling the wagons and dealing with all those with an opposing view as someone to be treated with suspicion.

Top police psychologist likens RCMP to Putin's Russia
GARY MASON
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
May 14, 2008 at 8:52 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — Someone else might have resisted the temptation, especially knowing he might be blackballed as a result. But Mike Webster has never operated that way.

And so, when the respected police psychologist testified this week at the B.C. public inquiry into the use of tasers, he didn't mince words when asked about the Mounties' decision to zap an unarmed Robert Dziekanski last October, and more recently, a penknife-wielding 82-year-old man lying in a hospital bed in Kamloops.

“I'm embarrassed to be associated with organizations that taser sick old men in hospital beds and confused immigrants who are arriving in the country,” said Mr. Webster, considered one of the top police psychologists in the world.

Even as the words spilled from his mouth, Mr. Webster knew they had the potential to cause him more trouble with the RCMP. He knew because of a chilling incident late last year that still hangs over his association with Canada's national police force.

Mr. Webster is a registered psychologist who deals exclusively with law enforcement agencies. His expertise in conflict resolution has been sought to help resolve some of the most volatile situations in recent years, including the showdown with Branch Davidian followers in Waco, Tex., in 1993. He was widely credited with helping avert a bloodbath during the RCMP standoff with native protesters at Gustafson Lake, B.C., in 1995.

He has worked on a contract and fee-for-service basis with the RCMP for more than 30 years. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, much of his work with the Mounties has been in the area of intelligence gathering. After Mr. Dziekanski died at the Vancouver International Airport last October, media outlets in B.C. sought Mr. Webster's opinion on the incident. He was honest: he thought it was a disgraceful display of policing. The officers had blasted the troubled Polish immigrant without making any attempt to resolve the matter peacefully.

In early December, Mr. Webster says he received a call from Richard Bent, chief superintendent of the RCMP E Division in Vancouver. The senior Mountie asked Mr. Webster, who lives on Denman Island, B.C., if the two could have a meeting. Mr. Webster knew something was amiss.
He wanted to know immediately what it was about.

“That's when he said it was about the nature of my comments to the media about the Dziekanski incident,” Mr. Webster revealed in an interview Wednesday. “He said: ‘You've upset some of the members here and they're saying things.' I said, ‘Like what?' And he said: ‘Well, they're saying that maybe you shouldn't be getting any more work with the RCMP.'”

Mike Webster nearly dropped the phone.

“There was only one way to interpret that comment,” Mr. Webster said. “It was a clear threat.”
Mr. Webster said he told Chief Supt. Bent that he didn't respond well to threats. And that they wouldn't change his mind in any event. After stewing about the incident over Christmas, Mr. Webster articulated his anger in a letter to Chief Supt. Bent, which he copied to Gary Bass, the RCMP's top man in B.C. In it, he reiterated how offended he was by Chief Supt. Bent's comments, which he considered a blatant form of intimidation.

He said he heard nothing back. But he did begin hearing from his friends inside the force. He said one relayed to him that Mr. Webster's outspokenness cost the psychologist a small fee-for-service job. One of Mr. Webster's friends was told: “Don't be hiring Mike Webster. He's in shit with us for being disloyal.” Another told him to expect a call from a top RCMP official in Ottawa who was going to fly out to talk to him.

Sure enough, the call came. Two weeks later, Mr. Webster said he was having lunch with an RCMP inspector from headquarters who scolded him for his Dziekanski comments. He suggested the psychologist was being disloyal to an organization that had been good to him over the years. He said Mr. Webster should have waited until the RCMP had concluded its investigation into the incident before giving any kind of opinion on it.

“I told him I didn't need anything more than the 25 seconds of video that we've all seen over and over again to offer my analysis,” Mr. Webster said. “I really gave him a blast. It was just more of the same. The expectation is that if you work for the Mounties you align your values with the corporate culture and if you don't that's being disloyal and is unhealthy.”

Chief Supt. Bent said in an e-mail Wednesday that he did phone Mr. Webster because of concerns that Mr. Webster was making statements to the media about the RCMP's guidelines for handling potentially violent situations that he felt weren't accurate.

He confirmed that he told Mr. Webster that other RCMP members were upset and didn't want the Mounties to give the renowned intervention specialist any more work. He said it wasn't intended to be a threat.

To Mr. Webster, his run-in with the Mounties reflects a more serious and systemic problem inside the organization, one recognized in the report into the RCMP pension-fund scandal. That report suggested the force was a troubled organization that did not abide dissent of any kind. And those who did offer opposing views were often shunted off to dead-end jobs and forced to wave promotions goodbye.

“As a psychologist, I know it's not healthy for people to live in such an oppressive climate,” Mr. Webster said. “Being a member of the RCMP today is like being part of Putin's Russia; they don't tolerate any opinion that doesn't reflect the party line.”

A devastating charge. Mr. Webster currently has a one-year contract with the Mounties. After it expires next April, he has no idea if more work will be offered to him.

“I find it offensive that I'm expected to park my morals at the door if I'm going to be part of the organization,” Mr. Webster said. “If that's what it means, I won't do it. I just won't.”
Mike Webster has never operated that way.