by TChris

Accusations of abuse and corruption have shaken the faith of many Canadians in Canadian law enforcement.

Police officers have been accused of robbery of jewelry and drugs, and of rigging evidence to put suspects behind bars in Toronto, and of abusing drug addicts in Vancouver. They have even been accused of dumping intoxicated Native Canadians on isolated snowy roads to freeze to death in the prairies.

Six Toronto narcotics squad officers arrested in January face "a variety of brutality and corruption charges" while "newly released internal police documents indicate that many more may be implicated." A Royal Canadian Mounted Police task force investigating the narcotics squad released evidence that several officers stole jewelry and cash during a raid of a drug dealer's home. Three other officers were reported to have stolen $70,000 using a fake search warrant.

The Toronto scandal has followed a pattern that has emerged in New York and other American cities in which officers were suspected of having succumbed to the temptations of the great sums involved in the drug trade while internal investigative units were inadequate to monitor them.

A criminologist at the University of Monreal cautions that Canadians, proud of the image of brave Mounties on horseback, may be unwilling to closely examine charges of corruption, even though "brutality and fabricating evidence is fairly widespread." That attitude may change in light of Canada's "heritage as a global proponent of human rights and civil liberties" and the publicity surrounding recent investigations of police misconduct.