RCMP Corporal Monty Robinson is pretty much the poster-boy for everything that’s wrong with the RCMP, both here in British Columbia and across the nation.

Corporal Robinson’s case shows us the stark, horrific reality of the inner workings of the RCMP itself:

• how the RCMP has no real desire for accountability,
• the incredible lengths the RCMP will go to in order to “protect one of their own” from prosecution,
• it’s complete lack of ability to hold its own members accountable for their actions,
• their inability to fire bad cops and, as if it needs to be said after all that,
• the complete lack of character of far too many RCMP members.

 

The RCMP has not been accountable in a very long time.

Robert Dziekanski’s murder at the hands of RCMP Corporal Monty Robinson and three RCMP Constables and the resulting attempted cover-up by them and the rest of the RCMP shows just how ingrained the culture of secrecy is behind that Fat Blue Wall.

Everyone is well aware with the Robert Dziekanski case.  I won’t delve into the gory details of that here since practically everyone has seen the video tape themselves.

I won’t bother getting into how Corporal Monty Robinson and his cohorts seized the videotape that caught their heinous actions on tape or how the RCMP then refused to return the tape to its lawful owner until he threatened a lawsuit.

I won’t bother with the fact that all four RCMP members who killed Robert Dziekanski have been charged with perjury for their [alleged] lying to the Braidwood Inquiry.

All of that speaks for itself and the lack of integrity of all four of these men.

I’ll be dealing with the actions of Corporal Monty Robinson about a year after he and his three cohorts killed Robert Dziekanski.

They tell the tale of a man who believes he is utterly above the law; a man who believes he is not accountable for anything he does, or for the lives he takes.

I give you Corporal Benjamin Monty Robinson – Posterboy for why British Columbia should NOT renew the RCMP policing contract for another 20 years.

On October 26, 2008 Corporal Monty Robinson, off duty and [allegedly] driving while he was drunk, killed 21-year-old Orion Hutchinson.  The young Hutchinson was on his way home on his motorcycle when he was struck and killed by Corporal Robinson’s vehicle.

While Orion Hutchinson lay bleeding to death on the street where he fell after colliding with  Corporal Monty Robinson’s vehicle, Robinson fled the scene to go home and have a couple shots of vodka before returning to the scene of his crime.

He claimed to be taking his two children home after the accident.  Rendering first aid to a seriously injured man lying on the street wasn’t even a consideration.

He needed to get his kids home.

I guess the couple of shots of vodka he had before returning to the scene of his crime were just for sport… not to cover up the fact he’d been drinking and driving, right? 

How silly of me to think otherwise!

Even when he returned to the scene of the crime he wasn’t interested in doing the right thing.

He failed a breathalyzer test and stonewalled investigating officers.

Delta Police, the force investigating the crash and death of Orion Hutchinson and Corporal Robinson’s part in it, eventually recommended a charge of impaired driving against Robinson, but Crown Prosecutors refused to move forward with that charge.

Instead, in December of 2009 he was charged with attempting to obstruct justice.

Unfortunately, that’s not even the most absurd part of the story.

Since killing Orion Hutchinson in 2008, Monty Robinson has been suspended… with pay.

Do we really need a police force that refuses to get rid of cops that cannot be bothered to tell the truth, let alone accept responsibility for killing someone?

No, we don’t.

We need a British Columbia Police Force that will be accountable to the citizens of British Columbia, not to some Ottawa bureaucrat whose only concern is for protecting the “good name” of the RCMP… at any cost.

The RCMP’s image here in British Columbia is very bad.

That bad image has been earned each step of the way by the actions of garbage like RCMP Corporal Monty Robinson, who clearly believes he is above the law and can do anything he wants, up to and including killing people.

So far Corporal Monty Robinson is 100% right about that.

He is above the law.

He’s never faced murder charges.

He’s never spent a day behind bars for his crimes.

He’s still on the RCMP payroll, for God’s sake!

Why shouldn’t he think he’s above the law?

Yes, Police Accountability is an idea whose time has come, and with it a made-in-British Columbia Police Force.