American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
The federal government says it wants the RCMP to ban the use of two crowd-control tools that forces across the country say they have in their arsenals: sponge rounds and CS gas.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino's office confirmed that it wants the measures outlawed, even as the RCMP declines to say whether or not it will comply with that instruction.
The decision to restrict even the use of "less lethal" alternatives to crowd-control tools such as rubber bullets and stronger forms of tear gas has some critics questioning whether the federal Liberals are playing politics with policing.
"Removing less lethal options from our members' available options raises real concerns for public and police officer safety," National Police Union president Brian Sauvé said in a statement.
The confirmation that the federal Liberals want the tools banned comes after The Canadian Press raised questions about a mandate letter Mendicino gave to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki last year.
The letter directed the force to stop using three use-of-force methods: the "carotid control" neck hold, rubber bullets and tear gas.
The RCMP made headlines recently when it confirmed that it still allows officers to use the controversial neck hold despite those instructions and the fact that other police forces have stopped using it.
The force does not use rubber bullets or the more-dangerous chemical compounds referred to as tear gas, which cause irritation to a person's eyes and mucous membranes.
But the minister's office is now clarifying that it wants similar tools banned, too.
Mendicino's office said in a statement that it used the terms "rubber bullets" and "tear gas" in the mandate letter "as they are general language understood by most Canadians."
It confirmed that it considers the milder CS gas and extended-range impact weapons, which fire foam rounds, to be the operational terms for such tools — meaning that it does want the RCMP to stop using them.
That came as news to Sauvé and other experts, who say that the decision is a departure from existing policy, since police forces across the country and around the world have such crowd-control methods in their arsenals.
The RCMP said in a statement that it is "working with partners, stakeholders and bargaining agents" to review the mandate letter — and gave no indication that it intends to follow Mendicino's orders.
"The RCMP continues to report publicly on our use of police intervention options, including the carotid control technique and the 40 millimetre extended range impact weapon that fires sponge-tipped rounds, not rubber bullets, as well as the use of specialty munitions," it said.
It added that its extended range weapons, in use since 2017, "provide an officer with more time and distance from an individual being responded to in order to better enable de-escalation and communication, when tactically feasible."
Public disclosures show that the RCMP used CS gas 102 times in 2021, and it used extended-range impact weapons 86 times.
The public order units of major municipal police forces, including in Vancouver and Toronto, confirmed to The Canadian Press that they also have access to the tools.
In an interview, Western University criminologist Michael Arntfield argued that CS gas is "entirely different" than the compounds typically referred to as tear gas, and sponge rounds are different than rubber bullets.
He said tear and rubber bullets are "very inflammatory terms," bringing up images of coups d'état, or of police attacking people who had been marching for Black civil rights outside Selma, Ala., in 1965.
"I'm not sure why those terms would be used if the government was serious about looking at less lethal alternatives."
Arntfield said he is "genuinely confounded" about why Mendicino would "tack on" a request for the RCMP to stop using police tools that are commonplace across Canada in asking them to stop using the neck hold.
"It looks like political theatre and has absolutely nothing to do with law enforcement operations."
On Parliament Hill this week, Mendicino said broadly that there is a need to reform law enforcement institutions.
"We are closely consulting and collaborating with law enforcement and experts in the area to take an evidence-based approach so that we can keep our community safe, while at the same time making sure that police have the tools they need when it comes to de-escalating," Mendicino said.
But he would not answer questions about why the RCMP seems to be defying his instructions, walking away from reporters when the question was posed.
El Jones, an activist who helped lead a study on defunding police forces, says police are "an unaccountable force in Canada."
The fact that the RCMP is not following political direction shows that impunity, she argued. "I think the police are very much signalling to us, no one can tell us what to do."
The issue of which tools are and aren't available to police is receiving heightened attention following the killing of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by police in Memphis, Tenn., in early January.
The "carotid control" neck hold, which the RCMP reported it used 14 times in 2021, had been widely condemned after George Floyd was killed when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Jones said police are not transparent enough about their policies or how much training they provide for officers when it comes to the use of force.
"We don't have good use-of-force study in Canada," she said. "The picture of use of force in Canada, period, by the police, is just not very clear."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2023.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.