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OTTAWA—The federal government says the RCMP is working with financial institutions to “unfreeze” bank accounts locked by emergency orders that targeted people who organized, participated in, or donated to the so-called Freedom Convoy blockades. Isabelle Jacques, assistant deputy minister of finance, told a Commons standing committee Tuesday that the RCMP began “sharing information” — related to the end of “unlawful” blockades — with banks and financial institutions as of Monday that should lead to affected accounts being “unfrozen.”

Updated: Surrey's 176th Street has been closed south of 8th Avenue due to a large anti-vaccine mandate protest at the US border The main route to the Pacific Highway border crossing in Surrey was closed Saturday afternoon after protesters opposed to vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 measures broke through RCMP barricades and began driving the wrong way down 176th Street....

Welcome to the weekend your host with his formerly stained fingers at the keyboard with another post looking in all kinds of directions. Lets go to conventional politics the kind backed by and controlled by Big Business. Mike Pence lining up his loyalists and among them Kellyanne Conway... Now the story of the "Alberta Wall" the three layers of fencing erected around Grace Life Church just outside the city limits of Edmonton in Canada. Its the coronavirus crackdown enforced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a private security company.... At one time the "Conservative Christian" Premier of Alberta William...

At the end of a lonely country road in upstate New York, a taxi pulls up. Five people get out and stand uncertainly in the freezing rain - two men from Yemen, a woman from Eritrea and her two small boys. They've come to flee America through its northern border, in to Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police waiting on the other side of the snowy ditch tell them they will be arrested if they cross at this unofficial border point. The two men, the woman and her sons take just a few steps over the invisible border and in...

Pediatric surgeon and former cabinet minister Kellie Leitch is gaining support from across her Nation placing her as a surprise frontrunner to lead the opposition Conservative Party. Ms Leitch, like the US president-elect, is railing against immigration and political elites and pushing a hard-right "Canadian values" platform. The 46-year-old has answered rising discontent in Canada over the sluggish economy and the acceptance of 37,000 Syrian refugees. Fresh polls show Leitch is ahead of about a dozen candidates in the Conservative leadership election scheduled to be held on May 27, 2017.

Canada's national police force says it is allowing women in its ranks to wear the hijab. A spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, known as the Mounties, recently approved the headscarf for its Muslim officers. "This is intended to better reflect the diversity in our communities and encourage more Muslim women to consider the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a career option," Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Canada's public safety minister, told the Canada-based Global News.

Three RCMP officers have died from injuries after gunfire erupted in a Moncton neighbourhood Wednesday evening. Mounties said in a tweet that the officers were “mortally wounded” by a shooter who is still at large. Two other officers have sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Police are advising people in the vicinity to stay inside as they hunt for the shooter.

The Canadian Mounties will investigate the force's handling of sexual harassment claims, says the force's new commissioner, Bob Paulson. The probe comes after a high-profile female Mountie alleged constant harassment, including officers exposing themselves to her. Her public statement has led to additional allegations from current and former female Mounties. Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews also called for an investigation. "This is not about dealing with individual complaints but getting to the bottom of a system that seems to be failing members of the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]," Mr Toews told reporters. 'Cannot stand' Corporal Catherine Galliford, a...

Mounties had mole in alleged terror cell Exclusive: Law prohibits publication of prominent member of Muslim community Toronto red Star Jul. 13, 2006. 05:23 AM MICHELLE SHEPHARD STAFF REPORTER A well-known member of Toronto's Muslim community worked as a police agent to infiltrate an alleged terrorism cell that police say was planning attacks in Canada, the Toronto Star has learned. Although his identity is now known within the community and also to some of the 17 terrorism suspects arrested June 2, his name cannot be published due to Canadian laws. Sources say the man worked for the Canadian Security...

Before the raids came the sensitivity training: Tactical-squad Mounties learned how to properly handle Korans prior to arresting 17 terrorism suspects on the weekend. And that's not all. The RCMP also made sure there were clean prayer mats on hand for their suspects when they were sent to jail cells. Then, after everything wrapped up, authorities met with a number of Muslim leaders to impress upon them that officers were going after specific individuals, not the community as a whole. "Our officers need to be respectful," said RCMP spokeswoman Corporal Michele Paradis.

A Canadian counterterrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries.Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden and Bangladesh.The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.At a news conference yesterday, the RCMP announced terrorism charges had been laid against a...

OTTAWA (CP) - The Prime Minister's Office has warned Conservative MPs not to comment on the marriage next month of two gay RCMP constables

METEGHAN — On a Friday night in Yarmouth this June, Const. Jason Tree and Const. David Connors will don their scarlet dress uniforms, stand before family, friends and co-workers and wed in the first same-sex marriage in the RCMP’s storied history. In an interview in their Meteghan home Wednesday afternoon, the men said they’ve had great support from the national police force, the community and their families. "I’ve never had a single problem," said Const. Tree, 27, a native of Fredericton, who has worked in southwestern Nova Scotia for six years and is posted in Meteghan. The pair, who’ve dated...

EDMONTON -- Residents of the Enoch Cree First Nation fear their reserve will become a dumping ground for corpses after a man's body was found in an isolated field Monday. Mounties say the man, in his early to mid- 20s, is a homicide victim. An autopsy is scheduled for today. "It's pretty isolated out here," said Nicholas Morin, who lives on the reserve at Edmonton's western edge. His home is about a kilometre from where the body was found. "There's not a lot of traffic, not a lot of eyes around here. It's a perfect dumping ground. Let's hope it...

The RCMP complained this week that it had too few qualified recruits last year to replace the number of officers who retired. Applications were off by 28% and only 232 new officers joined, rather than the 300 hoped for. The force attributes the dearth of prospective recruits to competition: There are too many other attractive career choices for young men and women. Its solution? Buy a brightly coloured van and cruise Ontario and Quebec campuses looking for warm bodies; maybe conduct some focus groups to see why young people aren't attracted to RCMP careers. We can save them the trouble...

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are getting some Texas training. They stopped in Central Texas to learn from Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. The Mounties plan to ride in DPS vehicles and observe traffic stops. They picked DPS because they share similar border concerns. Mounted police Sgt. Rob Ruiters said the cross training is beneficial because it establishes contacts. "The world is a smaller place, and so I'm saying there is a traveling criminal who is in Texas today may be in Canada tomorrow, or vice versa,” Ruiter said. Some DPS troopers will train with the Mounties in Canada...

RCMP boss sees racism post-9/11 CP 2004-01-03 04:14:05 TORONTO -- Canada's top Mountie acknowledged yesterday Muslims across Canada have faced rank discrimination since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Speaking to a crowd of 7,000 gathered for a conference on reviving the spirit of Islam, RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said the terrorist attacks shook the country to its core, but should not shake Canadians from their course of rooting out racism. "There has been a backlash of violence and of vandalism," Zaccardelli said. "For many of you, these have been personal and they have been painful." He said no one...

Canada willing to send Mounties to Iraq, PM says OTTAWA (CP) — Canada is willing to send RCMP officers to help restore order in Iraq but nobody's asked for them, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said today. "We've sent RCMP officers to Haiti and elsewhere," Chrétien said during a news conference. "If it is a contribution that we can make, we will do it. If they want us to do something else, we will do something else." But Chrétien said Canada can't just send police officers without some preparation and planning. Looting continued in Baghdad for a third straight day today....

Glorious History of the Royal Canadian Mounted Spetsnaz The amazing history of the heroic founders and lineage holders of the Royal Canadian Mounted Spetsnaz. Warning: If you read this you might begin to worship these larger-than-life heros as gods. This is acceptable. 1917 It was the cold winter of 1917 in Northern Russia. A small band of Cossack soldiers were left to protect a secret store of vodka. Having helped themselves to an ample supply of the warming beverage this brave band of men became disoriented under white-out conditions. One of the Cossack commanders, claiming to have seen a troupe...

A veteran Toronto police officer who once headed a drug squad is one of several cops who last spring took a secret "package" to stave off criminal prosecution, The Toronto Sun has learned. The popular officer, who during a stellar career has dodged bullets and worked on huge cases, went into rehab after confessing to a decade-long cocaine habit, sources say. The officer's case is being treated as a "disease" similar to alcoholism, sources say, and he has spent several months in drug therapy while on sick leave. Toronto lawyer Edward Sapiano who has often represented accused drug dealers said...