LAW ENFORCEMENT REVIEW AGENCY OF MANITOBA SINKS TO NEW LOWS, PUBLIC CONFIDENCE SMASHED BY THEIR OWN STAFF THROUGH THEIR OWN ACTIONS

http://Mediafilter.org/guest/Pages/June.26.2000.23.06.02

This Event Happened in WINNIPEG - MANITOBA - CANADA - POP. 600,000 - A HAS BEEN CITY!
205.200.6.52

On June 23, 2000 public mistrust in Manitobas Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) was brought to new heights or to a new low point depending on where you perceive it! The news media revealed that prior to and during the recent provincial election of 1999 that saw the New Democratic Party of Manitoba come to power, the now ousted Filmon-Conservatives prior to election day, went to this government agency to use a specific LERA investigator who was found willing to abuse his authority, connections and powers to get the illegal information on the NDPs, Interlake candidate Tom Nevakshonoff of various alleged criminal activities! Brian Savage an investigator for LERA and Joe Seper of MPI, both ex-cops, were found be to be such willing skunks! As the story goes, senior Manitoba Filmon Conservatives used these two former police officers to obtain confidential information from a police data base, Canadian Police Information Centre data base system (the Canadian National Law Enforcement Database) that holds details on drivers licences, vehicle registrations, stolen vehicles, outstanding warrants, details of peoples individual crimes, potential crimes, suspect information, border crossing information, sex and child sex offender information etc. to try to smear the NDP candidate, who ended up winning the election anyway! Sources confirmed that at the request of the Conservatives campaign organization the two retired police officers who took shoe in jobs with LERA and MPI accessed this supposedly restricted data base anyway, illegally for them. Elections Manitoba through audit identified both these ex-police officers through a special CPIC database audit. Once these men were found to be involved, they resigned before they could be fired! Neither men could be reached for comment as of this date and would not return phone calls made to their residences to discuss this latest scandal. Information now available is that ex-cop Savage (LERA), who was actively campaigning for the Conservatives asked ex-cop, Seper (who mysteriously still had CPIC data-base access after leaving the force??) to make a CPIC inquiry about the NDPs candidate, Nevakshonoffs driving record as a favour to another ex-cop! As a result an unsigned letter wrongly accused Nevakshonoff of offences such as drug dealing, breaking and entering, and one accurate entry where the candidate had a alcohol/driving conviction when he was 18 years old (23 years ago) was circulated by the Conservatives during their campaign! This sparked bitter acrimony between the two political parties going to the polls for the 1999 election. Although Conservative election organizer Ms. Campbell-Dewar claims to have acted alone using this illegal and wrong information, there is information that senior party officials knew what was going on and decided not to stop it or her! Another former cop, Wyman Sangster a former assistant deputy minister to the Minister of Justice was similarly approached by the Conservatives and was asked for the same information prior to the election. Though refusing to reveal just who these Conservatives were, he claims he had nothing to with it claiming it to be "bullshit. Sangster said he learned the full extent of the scheme when he was approached by LERAs Commissioner, George Wright (also an ex-cop!) and Savage to explain what had happened and to tender Savages resignation. Sangster recently quit his job with the province but said his departure had nothing to do with the scandal!!!??? This begs the public question and their right to know as to When do cops stop being cops? and why were they not cut off from information connections and databases that would be illegal for them to have after they have already retired from being a cop? Smacks of Big Brother!! Welcome to Manitoba, Canada! Welcome to Canada better still, a country who acts more like a banana republic, then a democratic country! For some opinionated folk, their position is straight forward, if you cant trust the police and now you cant trust the Law Enforcement Review Agency of Manitoba either with their widow dressed, ex-cop and testosterone laced egomania, whats left? Recently reports from Winnipeg concerning LERA, define the organization as a dud, laced with not with what you know but who you know type selected ex-police retirees, who are not only getting their police pension but are actively double dipping, by pulling another salary through LERA alias a government employee paid by the public tax dollar! A more accurate report concerns LERA and how it terribly operates, is where a citizen complained to LERA about the conduct of the Winnipeg Police Service and was turned down by LERA without ever being contacted again by LERA about his complaint! The man went for a review of the LERA decision not to investigate the Winnipeg Police Service before a Manitoba Court of Queens Bench judge on April 25, 2000 only to find that LERA choose not to be present and or make representations defending their unknown position at the hearing of not wanting to investigate the mans complaints! Since the judge could only order a review of LERAs decision not to investigatte the appellants complaint, similarly LERA sent no one to communicate with the judge, the angry appellant, informed the judge that he was not prepared to allow such an illegitimate organization to touch his situation again or in the future, and declined to have the judge hear his complaint against LERA even though he could have bullshit the judge to some degree and got it with no opposition!, Outside the court the man swore that he would sooner give his case to a team of untrained monkeys for examination than give it to LERA, whos unbalanced pro ex-cop preferences in external relationships and in even their own hiring practices, makes a mockery of the whole concept of why they are there and now eve so of what the people think of them. Think of it. When does a COP cease being a COP? The answer is never! Corruption it seems goes with it. It is said and even now the NDP is mouthing the words like their Conservative predecessors, that Manitoba doesnt need a independent public body accountable to the legislature as a whole to keep cops and now ex-cops in line??? Think again. Similarly what does this situation say about the unbalanced or pro-ex-cop staffing of responsible government positions, where the public trust and belief is of paramount importance? Either not much and no confidence most seem to agree, the old boys club reigns supreme in Manitoba! Most hold is that LERA is just a retirement haven for ex-cops still at the public trough with all their connections intact! Would ex-cops anywhere really investigate one of their own ex-brethren? We dont think so any more than active duty cops being supposedly be able to investigate themselves! Once your into their culture, there becomes to be them and you are one of the others, no matter what it seems! Welcome to sunny Manitoba, where we are whores and we are for sale!

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