Thursday June 20, 2013 - High River, Alberta - Local store fronts are under water June 20, 2013, in downtown High River, Alta., in this file photo. Flooding in Alberta and a construction strike in Quebec put a damper on almost all the economic indicators for June, so Statistics Canada is likely to report on Friday that gross domestic product shrank between 0.4 and 0.6 per cent, economists say.Chris Bolin/The Globe and Mail
The investigation into last year's RCMP gun seizure in High River, Alta., is nearly done and should be released in the coming months, the man leading the review says.
Officials from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (known as the CRCC) will visit High River again this month and are putting the finishing touches on their report, commission chair Ian McPhail said at a news conference in Ottawa on Monday. "We expect the report to be released early in the new year," Mr. McPhail said.
Alberta Premier Jim Prentice is among those awaiting the long-delayed review, saying the gun seizure still "warrants explanation."
The review by the independent agency into the actions of the RCMP was called 17 months ago and was projected to be complete in a year or less. However, its release has been delayed, which the CRCC attributes to a glut of evidence and information.
Mr. McPhail called the review – in part at the request of the RCMP Commissioner – in July, 2013, amid extensive flooding in southern Alberta, including in High River, just south of Calgary. The RCMP at the time said officers found "several hundred" guns while searching the area during an evacuation order and seized them to ensure they did not fall into the wrong hands.
The move triggered a high-profile debate over property rights, with some complaints that the RCMP went too far. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office, for instance, called on Mounties to "focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property."
The review was largely carried out by the former Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, which last week was officially renamed as the CRCC after a law passed last year boosted its powers.
The High River review focused on whether RCMP officers complied with "all appropriate training, policies, procedures, guidelines and statutory requirements" in entering the homes and seizing guns, and whether RCMP policy generally was adequate.
The commission has received "a massive amount of documentation," Mr. McPhail said on Monday.
"Each receipt of documentation has provided further need for the commission to review and to follow-up," Mr. McPhail said, adding commission members will travel to High River in the coming days "to clear up a few remaining gaps."
Mr. Prentice, the Alberta Premier and former federal cabinet minister who was in the private sector at the time of the gun seizure, said on Monday he is looking forward to the report.
"To this point, we've not heard from the RCMP in terms of what actually transpired. I'm looking forward to ... seeing the report, but I thought it was unusual at the time and I still think it warrants explanation of what actually happened," Mr. Prentice said.