Mounties Man Gotten?

A public vote of confidence is one of those things that is exactly the opposite of what it appears on the surface. If your boss has confidence in you, those who need to know will already know it, and you won't have to ask him for it.

Which is why the RCMP Commissioner should start thinking about taking his musical ride into the sunset:

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says he has full confidence in Giuliano Zaccardelli, while the RCMP commissioner downplays an investigation criticizing how his force handled the Maher Arar case.

The Conservatives have been sidestepping the issue of the top police officer's future in the wake of Justice O'Connor's inquiry into the arrest and deportation of Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar.

But this morning, Day told Canada AM: "We have confidence in the commissioner."

"Not just the commissioner but all the men and women of the R.C.M.P., right across the country."

When asked by Canada AM co-host Seamus O'Regan whether the government will ask for Zaccardelli's resignation in the wake of O'Connor's report, Day gave a strong indication that the police chief will adopt the recommendations the judge meted out -- and that Zaccardelli's future as top police chief may be secure.

Heads must roll in the Maher Arar affair, and Zaccardelli's will be the first. His men, after all, were the ones who had Arar railroaded off to Syria on the strength of dubious information.

And considering general unhappiness with the RCMP's willingness to play political games for the Liberal masters in the previous government, if Zaccardelli has become a symbol of the police as law enforcement wing of the Liberals, he will be sacrificed.

Source: CTV