Book
The last guardians : the crisis in the RCMP-- and in Canada / Paul Palango.
Record details
- ISBN: 0771069065
- Physical Description: xii, 316 p ; cm.
- Publisher: Toronto : McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1998.
Content descriptions
- General Note:
- Includes index.
Search for related items by subject
- Subject:
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Legislative Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative Library, Vaughan Street | HV 8157 Mac (Text) | 36970000148629 | General Collection | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Book News
Palango, an investigative journalist and author, takes his skills across Canada to discover why the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, once an internationally recognized symbol of the country, are now sunk in crisis, unable to "get their man," particularly in economic crimes. After conducting numerous interviews and watching the RCMPs in action on night patrols and in their new push for community policing, he determines that the problems facing the Mounties are a reflection of the deterioration of Canadian society itself. Canadian card order number: C98-931701-3. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) - Random House, Inc.
The national police force, which has proudly symbolized Canada around the world for over a century, has been having a few bad decades. From barn-burning to break-ins at 24 Sussex Drive all the way to Airbus, the force has seemed to reel from crisis to crisis.
In 1997, journalist Paul Palango, who had already written about the RCMP in the bestselling Above the Law, set out to take another look at the force for Macleanâs magazine. In the course of the article, entitled âWhy the Mounties Canât Get Their Man,â he quoted Commissioner Philip Murray, who lamented that Canada was heading towards a two-tier system of policing, with private investigative and security services dealing with white-collar crimes, because the public police force no longer has the resources â of time, manpower, or money â to do so. Palango wanted to try to show how and why the RCMP had reached this point, and what the implications might be for society as a whole. This book is the result.
With the blessings of the force, he set out across the country, interviewing highly placed officers â past and present â watching cadets train at the forceâs historic Regina headquarters, going on night patrol with constables both in a remote Manitoba community and in suburban Burnaby, B.C., checking out the new drive to community policing â and some of the communities it serves. Members of the RCMP co-operated with him everywhere he went â and talked freely to him.
What Paul Palango found at the end of his journey was a force in crisis, struggling to be all things to all Canadians in a society that is no longer sure what role it wants the federal police to play â but is sure that it wants them to do it on less money. Palango also argues that looking carefully at the RCMP, shaped as a federal institution by all the societal and economic pressures that have swept the country over the years, is an effective way to examine many of the problems that ail Canada after the event of September 11, 2001.