Wearing a fake RCMP uniform contributed to killing spree in Nova Scotia

[Northern_Piper]

Some years ago, we had an interesting thread about a guy charged in Ottawa for wearing the uniform of the Canadian Armed Forces, when he had never been in the military. He got charged with an offence udner the Criminal Code which prohibits wearing the uniform of the military: Criminal Code, s. 419. Some posters thought that could be a breach of freedom of expression, which should be dealt with social opprobrium, not the criminal law: Stolen Valour: Another Scumbag

At the time, I defended the need for the criminal offence:

@Northern_Piper

I think that the key here is that the section is aimed at the misuse of government uniforms, medals and documents. The uniform is not the personal property of any individual, it’s an indicator that the wearer is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and is thus a representative/agent/soldier for the Government of Canada. The Government has the right to control the use of uniforms and so on which mark the wearer as a government agent, and to prevent anyone else from holding themselves out as a government agent.

@Northern Piper

So it’s a very specific offence: it only covers current uniforms of the Canadian Armed Forces, since those are symbols/indicators of the Government of Canada.

You want to wear a Civli War uniform in Canada? fill your boots, no problem. You wear an old uniform of the Canadian military from WWII? no problem - no longer prescribed as a uniform by the Chief of Defence Staff.

The offence only applies to someone who is wearing a current uniform, which is a symbol of military serving the Government of Canada. You have to have lawful authority to use that symbol of the federal government.

Although it didn’t come up in that thread, there is a similar offence of personating a police officer:

@Criminal Code

Personating peace officer

130 (1) Everyone commits an offence who

(a) falsely represents himself to be a peace officer or a public officer; or

(b) not being a peace officer or public officer, uses a badge or article of uniform or equipment in a manner that is likely to cause persons to believe that he is a peace officer or a public officer, as the case may be.

It’s no longer just a nice little academic discussion about freedom of speech.

The recent killing spree in Nova Scotia illustrates why there is a need for such laws. It’s unclear at this point how many the guy killed, probably 20+, in a 12 hour long killing spree over a 50 km stretch of highway.

The RCMP have explained that one of the reasons that contributed to their difficulty in catching him during that period is that he was wearing either a genuine RCMP uniform, or a fake one that looked real, and was driving a car detailed to look like an RCMP vehicle.

“We’ll never have an opportunity to interview the subject, however we can say that his ability to move around the province undetected was surely greatly benefited by the fact he had a vehicle that looked identical in every way to a marked police car,” Leather said.

“Beyond that, he was wearing a police uniform which was either a very good fabrication of or actually a police uniform and that surely contributed to his ability to circulate.

“We don’t know the origin of the uniforms but we certainly have reason to believe that they were either actual uniforms or very good facsimiles,” said [[ RCMP Chief Supt. Chris] Leather. “We haven’t recovered all of the garments.”

Members of the public and the Mounties themselves could easily have been fooled, allowing him to continue at large, killing people.

The uniform is a symbol of government authority. Criminalsing the false wearing of a uniform, whether police or military, is a sensible precaution against just this sort of misuse.

With at least 18 dead across 16 crime scenes, RCMP say N.S. mass killing investigation could last months

[blue_infinity]

So the perpetrator would have been dissuaded from wearing a fake uniform, if he knew that in addition to the 18 murder charges, he’d also be facing a stolen valour charge?

Do you really believe that? Seems unlikely to me.

[Riemann]

@blue_infinity

So the perpetrator would have been dissuaded from wearing a fake uniform, if he knew that in addition to the 18 murder charges, he’d also be facing a stolen valour charge?

Presumably if the sale or possession of replica uniforms is illegal, they would be harder to obtain.

But I think the entire OP is a stretch. Nobody disputes that it’s wrong to impersonate a police officer, and that’s already illegal everywhere. It’s a tenuous connection to his prior argument that it should be illegal to misrepresent yourself as a heroic veteran soldier. In general, a soldier in a civilian context is not in a similar position of authority.

[Spoons]

@blue_infinity

So the perpetrator would have been dissuaded from wearing a fake uniform, if he knew that in addition to the 18 murder charges, he’d also be facing a stolen valour charge?

No, and I don’t think that anybody in Canada believes that. This guy was on a mission–why or what it was, we don’t know (yet)–and the fake police uniform and the fake police car just facilitated it. My guess is that even if he had not scored a uniform and dressed up a car, he would have tried the same thing somehow.

“Impersonating a police officer” as a criminal charge does come in handy when a guy runs a red light, gets pulled over, flashes a fake badge, and tells the traffic cop that he’s on his way to a crime scene. It’s also useful when a fake police officer shows up at the door, says that he knows that this is a drug house, but he’ll make no arrests and won’t say a word to anybody if all the drugs are turned over to him here and now. Those, and other similar offenses, are why that law is in place.

Elsewhere on the net, I’ve seen comments–many from American gun owners and Second Amendment supporters–who have said things like, “Well, if Canadians were allowed to defend themselves with guns, this wouldn’t have happened.” That’s a debate for another time, but think about it for a minute: when a uniformed police officer is at your front door, and what looks like a legitimate police car is parked outside, would you reach for your gun, even in the US? No, you’d trust that this was a legitimate police officer, and open the door.

If this guy had survived, “impersonating a police officer” would be the charge he would be least worried about. He wouldn’t be dissuaded by that law. He wanted to achieve an objective, and impersonating a police officer just facilitated that.

[Velocity]

@Spoons

Elsewhere on the net, I’ve seen comments–many from American gun owners and Second Amendment supporters–who have said things like, “Well, if Canadians were allowed to defend themselves with guns, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Yeah, those arguments are nonsensical and contradictory; those very same 2nd Amendment folks are the same ones who tell Black Lives Matter, “if you just cooperate with police, you wouldn’t get shot.” So how are these 2nd-Amend people going to cope with a fake cop who resembles a real cop in every way, seeing as how they will compliantly keep their hands away from their weapons, until the fake cop opens fire on them, at which point it’s too late?

[installLSC]

How hard is it to get RCMP uniforms in Canada? I was shocked to find out that most police buy their supplies (even body armor) from shops like these instead of directly from the manufacturer. They of course say only licensed police will be served, but how good is their vetting?

[Spoons]

@installLSC

How hard is it to get RCMP uniforms in Canada?

I don’t think it would be hard to “shim” an everyday uniform one from local supplies.

Canadian Mounties are famous for looking like Dudley Do-Right, but those Dudley Do-Right uniforms are only for ceremonial occasions. (If a Dudley Do-Right so-called Mountie showed up on my front porch, claiming to be on police business, I’d take cover in my basement, while calling 911.) For normal policing, they wear a pale green shirt, and black trousers with a yellow stripe. They might wear a black clip-on tie, though they might not. Nowadays, they would definitely wear a black flak vest; and if doing traffic cop duties, would have a reflective yellow vest. The hard part would be the shoulder flashes and the collar tabs.