Provinces seek support for witness protection
OTTAWA — Ontario and Alberta are pushing for more federal recognition of their witness protection programs as part of a national revamp of the patchwork system intended to shield those who risk their safety to co-operate in criminal cases.
Provincial concerns – including frustrations in obtaining identity changes for protectees – are key to a long-promised federal remake of witness protection, documents and interviews reveal.
The federal witness protection program, administered by the RCMP, provides measures ranging from short-term protection to permanent relocation and identity changes. The Mounties spent over $9 million on the program in 2011-12.
However, several provinces have their own programs, often providing short-term assistance.
The federal government has been working for several years on changes to the RCMP-led program following recommendations from a Commons committee and the commission of inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing.
A primary suggestion was making the federal program more independent.
The Air India commission said it was inappropriate for a police agency with an interest in ensuring sources agree to become witnesses to also make decisions about ad- mission into a witness protection program.
“This is a conflict of interest,” said the commission’s 2010 report.
In late 2009 and early 2010, the federal government consulted the provinces and territories on the program, and documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act show a number of provinces expressed concerns.
The Alberta government, in an April 2011 note to the federal Public Safety Department, called for amendments to the federal witness protection legislation to recognize provincial and territorial programs.
It also lamented the fact that protectees in provincial witness programs must be admitted, at least temporarily, into the federal program before being given new federal identity documents. Alberta noted that municipal police agencies had trouble gaining such temporary admissions for secure name changes, adding the process often took a long time in any event.
Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, echoed Alberta’s concerns.
Though the Conservative government hasn’t yet come forward with changes, it has committed to drafting agreements between the RCMP and its federal partners to simplify the process of obtaining documents needed to give someone a new name.