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Thu 10 Mar, 2005 09:49 am
Police officers, politicians and mourning Canadians were arriving in Edmonton on Thursday to honour four slain RCMP officers whose murder during an ambush in Alberta last week shocked the nation.
A national memorial service will be held this afternoon at Edmonton's Butterdome. Officials expect more than 10,000 people for the service, making it the biggest ceremony of its kind in Canadian history.
"I've heard they're coming from as far away as New York and Boston and many, many representatives of police services across the country," RCMP Inspector Michael Gaudet said.
"We're hearing numbers of anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 polices officers, something never before seen in Canada. It's just incredible."
The CBC will be televising the service and providing video feed to other stations.
The two-hour service will include speeches by Prime Minister Paul Martin, Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.
Readings will also be offered by representatives of the RCMP and the families of the officers. Ian Tyson is scheduled to perform Four Strong Winds and Susan Aglukark will sing Songbird in tribute to the officers. Tom Jackson give a rendition of Amazing Grace. The ceremony will also include scripture readings, a memorial procession and a moment of silence. RCMP bugler Constable Owen Rusicus will play Last Post, followed by a minute of silence and Reveille.
Throughout Canada, flags continued to fly at half mast, as they have since the shootings occurred on March 3.
Early morning newscasts showed delegations from across the country leaving their home cities to join their fellow officers in Edmonton to mourn the loss of RCMP Constables Leo Johnston, 32, Peter Schiemann, 25, Anthony Gordon, 28, and Brock Myrol, 29.
The four were shot and killed in an ambush on a farm near Mayerthorpe, Alta. The gunman, Jim Roskzo - a man described as troubled and dangerous by his own family - then turned the gun on himself.
In a televised interview, Constable Myrol's sister, Kalhanie Stillings, urged Canadians to follow the example of her brother and take advantage of all the opportunities life has to offer.
"We all need to learn to live like my brother did," she told CBC Newsworld. "If he wanted to do something like dive in the Barrier Reef, he learned how to dive and went to Australia. If he wanted to go to Africa, he went to Africa.
"He did everything to the best and the fullest, full steam ahead. He never took a moment of his life for granted at all and I think people need to start making their hopes and dreams come true because you don't know when it's going to be taken from you."
Private funeral services were held for Constable Schiemann on Tuesday in Stony Plain, Alta. On Friday, funerals will be held for Constables Johnston and Gordon in Lac La Biche and Red Deer, respectively.
A service is scheduled for Friday for Constable Myrol on Saturday.
With a report from Broadcast News
Ceili, I saw that on the news. What a terrible thing to happen to the fellows who are known world wide for their bravery and luster. I don't look at blatham's avatar that I don't thing of your revered mounties.
A moment of silence for your fallen heroes.
I can only imagine what a shock it is when it was announced as that the loss of four Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the greatest loss in 120 years.
Related article:
Canadians stunned over Mounties killings
By Beth Duff-Brown, Associated Press Writer | March 5, 2005
TORONTO -- The slayings of four Canadian police officer have stunned a nation that prides itself on far fewer acts of gun violence than its neighbor to the south.
A bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" and flags flew at half-staff Friday as Canadians grappled with the deadliest attack on police officers in 120 years. The four Mounties were slain during a raid on a marijuana farm in a rural western hamlet on Thursday.
"Canadians are shocked by this brutality and join me in condemning the violent acts that brought about these deaths," Prime Minister Paul Martin said.
The four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers had been investigating a farm in Mayerthorpe, a small hamlet of some 1,300 people in western Alberta province.
Spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the four Mounties and the suspected gunman were found in a Quonset hut on the farm late Thursday. A government source told The Canadian Press the suspect killed himself after shooting the officers.
"The loss of four police officers is unprecedented in recent history," said Bill Sweeney, commanding officer of the Mounties in Alberta. "I'm told you have to go back to about 1885 ... during the Northwest Rebellion to have a loss of this magnitude."
The Northwest Rebellion was an unsuccessful attempt by indigenous rebels to establish an independent nation in the northwestern frontier.
The Mounties, with their bright red tunics and broad-brimmed Stetsons, are as much a national symbol as a police force. Legend has it that the small Northwest Mounted Police, formed in 1873 to bring order to the Canadian west, wore their scarlet tunics so natives could readily distinguish them from the blue-coated U.S. cavalry.
The suspect was identified by police as 46-year-old James Roszko. Authorities said he had a long criminal record, including the use of illegal firearms and sexual assault.
Oakes said the Mounties were investigating reports of stolen property and marijuana on Roszko's property.
Sgt. Rick Oncescu said two SWAT teams were called into the area and Mounties from surrounding jurisdictions also responded when the four officers did not respond to radio calls Thursday afternoon.
A woman played "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes as children laid flowers Friday at the flagpole in front of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters in Mayerthorpe.
Tracy Eisert, who used to serve the slain Mounties at the local Burger Baron, wept as she carried flowers. "I served these gentlemen where I work and I wanted to say thank you," she said.
"This is something that happens in Hollywood, but it never happens here," Albert Schalm, the town's mayor, told CBC TV. "I think it will change the community. It will just make everybody more aware that there are drug problems, even out here in rural Canada."
As documentary filmmaker Michael Moore pointed out in "Bowling for Columbine," there are few reasons to lock your doors across this vast nation.
There were 152 homicides by firearms in Canada in 2002, according to federal statistics, compared with 11,829 homicides by guns in the United States for that same year. Canada's population is about 32.5 million people; the U.S. population is about 293 million.
A 1995 federal firearms law in Canada requires every firearm in the country be registered and each gun owner licensed.
But Canada is grappling with an increase in organized crime behind the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry.
"It is an unprecedented and unspeakable loss," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said in a statement. "We know that these are the most serious challenges, made complicated by the involvement of organized crime, the availability of weapons and the risks posed by individuals who choose the path of violence and destruction over peace and good."
The officers were armed only with handguns. Some have asked why they did not have better backup and how all four could have been killed by a single gunman.
Police identified the four Mounties as Peter Christopher Schiemann, Anthony Fitzgerald Orion Gordon, Lionide Nicholas Johnston and Brock Warren Myrol.
Myrol, 29, had been on the job for only two weeks.
"He loved the RCMP and all it stood for," his family said in a statement. "Our country is hurting. We have lost four dedicated citizens who were willing to do something about it."
Four strong winds that blow slowly
Seven seas that run high
All these things that don't change come what may
Now our good times are all gone
And I'm bound for moving on
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way
Guess I'll go out to alberta
Weather's good there in the fall
Got some friends that I can go to workin' for
Still I wish you'd change your mind
If I asked you one more time
But we've been thru that a hundred times or more
Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All these things that don't change come what may
Now our good times are all gone
And I'm bound for movin' on
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way
If I get there before the snow flies
And if things are going good
You could meet me if I send you down the fare
But by then it would be winter
Nothing much for you to do
And the wind sure blows cold way out there
Four strong winds that blow slowly
Seven seas that run high
All these things that don't change come what may
Now our good times are all gone
And I'm bound for movin' on
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way
Yes, I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way
Lovely tribute from Ian and Sylvia
recording?
anybody have a recording of the funeral ceremony, specifically Ian Tyson singing this tune live?
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