Blame the Olympics

The RCMP has just been handed the perfect out for everything it does wrong—at least until March 2. Safeguarding the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, says Wes Wark, a security expert with the University of Toronto, has drawn down police resources across the country, leaving gaps in the force’s day-to-day operations. Case in point, Greenpeace’s recent stunt of climbing on the roof of the Parliament Buildings and hanging banners denouncing government inaction on climate change. The incident is "a huge cream pie in the face of the RCMP," says another security specialist, given costly security measures the Mounties adopted on Parliament Hill after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Ottawa Citizen