Granny Snatching: Where is Sgt. Preston? Dudley Do-Right is a Cartoon

Whatever happened to Sgt. Preston of the Yukon?

Remember the Canadian law enforcement officer who fought against evil and injustice every week, his horse Rex and his faithful dog Yukon King at his side?

For decades, first on radio and then television, Sgt. Preston whose on-screen persona noted that he was a member of the North-West Mounted Police, forerunners of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, exemplified the Canadian spirit of independence, integrity, moral values and justice.

Fast forward to today in Victoria, British Columbia, southwest of the Yukon Territory, and we have a government that attacks its smallest and weakest, forces the innocent into sterile institutions, and shrugs its shoulders at the old-fashioned, passé concepts of freedom, liberty and justice. Meanwhile there are those in the Canadian government who want to share their concepts of elder care with the US so we all can enjoy the benefits of a totalitarian society that appears to champion total disregard for the well being of its most vulnerable citizens.

I hadn’t intended to do another installment quite this soon on the case of Kathleen Palamarek who is confined in the Broadmead Lodge elder care institution in Saanich, a municipality in Greater Victoria on the island of Vancouver, but ongoing events require an immediate update. She was forced into Broadmead Lodge on Halloween evening in 2008 and Mrs. Palamarek’s daughter and son-in-law, Lois and Gil Sampson, have been working ever since to free her so they can live together.

A squad of police, ambulance attendants and health authority officials forcibly removed Mrs. Palamarek from Lois and Gil Sampson’s home under the auspices of the provincial Mental Health Act, which permits forced apprehension if someone thinks the subject’s condition could possibly deteriorate in the future.

The Sampsons immediately began a long and frustrating legal battle to free Mrs. Palamarek. A trial finally was conducted on their efforts to release her, beginning late last year and wrapping up in mid-February. Two months have passed since the trial concluded but still there has been no verdict from the presiding judge.

However, in late February, shortly after the legal proceedings ended, the Sampsons and a registered nurse visited Mrs. Palamarek and found her to be nearly comatose, suffering from what is described as a narcotic poisoning after she was given an morphine derivative that usually is administered to terminal patients in great pain. Mrs. Palamarek was taken to a local hospital where an antidote was administered and she recovered – but was ordered back into Broadmead by health authorities.

The Sampsons then brought the matter to the attention of the Saanich Police Department and an investigation was opened. However, last week I noted that Broadmead’s response was to severely restrict Mrs. Palamarek’s right to have visitors – limiting her to four hours total per week for Lois and her husband, in addition to the nurses and elder advocates who have helped with Mrs. Palamarek’s case and are her friends.

(See previous article here. https://ctwatchdog.com/2011/03/30/granny-snatching-narcotic-poisoning-a-bitter-prescription

Also last week, in a related matter, a verdict was delivered in a wrongful death case in Saanich involving the same constable who was given the assignment of leading the investigation into the Broadmead narcotic poisoning. The constable was on the scene of the shooting death of a mentally ill man by another Saanich police officer.

The widow of the deceased man sued the department and last week’s verdict found the officer and the department to be “grossly negligent” in the shooting. The constable who is in charge of the alleged “investigation” of Mrs. Palamarek’s narcotic poisoning, testified in that case that she never took a single note relating to the shooting, despite a history of detailed note taking going back to her training at the police academy.

Now an even bigger issue has arisen. It turns out that the lawyer who represented the Saanich Police Department in the killing of the mentally ill man, and represented the constable who is leading the “investigation” into the occurrence at Broadmead Lodge, is a member of the firm that also is representing Broadmead Lodge! Can you believe it? Could we possibly find a bigger conflict of interest?

This case just gets more and more incredible and frankly, the future for Mrs. Palamarek looks terribly bleak. The judge apparently doesn’t feel any sense of urgency, the police are compromised, and the legal and health care systems in Canada have the appearance of either incompetence or corruption, or both.

One of the first questions I asked the Sampsons was why they didn’t just  directly ask the RCMP to investiate both Broadmead and the local police. Turns out they did. Same results.

The official motto of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is Maintiens le droit, Defending the law. Yeah, right. From what I have observed in my trips to Canada they should just drop the pretense and adopt a nationwide police motto – To Bully and Abuse.

Before you take this as a slap at the people of Canada, consider this. I think Victoria is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. My photo that often accompanies this column was taken on a shoreline walking trail in Victoria overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. On clear days you can look out over the strait at the Cascade Mountains or Olympic Mountains in Washington State and I can tell you it would be very hard to find a more beautiful scene.

Like their neighbors in Seattle, the people of Victoria like good coffee, they have myriad excellent shops and restaurants. The climate is mild, the scenery is beautiful and the waterfront is active. I was introduced in the Provincial Legislature last year, and met some Canadian lawmakers; I have sipped Glen Morangie in the Bengal Room at the Empress Hotel, which is an experience I would recommend to anyone going that way, and last year I had my first Cuban cigar, purchased from a tobacconist in downtown Victoria.

My point is simply that Canada is a beautiful country, and on my visits there I have made numerous friends. But I would not go back there for love nor money, after seeing what has happened to Mrs. Palamarek and listening to numerous stories from other Canadians who share similar experiences.

If a squad of burly police – who really should be ashamed of allowing themselves to be used in this fashion – can apprehend and detain a diminutive 88-year-old woman who simply wants to live with her family, they can just as easily come up with an excuse to apprehend occasional tourists like me on the next visit. Having seen the health care system up close, there is no way I want to be introduced to their “justice” system.

Remember the Olympics and all the hype showcasing Canada as a modern country with a real concern for the well being of its citizens, and cutting edge relationships with the First Nations indigenous people?  Really good public relations work there, but there is a darker side to Canadian culture too. In that version, Canada’s elderly are forcibly detained against their will and the mentally ill are shot dead by police.

There are a couple of bright lights on the horizon. The first is that the CBS television investigative news show 60 Minutes has taken an interest in elder abuse and is aware of Mrs. Palamarek’s case. Let’s hope they show up in British Columbia with a camera crew soon.

The second light relies totally on the Canadian people if it is ever to shine brightly. Canada is holding national elections next month and like their counterparts in the US who made a major political statement last November, Canadian voters have an opportunity to make a statement in May.

I know nothing about Canadian politics or the personalities involved, but I do know that if you don’t like the way things are, and you want to change things in a democratic society, the ballot box is a great place to start.

Let’s face it, if we want change we have to make the changes. After all, Sgt. Preston was a media character and Dudley Do-Right is just a cartoon.