MCC Day 15 - Police Paraphernalia and Decommissioned Vehicles

Since I was in the city yesterday for the launch of Paul Palango’s book on the mass casualty, “22 Murders”, I decided to stay up and take in the MCC proceedings in-person again. This was my second time attending. Today’s proceedings were held at the Prince George Hotel, rather than the Nova Centre. It was a much more compact setting, which in part seemed to demonstrate that the Nova Centre may be unnecessarily large for what is required. The proceedings today focused on the killer’s collection of police paraphernalia and decommissioned vehicles. He had police uniforms, four decommissioned RCMP cars, and radio equipment, some of which he purchased online, and some from the government surplus operation. Today we met a further lawyer for the MCC, Amanda Byrd, who made two brief presentations dealing with the laws and procedures on police clothing and equipment. Roger Burrill presented briefly on the actual replica police cruiser the killer used. There was also a witness, Max Liberatore, from GC Surplus, the organization that sells off surplus government equipment. (Something I noted before, but have not written in these blogs, is that witnesses are not called to “the stand” as they are in court, but are rather invited to the “witness table”. Witnesses are sworn or affirmed, as they are in court. I think it is relevant to identify any distinctions between the MCC proceedings and a court process, and whether those difference have any effect. It may be that witnesses feel less gravity or solemnity being called to a table than to a stand. Another is, unlike with a Judge entering a courtroom, we do not “all rise” when the Commissioners enter, which is disconcerting for lawyers’ reflexes.) Much of what was presented was information that was already known about the decommissioned cruiser and the RCMP uniforms possessed by the killer. There were some new details, and new photographs, several of which caught my eye.