There has been an interesting little drama playing out in Saskatchewan over the past few days.
Last Friday, a man shot at three RCMP officers, seriously wounding two of them. He then fled into the hills around Spiritwood. Since then, the Mounties and other police forces have been combing a stretch of heavily wooded hills that is twelve kilometres wide.
The pictures coming out of the incident look more like a war than a police operation, with officers carrying automatic rifles and wearing full camoflauge. This should not come as a surprise, though. After all, the RCMP is a paramilitary force whose members have regimental numbers, not badge numbers. The force has even been awarded battle honours from four wars (the Northwest Rebellion, South Africa, World War I, and World War II).
In some ways, the whole thing reminds me a bit of the Almighty Voice saga that took place in the Batoche area. Back in 1895, a young Cree man was arrested on a misdemeanour charge of killing a cow without permission. He escaped one night after a guard joked that he would be executed the next day, and the NWMP sergeant who went to apprehend him was killed in the ensuing gunfight.
Almighty Voice remained free for 19 months, while the Mounties searched for him throughout the prairies. When they eventually located him near his home, several members of the posse were killed in a fruitless charge up the hill that he and two friends were hiding on. The Mounties surrounded the hill and bombarded him with two cannons.
By the time the entire incident was over, seven men were killed, including Almighty Voice, and several others were wounded. I hope that today's incident ends in a more peaceful manner.
