RCMP will forever keep Brad Kerfoot's killer secret

Source: Canoe.ca

Steve Kenyon has been identified as driver of minivan by outside sources

ALBERTA - One family buries an innocent man, another family -- with the help of the RCMP -- attempts to bury the name of the car thief who took his life.

To serve and protect a killer: If it's a motto the RCMP hopes to avoid, Alberta's Mounties need a better excuse for refusing to name the car thief who sent Brad Kerfoot to an early grave.

Kerfoot's identity is already known to all. His funeral, attended by some 200 friends and family, took place this past weekend in Saskatchewan, a week after the 30-year-old died in a fiery head-on collision.

His mother, brothers and girlfriend are left to grieve, and wonder what Kerfoot did to deserve such a senseless death. If the Mounties had their way, Kerfoot's family would forever wonder who killed him.

"How can they do that? I think people should be allowed to know -- we should have a right to know," said his brother Jason Kerfoot.

Because of a ridiculous RCMP policy, the 21-year-old who drove a stolen minivan into oncoming traffic, in a bid to avoid pursuing police, won't ever be officially identified by police.

Thanks to the Edmonton medical examiner, who isn't bound by Mountie protcol, the name was made public anyway, late yesterday: It's Steve Kenyon, according to reports.

A Facebook tribute page has been set up for the young man, fittingly closed to public perusal, but references the tragic car crash and warns against people posting negative memories.

If RCMP had their druthers, his name is information you'd never know. Because the car thief's family wanted his name kept secret, the RCMP obliged.

"The family of the man driving the eastbound minivan involved in the double fatality that occurred east of Hinton on November 19, 2009, has requested that the RCMP not release the name of the deceased," reads the statement issued by Mounties yesterday,

"In cases where a family requests the identity not be released we are bound by privacy legislation to respect the family's request."

It's a swell excuse for protecting a killer, hiding behind a cloak of rules and privacy laws -- except it isn't true.

Canada has no such legislation.

Neither the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta could find a rule preventing the RCMP from releasing the name, if the RCMP chose to do so.

"The legislation gives the organization the discretion to release personal information if the head of the institution decides it's in the public interest to do so," said Anne-Marie Hayden, in a written response from the federal privacy office.

"The Act is not so prescriptive as to say specifically that it prohibits the release of a deceased person's name if asked by next-of-kin."

In Alberta, the spokesman for the Privacy Commission agreed there is no such rule.

"Nothing prevents them from releasing the name -- it's at the discretion of the RCMP," said Wayne Wood.

And so it's an RCMP decision and the RCMP has attempted to shield a man whose reckless crimes claimed an innocent man.

In death, Kenyon gets a better deal than Kerfoot got in life. Asked why, and the Mounties refuse to bend on their assertion they have no choice.

"Our policy is based on respect of the legislation -- we can't release that information, because it's a violation of an individual's right to privacy," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes.

Oakes says he doesn't want to argue with the privacy commission, but he maintains RCMP policy is correct.

"It is written RCMP policy, that if they request the name not be released, we will respect that privacy," said Oakes.

But the actual commissions charged with defending and maintaining Canada's privacy laws say it's RCMP policy, and RCMP policy alone keeping the name secret.

Oakes disagrees.

"We have to respect their privacy and wishes -- I know we'll take heat for it, but we're damned if we do, damned if we don't," said Oakes.

It's damned silly.

To get a sense of how daft, consider that if the family of Mountie killer James Roszko had asked, he would have been kept anonymous following the 2005 quadruple slaying in Mayerthorpe, Alberta.

Criminals often die as a result of their own stupidity and selfish actions -- our national police force has no business protecting their names, no matter who asks.

To shield an innocent after death is one thing, but to stand on guard for a killer is not a worthy role for the RCMP.