Wait a minute … shouldn’t all the PM’s guards be ready to take a bullet?

Postmedia News is reporting that there are internal problems in the Protective Detail, a unit of RCMP officers that fulfills the same basic function as the U.S. president’s Secret Service guards. The officer commanding the unit, it is alleged, is an unpleasant guy to work for, and was sent for training in management and leadership. That’s bureaucratic-speak for “how not to be a jerk.” The coverage has even suggested that there might have been security implications: Officers assigned to the Protective Detail were apparently so tense around their commander that their job performance, and thus the safety of the prime minister and his family, may have been compromised. Canada is a safe country, but the prime minister still needs competent, adequate protection. That’s not negotiable.

Seeking to reassure the public, the prime minister’s former communications director, Dimitri Soudas, told Postmedia news that there was nothing to worry about and that the commanding officer was doing a great job. “Knowing him and how serious he took his job, he’s one of the few people who literally would take a bullet for the prime minister,” Soudas said. “We should be applauding people like him.”

Oh. Good, then. Except … shouldn’t all the Mounties on the Protective Detail be willing to take a bullet for the prime minister?

This isn’t about partisianship or nationalism or thinking Stephen Harper is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s not even about this specific prime minister. It’s the principle of it. Protective details have one job: protect the subject. Usually that will mean planning in advance, clearing routes, securing sites ahead of visits, that sort of thing. But their jobs don’t end there. If all the advance work that goes into protecting the prime minister (or his family) fails, and some madman gets close enough to inflict him, it’s up to the guards to protect the prime minister and his kin by whatever means necessary.

Hopefully that means tackling the bad guy before anything goes too badly wrong. Quite possibly it means gunning the attacker down. And, yes, it almost certainly means getting between the attacker and the target, interposing their bodies as biological barriers to whatever the danger might be.

This isn’t a job everyone would want to do. It’s not a job most of us would be good at. And there’s no shame in that. Accepting that part of your job description is serving as someone elses’ bipedal bullet-proof vest is obviously a different headspace than most of us get into when we head into work in the morning. There’s lots of people out there who won’t buy into the notion that their life is expendable while protecting the prime minister.

But good Lord, it would be nice to think that in our country of 34 million, the tiny fraction of us tasked with protecting the head of government and his family from harm would be willing to make that sacrifice. If that’s not something you’re into, maybe ask for a transfer?

The officers on the Detail probably are indeed prepared to block a bullet. They’re undoubtedly among the most dedicated officers the RCMP has. But it’s a bit unnerving that someone trying to reassure the public that the prime minister is safe might suggest that even among those tasked with that important job, a willingness to block a bullet is somehow unusual.

Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Matt Gurney