Regular readers of The Black Rod know that we've been staunch defenders of the police. When critics attacked the police for being too rough when making an arrest, when politicians and "activists" jumped on wholly invented allegations of police misconduct, when the anti-cop crowd lobbied to defund the police, we stood up for the police . Not this time. On February 13 a mob of Winnipeg police shot and killed a scared, innocent man in his own home on Magnus Avenue. This wasn't a doped up criminal with a weapon charging police in a back alley in the dead of night, or a car thief trying to run down a policeman after a car chase. This was a man minding his own business, not a threat to anyone, in his own home, a place where everybody should feel safe and expect the police to protect, not kill, them. The next day the police issued a news release to say what happened, and held a news conference to not answer questions. That's right, they clammed up tight, refusin
The origin of the Usher of the Black Rod goes back to early fourteenth century England . Today, with no royal duties to perform, the Usher knocks on the doors of the House of Commons with the Black Rod at the start of Parliament to summon the members. The rod is a symbol for the authority of debate in the upper house. We of The Black Rod adopted the symbol to knock some sense and the right questions into the heads of Legislators, pundits, and other opinion makers.