Barry Bradley’s Old Newspaper Clippings

Throughout his career in the Force (1960 – 1995), Veteran Barry Bradley developed a newspaper scrapebook containing notable news stories about the RCMP in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

Each week, we will post three or four of these old newspaper clippings for the interest of Veterans and their families. This week’s webpage includes some interesting stories reflecting different aspects of activities in the RCMP. These stories would have been forgotten if not saved by Barry and to be shared with others.

MOUNTIE ALLEGES CITY POLICE ABUSE

(Vancouver Sun Newspaper) – A member of the RCMP said Wednesday three Vancouver policemen used excessive force to shove him in a paddy wagon after his arrest last year for impaired driving.

But Roman Orszak, a 15-year member of the force, admitted under questioning at a police board inquiry that his conduct at the time – having an open case of beer in the car and being with a prostitute – did not befit a policeman.

Orszak, who works at RCMP marine services in Vancouver, asked for an inquiry into the conduct of Constables Wayne Galvin, Gerald Kirk and Stephen Stewart decided to take no further action on his complaints.

A nurse who works at the police station jail is also accused of failing to provide medical attention.

Orczak represented himself at the inquiry. he told the four-member police board headed by lawyer Kathleen Keating that he was driving home from a police dinner when he was stopped about 1:50 a.m. on May 4, 1984, in the 600-block Main by Colley and Galvin. He said he made no effort to resist arrest, but complained about the tightness of handcuffs on his wrists.

But he said the constables were hostile to him and either Galvin or Kirk, the driver of the paddy wagon, shoved him into the vehicle to step into it, causing him to land face first on the floor.

He said he suffered cuts to his cheek, nose and forehead: the fall also triggered severe pain because he had been injured in three rear-end collisions.

“I remember feeling great pain in my face and the back of my head,” Orszak said.

“What’s the point of pushing a guy who’s got his hands behind his back? That’s what my complaint’s about.”

After he was taken to the police station and placed first in a holding cell and then in an interview room, his requests for medical attention were ignored, he said.

The constables, however, said Orszak was “obnoxious” and abusive toward them. Kirk said Orszak passively resisted arrest. Colley said that at one point Orszak puffed up his chest and made fists. They said no excessive force was used on Orszak.

The constables said Orszak, who was dressed in a sweater, jeans and sneakers when he was arrested, did not identify himself as a policeman.

Orszak told the inquiry his status with the RCMP is, “I would say, questionable.”

He admitted, under questioning by lawyer John Hall, who represented the constables and nurse, that proceedings are under way to fire him from the RCMP.

He said that review is a result of his February 1985, convictions of charges of impaired driving and failing to take a breath test arising from the May 4 incident.

Orszak said he had spent the evening at the dinner in Richmond, and said he was heading home to Pitt Meadows when he was stopped.

He said just before he was pulled over he had driven around the block with the prostitute while she quoted him prices for her services. He said he asked her to accompany him for coffee and she declined, so he offered to drop her off.

Hall asked: “Was this unusual or extraordinary conduct for you to be in?”

Orszak said he drove the circuitous route through Vancouver to Pitt Meadows because he wanted to drive through “a populated area” since his car was running poorly and he feared it would break down.

Vancouver police Const. Joan Rosenberry told the inquiry she issued a general broadcast over police radio about half an hour before the arrest about a suspected impaired driver in a red Thunderbird – the type of car Oszak was driving – after she was told by a prostitute about a car circling the block in the area.

The inquiry will continue after an adjournment due to the illness of the police station nursed named by Orszak, said Terry Bland, counsel assisting the police board.

NOTE: Constable Roman ORSZAK (Reg. #27606) joined the Force on October 27, 1969 and left the Force on January 1, 1986.  His last posting was on the RCMP Marine Services Unit.

FIRINGS ON HOLD FOR GAY MOUNTIES

Photograph of RCMP Commissioner Bob Simmons (Source of photo – Vancouver Sun Newspaper).

November 29, 1985 (Vancouver Sun newspaper) – OTTAWA – No member of the RCMP will be dismissed for homosexuality until the federal government responds to recommendations from a Commons committee on equality, Solicitor-General Perrin Beatty said Thursday.

RCMP commissioner Robert Simmonds has been advised to maintain the status quo with regards to hiring but to delay any actions against Mounties suspected of being homosexual, Beatty told the Commons justice committee.

Although the RCMP does not have a formal policy like the Canadian Armed Forces against homosexuals, it does not knowingly recruit or retain them.

The Progressive Conservative government has not yet tabled a response to the Commons committee report although Prime Minister Brian Mulroney says he opposes all discrimination.

New Democrat MP Svend Robins (Burnaby) said he is pleased to hear that no RCMP officers will be fired for homosexuality until the Tories respond to the report. But he said he was unhappy with the contradiction between hiring and firing.

Robinson, a member of the equality committee, said the RCMP’s draft policy against homosexuals was presented to the committee during its review of federal policies.

“It was one of the most homophobic and offensive policy statements that came before our committee,” he said.

KILLED BY TRAPPER’S BULLET: 500 Attend Service For Slain Policeman

Photograph of Constable Michael Joseph Buday (Reg. #33631) with his Police Service Dog Trooper).

March 23, 1985 (Vancouver Sun Newspaper) – TERRACE – Flags flew at half staff here Friday in honour of RCMP Const. Michael Buday who was killed Tuesday in a shootout with a trapper whom police subsequently shot and killed.

The raw wind blew away the storm clouds and the afternoon sun briefly warmed the 500 friends, citizens and police officers who attended the memorial service for the 27-year-old Buday at the Sacred Heart Church.

More than 100 Mounties attended the service, sitting in full dress together in the church. The sunlight danced on the brass buttons of the men in red uniforms. The wives of the policemen sat in another block.

Const. Terry Pakenham delivered the emotional eulogy.

“Buday was a diamond in the rough,” Pakenham said. “He was a free spirit who loved the outdoors.”

Pakenham praised Buday’s exuberance and said he was dedicated man.

“I know I will never forget him. To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die,” he said in closing.

The wavering notes of Const. John Dunscombes’ bugle bid Buday, a police dog master, goodbye as dark clouds again closed in the Terrace sky.

Buday’s funeral will be held in Brooks Alta., on Monday. It is not known when or where Mike Oros, the man who shot Buday before being killed during an RCMP emergency response team operation at Teslin Lake in northwestern B.C., will be buried.

Prince George regional coroner John Wolsey said autopsies completed Thursday on Buday and Oros revealed both men died immediately from single bullet wounds.

Wolsey said Buday was shot in the neck. He said he could not say where Oros, 33 was shot until he talks to the dead man’s mother, Margaret, who is on her way back to Lawrence, Kan., from Apache Junction Ariz., where she was spending the winter.

It will be up to Oros to decide what to do with her son’s body, Wolsey said, adding the cost of a burial in B.C. would be paid by the provincial public trustee or any estate left by Oros if his mother doesn’t want to bury or cremate him in the U.S.

Wolsey also said he is quite sure an inquest will be held but added no date has yet been set.

“He was one of the most well-liked men here,” said his fellow officer, John Toogood. “It was probably his sense of humor. Everyone liked him. Being the dog man, he travelled a lot and I never heard anyone say anything bad about Mike Buday.”

Becoming the dog master within the last year meant a lot to Buday. Toogood said his friend always loved dogs. He raised and trained German shepherds for other members of the force.

Among his friends, Buday will be remembered for his fun-loving character.

“There was a man who enjoyed life,” said Marlene Schoonmaker, a good friend of Buday and the woman he lived with, Donna Lehouillier.

Schoonmaker, whose husband is a RCMP officer was shaken by the news of Buday’s death. “Anyone who knew him loved him. Well, he was a card. He always looked on the bright side of life.”

Schoonmaker said that Lehouillier left Terrace Wednesday to be with Buday’s parents in Alberta.

A 14-member emergency response team was called in to Teslin Lake after Oros, a recluse feared by local residents because of his violent behaviour, shot at an RCMP-chartered aircraft Monday containing an officer who was investigating a complaint that the man had ransacked a cabin and stolen articles from it.

Oros, widely believed th have killed an elderly prospector in the area in 1981, was spotted early Tuesday morning walking along the frozen lake and the officers were deployed several hours later in an attempt to surround him as he approached.

But, according to police, Oros circled around Buday, who was with Trooper, and shot him from behind, before being shot by an RCMP officer. Buday’s body was found about 20 metres from where Oros, who had haunted the remote wilderness south of Teslin Lake for several years, was killed.

Oros, a U.S. citizen with landed immigrant status in Canada, had a record for possession of narcotics in 1971 and for fraud in 1981. H was investigated by RCMP in late 1981 and 1982 over the disappearance of Atlin trapper Gunther Hans Lishy. At the time, police found a .44 magnum revolver and other personal property belong to Lishy in Oros’s cabin.

Because there were indications Oros was dangerous, he was given a 30-day psychiatric remand and found to be mentally fit. He was charged with possession of a restricted weapon, of stolen property and failure to deliver a restrict weapon. He was later acquitted on all counts.

Photograph of the gravemarker for Constable Michael Dubay (Source of photo – RCMP Veterans Gravesite database).

NOTE: Constable Michael Joseph BUDAY was the 177th member of the NWMP/RNWMP/RCMP to be killed on duty since the creation of the Force in 1873.  There is an initiative to name a provincial park after Constable BUDAY – check out the details here and additional details of his untimely death.