When James Turk read that, he paused.

Your request was for information about a case, as I recall, that was in 1959.

I mean, the first thing is it's not very likely that the RCMP is still a-actively investigating a case so many years later, right? And so presumably, their legitimate right to decline making information available uh, rests in principle, if it's gonna compromise an active, ongoing investigation, and really is going to compromise it, then it's probably legitimate for them not to disclose it.

But it struck me as very odd when they denied you access to this information or gave you stuff that was heavily, heavily redacted, that they were still engaged in an active investigation.

And then when I asked you to send me some background, you sent me a file where even in the documents they sent you, they say, "This is a dead case."

But when it comes to policing, he sees a culture built around withholding information.

Police are used to operating in a system where there are good guys and bad guys.

They're the good guys, and the bad guys are trying to thwart them, and they don't wanna do anything that gives the bad guys any help.