In the aftermath of several critical inquiries scattered throughout the SIU's 18-year history, the important question becomes: What shall Manitoba learn from the Ontario mentor?

Ontario's ombudsman, Andre Marin, conducted the most recent critique of the SIU and his less-than-flattering report was released at the end of September. It slammed the SIU on a number of fronts and pummelled the much-hyped vanguard of truth and justice to "toothless tiger" status.

Marin has to be kidding. The Supreme Court's archives are jammed with precedent on this issue. The SIU investigates criminal cases, not just bad apples in the workplace. So the law matters and the high court is quite clear; the subject of a criminal investigation has a right not just to a lawyer, but to one of his choosing.