The paper considers two recent events in Canada, namely the leak of the Federal budget and the passage of Bill C-79, which would potentially restrict police investigations involving Members of Parliament and Senators, and the lack of public examination of police and politics that followed in their wake. The central question that should be raised, i.e., what should the constitutional role of police forces in Canadian society be, is often not even asked because of the risk of marginalizing police from the ensuing discussion. As a result, any political debate concerning police activities tends to deal with specific issues such as police accountability or the extent to which extra police powers are required for the police to fulfill their law enforcement duties. An effective debate on the role of the police would require a reexamination of the assumptions underlying the theory of police independence. 72 notes