You may recall the moment a few years ago when the RCMP hired the Disney corporation to manage its product licensing. There was a bit of a flap. Some corners fulminated mightily over a national institution that would dare to peddle its reputation in the unseemly corridors of multinational commerce. In fact, the arrangement didn't last long, likely more to do with business realities than political fallout.

But you take the point. We're proud of our Mounties, known and respected throughout the world. When it comes to national symbols, there is simply nothing more potent, literally or figuratively more graphic. Peruse the racks at touristy gift shops from St. John's to Tofino, at every airport, in each promotional clip or print ad. Depictions of constables in dress scarlet abound, from post cards to bobble-headed dolls to boxes of maple fudge. These are compliments and affirmations of the deepest sort.

Since the national police force also serves as the local constabulary and provincial police in many jurisdictions, personal anecdotes abound. Compared to other lands, the stories are often positive, even for those of us who have trouble with authority figures. The Canadian credo "peace, order and good government" might as well be accompanied by an image of a person in red on a horse.

In my case, I recall the time I was mistakenly arrested during the War Measures Act in Montreal. Having endured hours of preposterous needling from city cops and the Quebec provincial police, I was overjoyed when a Mountie walked into the interrogation chamber. In less than five minutes, he flew out into the day room and bellowed that my wife and I should be driven home immediately and given lunch.

I also think of a recent visit with the Mounties of Project KARE charged with getting to the bottom of the Edmonton sex-trade murders. Uniformly bright, hard-working and sensitive to the task, you walked away impressed. The Mayerthorpe murders touched anyone with a heart.

So it's not unusual that the image of the RCMP cuts close to the bone. We're touchy about it. In a recent interview centred on his affecting Katrina documentary, filmmaker Spike Lee was making the point that initial American assistance for the flood victims was woefully glacial. "Here you had these Mounties, these Dudley Do Right guys from Vancouver getting there before our own people." You understood his message, but you bristled at the words, the seeming lack of gratitude, the (unintentional?) slur.

Witness the gingerness that politicians of all stripes employed before, during and following the testimony of RCMP Commissioner Giuliani Zaccardelli before a Commons committee Thursday. That was in the wake of the inquiry by Justice Dennis O'Connor. It concluded that it was "very likely" that bogus information supplied by the force led to the shameful American deportation of Maher Arar to Syria and a grisly date with a cattle prod.

The questions were often tough, deservedly so. But as in the same way critics of Canadian involvement in Afghanistan are careful to avoid slagging the sacrifice of soldiers in the field, wholesale Mountie bashing was a non-starter.

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