By: Darryl Davies
This past week, Canadians learned of the tragic death of former RCMP officer Krista Carle who took her own life after battling PTSD that she acquired as a consequence of being bullied and harassed on the job. Her death came on the heels of a 1.1 billion dollar class action lawsuit that was filed against the RCMP by current and former members of the RCMP alleging harassment and bullying on the job. Despite these developments we have a Public Safety Minister who has said and done nothing of any consequence to address the issues affecting the RCMP. Whether its staff shortages, bullying on the job, mental health issues or systemic abuse by incompetent and callous managers in the RCMP, Ralph Goodale says he is studying the problem.
This is the same pat answer he gave when reports were issued last year by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP and the former Auditor General Sheila Fraser. These reports called for major structural changes in the organization of the RCMP as well as the establishment of an independent Civilian Review Commission to ensure the RCMP are held accountable. For the record, we have had a plethora of reports documenting the dysfunctionality of the RCMP for years and yet this government is so out of touch with reality that it naively believes appointing a new Commissioner is all it will take to resolve the deeply entrenched problems in the RCMP. To make matters worse the Liberal Government have chosen a Commissioner who thinks that the RCMP doesn’t need fixing while all around her members of the rank and file are dying and the organization is rapidly sliding into a big dark sink hole.
In 2017 the RCMP had to pay out millions to settle a previous class action lawsuit related to bullying and harassment of its members and earlier this year the Force was convicted under the Canada Labour Act for failing to equip their front-line officers with adequate equipment such as patrol carbines and body armour to ensure their safety on the job. Despite these facts, we have a Commissioner of the RCMP Brenda Lucki who is nothing more than a puppet of the government intent on preserving the status quo. It is this mentality that is at the root of the problems in the RCMP. You have the same people being promoted in the RCMP who were part of the same inept and incompetent cadre of managers in the RCMP who for years did absolutely nothing to address the problems confronting the organization. Add to that a layer of Public Safety Ministers from successive governments that repeatedly turned a blind eye to the problem and you have the mess the RCMP are in today.
Shortly after the Liberal government came to power and before the new Cabinet was even announced I wrote an opinion piece in Ottawa Life Magazine (October 26, 2015) that documented problems facing the RCMP. In that article I called upon the new public safety minister to take action by making major changes to the management structure and accountability of the RCMP. Sadly the new government proved over time that it was no different than the Conservatives and that the promises it made to Canadians for reform and change were hollow and designed solely to win votes rather than bring about meaningful and positive changes. On May 29, 2017, Dan Donovan the Publisher and Managing Editor of Ottawa Life Magazine, Rob Creasser a spokesperson for the Mounted Police Professional Association and I held a press conference in Ottawa. At that press conference we outlined the action that the government needed to take to address the problems with the RCMP.
First, we called upon government to launch a judicial inquiry to review the conduct and decision making of the RCMP’s senior leadership before, during and after the 2005 police shootings that killed four officers in Mayerthorpe Alberta. We did so because the evidence was overwhelming that the previous reviews were tainted and not impartial. A spokesperson for the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada (MPPAC) Rob Creasser stated at the press conference: “In recent weeks Canadians have learned about the dysfunctional management culture within the RCMP, so it is now time for a judicial inquiry to find answers to safety questions raised by the Mayerthorpe shootings that remain unaddressed, to this day.” Second, we appealed to the Public Safety Minister to ‘not’ appoint a new Commissioner of the RCMP until a permanent civilian oversight body was established and operational. Third, we asked that a person from outside the RCMP be selected to oversee the force until the new civilian body was in place. As with every other report and call for change, the Public Safety Minister pushed the default button with his tiresome refrain that he is going to study the problem.
What this government and Public Safety Minister does not understand is that the biggest problem with change in the RCMP is the inertia and failure by governments to take action and do the right thing. Goodale’s tedious response that he is studying the problem is the same logic that led to the conviction of the RCMP at the Canada Labour Code Trial in Moncton New Brunswick. The RCMP were convicted because they failed to take action when the problem was literally staring them in the face. Instead of acting on the recommendations of the Coroner’s inquest into the shooting deaths of four Mounties in Mayerthorpe back in 2005 and the plethora of reports produced for the RCMP post Mayerthorpe, the senior brass of the RCMP sat on their collective posteriors at RCMP Headquarters and did nothing. At the trial the RCMP’s defence was that they were following due diligence and studying the issue. It was this inertia, ignorance and incompetence that ultimately led to their conviction under the Canada Labour Act. There is a lesson here that appears to be completely lost on Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.
How many more members have to die on the job before governments recognize that their failure to take action is contributing directly to the problem? How many more senseless tragedies have to occur before the federal government recognizes that the approach it has been following is flawed, counterproductive and harmful to the members in the RCMP? This is a government that said it would listen to Canadians but from my own personal experience this is not the case. With all the scandals, lawsuits, needless deaths and bad morale in the RCMP you would think that there would be someone in Ottawa and in the Parliament of Canada who would have spoken out by now to demand justice and accountability for members of the RCMP and their families. Instead what we are left with are the pathetic comments by the current RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki that the RCMP doesn’t need fixing and the repetitive and effete promise from Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale that he is studying the problem. If this doesn’t sound like the death knell of the RCMP as our National Police Service I don’t know what does?
Darryl T Davies is an instructor in criminology and criminal justice in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He authored a report in 2009 for the RCMP which called for a national roll out of patrol carbines for all uniformed members of the RCMP and he was a crown witness at the Canada Labour Code Trial in Moncton that led to the conviction of the RCMP. The views expressed are those of the author in his personal capacity.
