RCMP Watch

Ottawa (Canadian Press)  - A Commons committee has recommended a top member of the RCMP brass be found in contempt of Parliament for testimony she gave about pension troubles at the storied national police force.Deputy Commissioner Barbara George misled an all-party committee when she denied involvement in a fellow Mountie’s removal from a police probe into management of the RCMP’s $12-billion pension and insurance plans, says a report tabled Tuesday.

Staff-Sgt. Mike Frizzell testified that George engineered his removal, and documents tabled last March indicate she was involved in related e-mail traffic.

The committee delivered a heavy rebuke, claiming George misled Parliament during an appearance on Feb. 21, 2007. Its finding turns on three areas in her testimony that day:

-She said she did not have “anything whatsoever” to do with Frizzell’s removal.

-She said she didn’t know who ordered Frizzell’s removal, then testified Chief Superintendent Doug Lang e-mailed her about it.

-She said Frizzell left the investigation team for health reasons.

“Because Deputy Commissioner George is a senior, uniformed member of the RCMP, the committee expected more from her as a witness,” the report says.

“She is a professional who has been trained in the rules of evidence, conducting investigations, gathering evidence, and weighing testimony. She should have provided the committee with the information she had at that time based upon her knowledge and beliefs.”

George deliberately misled the committee to avoid professional embarrassment, the report says.

“Deputy Commissioner George did have a motive to mislead the committee - Staff-Sgt. Frizzell was beginning to question her actions and those of her subordinates, and it would have been professionally embarrassing to admit publicly that she had been involved in the removal order against him.”

In a statement released Tuesday, George said she answered questions “honestly, accurately and to the very best of my personal recollection” during her committee appearances.

“Early in this process . . . it became clear that certain members of the committee had already reached a different conclusion and would not allow themselves to be convinced otherwise,” she said.

“I was disappointed to learn that the report issued today by the public accounts committee reflects their distorted interpretation of my testimony.”

George’s lawyer, Bruce Carr-Harris, said the committee was not equipped to get full answers from its witnesses so the report doesn’t contain “all the relevant facts.”

“This process is fundamentally flawed,” he said. “There’s no due process in it. We have what are, in effect, amateur fact-finders operating in an environment where there is no due process for the witness.”

Calling her “the only real casualty of this whole event,” Carr-Harris said it’s unclear what legal recourse, if any, she has.

The unanimous committee report says its finding alone is serious enough to warrant no further action by the House of Commons, but it urged the RCMP to consider its findings.

A Federal Court judge ruled last year that George’s testimony couldn’t be used in an internal investigation since it is subject to parliamentary privilege.

Appearing before the committee in December, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott deferred any possible disciplinary action against George to Parliament.

Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes, an RCMP spokeswoman, would not speculate about what action the Mounties might take until the House of Commons deliberates on the committee report.

The pension fiasco erupted in 2003 with allegations of mismanagement, nepotism, questionable expense claims, and payments to consultants who did little or no work.

Questions also surround related testimony given by former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, said Liberal MP and committee member Borys Wrzesnewskyj.

A separate federal probe concluded last June that Zaccardelli, now retired, shook public trust in the RCMP by permitting the controversy to drag on for years.

Toronto lawyer David Brown, who led the investigation, said RCMP management had mishandled the pension fund but found no evidence to support allegations of a coverup by top Mounties.

George was the only senior Mountie suspended in the fallout over the pension fiasco. The RCMP reinstated her in November after eight months, saying her suspension was not linked to any alleged misuse or mismanagement of funds.

George has since been appointed deputy commissioner of strategic initiatives.

George’s husband, Tom Maybee, said committee chair Shawn Murphy refused to disclose the panel’s recommendation to her lawyers last week.

Wrzesnewskyj said the committee owed George no advance notice of its findings and that she had ample time during at least four appearances to state her case.

The George affair is exceptionally disturbing because a senior RCMP officer - one rank below commissioner - was found to have given “false and misleading testimony,” Wrzesnewskyj said.

“The RCMP are the final guarantors of our laws, and this is contempt of the legislature - the very body that passes laws,” he said. “Ms. George appeared before the committee in full uniform.”