Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says he will act on most of the recommendations in a scathing report about the RCMP and its former commissioner, including one to set up a task force to overhaul the troubled national police force.
ay said Sunday that he favours a task force over a public inquiry because there have already been several investigations into the inner workings of the RCMP and it is now time to do something about a culture and management structure that lawyer David Brown described as “horribly broken.”The Conservatives appointed Brown almost three months ago to investigate a pension and insurance fund fiasco that has rocked the RCMP.
“It’s time to move on some areas like changing the governance and structure and getting some fresh breezes blowing through, especially at the high levels of this organization,” Day told CTV’s Question Period.
“As Mr. Brown said in his report, we know what went wrong. We know things have to be fixed. Here’s a pathway to follow to have things fixed in a fairly short period of time.”
Day said he will elaborate on his plans in the next day or so.
He also said he expects to appoint a new RCMP commissioner within weeks to replace acting commissioner Bev Busson. She took over for Giuliano Zaccardelli when he resigned late last year after giving conflicting testimony to a parliamentary committee about his knowledge of the Maher Arar affair.
Day said another reason for rejecting an inquiry, which several opposition MPs have been seeking, is that Brown, in his report released Friday, made it clear that he had access to all the people and documents that he needed to draw his conclusions.
Brown placed the bulk of the blame on Zaccardelli, who was described as an “autocratic” leader who was “completely unapproachable to all but the brave or foolhardy.”
Zaccardelli compounded problems with the pension fund by leading a force that showed little respect for its employees and discouraged them from challenging authority, Brown concluded.
One of his key recommendations was to begin an “urgent review” of the force to restore the confidence of the Canadian public, as well as discouraged rank-and-file Mounties.
Brown said the task force should consist of RCMP members, senior public servants and private-sector experts.
The RCMP had launched an internal audit in 2003 over allegations of misuse of funds. The audit sparked a criminal investigation three years ago, which did not result in criminal charges but prompted Auditor General Sheila Fraser to launch a probe of her own. The House of Commons public accounts committee was studying Fraser’s report when it heard the testimony in late March that led to the Brown report.
Brown was asked to investigate the RCMP this spring, after a group of RCMP officers told a Parliamentary committee that senior managers, from Zaccardelli down, tried to cover up mismanagement of the force’s pension plan.
Brown found that Mounties who raised concerns about wrongdoing were punished, while those responsible for the problems were not.
Another recommendation was to improve whistle-blower protection within the RCMP to protect those who come forward from being punished or losing their jobs.
Day said that his goal is to create “modern governance structures that ensure accountability, transparency, and ensures that members who have concerns, whether it’s about a cover-up or something inappropriate, can come forward and it’s not going to have a negative influence on their careers.”
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