RCMP Watch

CTV.ca News Staff

One of the first RCMP officers to blow the whistle on the force’s pension fund scandal says he was punished for speaking out, while crucial documents relating to the fund are missing, a Commons committee has heard.

Former assistant commissioner Bruce Rogerson broke down in tears Monday as he recounted his treatment after raising questions about the fund’s mismanagement.

“I was accused of fraudulent leave, unauthorized travel, incompetence for my job,” he said, his voice wavering. “I received no performance pay and I was effectively fired.”

His testimony contradicts that of former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who has said he never transferred or demoted officers for speaking out.

Rogerson was one of the first to alert officials to the scandal. In 2001, he demanded an end to officials using the $12-billion fund for free golf trips and hockey tickets.

He also complained about the larger issue of contracts awarded without competition. And because he raised those questions, he said his career was effectively finished.

“By December I was eliminated from the senior management team of the RCMP,” he told the Commons public accounts committee.

Rogerson is not the only Mountie to claim he was punished for looking into the fund’s mismanagement.

Some examples:

* Original whistleblower Denise Revine went on sick leave;
* Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell was transferred; and,
* Chief Supt. Fraser MacAulay, who persisted in asking questions, got sent to the Dept. of National Defence for two years.

Missing documents

The committee heard new allegations Monday from retired Sgt. Keith Estabrooks, who claimed critical documents connected to the fund are missing.

He said the executive assistant to RCMP chief financial officer Paul Gauvin was given access to a secure area on April 20, a few days after the committee requested RCMP documents on the scandal.

But Estabrooks said he noticed that some of the documents are now missing.

“Now we have an executive assistant arriving at archives and trying to improperly access documents, and we’ve heard documents have gone missing out of files. Incredible,” said Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj.

Rank-and-file Mounties have already claimed Zaccardelli and other top officials of stonewalling efforts to get to the bottom of problems in the force’s pension and insurance funds.

But Zaccardelli has denied he was involved in any coverup.