RCMP Watch

Mark Bonokoski (Calgary Sun) - On Nov. 1, Richard Drouin, a member of the federal government task force on governance and cultural change in the RCMP, was in the Baffin Island outpost of Kimmirut.

He was given a tour by a young RCMP constable named Doug Scott.

Four days later, Scott was shot dead.

The task force, better known as the “Brown inquiry,” was struck to address issues of the accountability and oversight of RCMP management, and to clarify workplace disclosure and disciplinary policies.

But one RCMP officer, Staff-Sgt. Gaetan Delisle, is critical of the task force: “It’s about as close to a pro-management panel as you can get.”

In a Sun Media expose on Sunday, Delisle pushed the envelope with accusations the RCMP was hanging young recruits like Scott out to dry, and that isolated two-man outposts such as Kimmirut should be shut down because of the inherent danger that comes with having no backup in places where backup is often a life-and-death need.

Without question, Scott was young, inexperienced, not fully mentored and, as it tragically unfolded, had no chance of immediate backup when it was needed most.

After RCMP training, Scott was sent to Nunavut for the mandatory six months of “field training” with a veteran RCMP officer. But that mentoring was cut short after just four months. Scott was sent directly to Kimmirut, and was dead within weeks.

In the 2005 auditor general’s report, the RCMP was widely criticized for not living up to its commitment to the health and safety of new cadets. It recommended the RCMP “ensure” all new cadets received the full field-coaching program.

The RCMP promised to make the full six months of field coaching a “pre-requisite.” However, that obviously fell by the wayside.

The RCMP will reportedly table a policy on officer back-up and response guidelines this week.

But there is still a great push within RCMP rank-and-file to get a full-fledged union in place — one of the catalysts being the alleged mismanagement of the force’s pension and insurance fund, and resignation of RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli.

Delisle said he was told by Drouin that he opposes a union. He said Drouin quoted job action by the Quebec Police Force in the ’80s as one reason to oppose a union.

Delisle said the issue in the QPF’s work-to-rule campaign “was all about the need for two-man police vehicles in Quebec.”

“Two officers had recently been killed on duty back then, all because they were driving around alone, and without back-up … Two-man cars and two-man outposts. The similarities of these issues should be lost on no one.”