Janice Tibbetts (Canwest News Service) – Liberals and Conservative senators are locked in a dispute about the pending release of a report that is deeply critical of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and calls for at least 5,000 new officers to help boost the national force.
The Liberal majority on the Senate national security committee, which is dissolved while Parliament is prorogued, is planning to make their report public early next month.
Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, the longtime committee chairman, said the findings will be based on a draft committee report that was still in the works when the committee recessed in December.
Mr. Kenny is expected to be replaced by a Conservative chairman in the next Parliament, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper appoints more Conservative senators to end the Liberal domination on committees.
Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin said it is “shocking” that the Liberals on the committee would publicize the contents of an unfinished report while Parliament is prorogued.
“That is a completely irresponsible and unprecedented thing to do,” Ms. Wallin said.
“These reports are confidential until everybody has signed off on them and we are in the middle of that.”
Mr. Kenny countered that he and his colleagues are not releasing the committee’s actual draft report, but a recrafted “position paper” of their own.
The Liberal report is expected to contain numerous recommendations, including a call for about 5,000 more officers over seven years and increased civilian oversight of the force –an element of several other reports on the RCMP.
The position paper also touches on Taser use and another “big-time” component deals with the force’s often-criticized management structure, Mr. Kenny said.
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