RCMP Watch

Jessica Leeder (Globe and Mail) - A senior RCMP investigator who said a top Mountie used false harassment claims to have him removed from an investigation was himself the subject of a litany of complaints made by other officers in the months before he was told to stand down.

The long list of allegations against Staff Sergeant Mike Frizzell - including that he was “overly aggressive,” “extremely argumentative” and “demeaning and insulting” - are contained in an 11-page document that received little attention when it was tabled with the House of Commons public accounts committee last year.

At the time, the committee was at the height of its investigation into wrongdoing regarding the RCMP’s pension and insurance funds.

The document was written by Ottawa Police Inspector Paul Roy, who was Staff Sgt. Frizzell’s boss in 2004 and 2005, when several Mounties were seconded to the Ottawa force to assist with the investigation into the pension scandal.

Insp. Roy outlined at least 10 occasions during the investigation in which Staff Sgt. Frizzell’s conduct with colleagues and witnesses generated complaints, and laid out a timeline that appears to add credence to Deputy Commissioner Barbara George, who is embroiled in controversy over questions about whether she had Staff Sgt. Frizzell removed.

Deputy Commissioner George, a 29-year veteran of the force, has drawn the ire of the public accounts committee, which recommended she be cited for contempt of Parliament after she was unable to clear up discrepancies between testimony she gave last year and contradictory testimony given by Staff Sgt. Frizzell, who was backed by several other Mounties.

Insp. Roy strikes down a central point Staff Sgt. Frizzell made in his testimony - his belief that he was told to stop pursuing leads before the investigation was over because of interference by Deputy Commissioner George.

“Sergeant Frizzell was not prematurely removed from the Investigation,” Insp. Roy wrote, adding that the formal investigation was over when superiors told Staff Sgt. Frizzell he had to stop extra work on it.

Insp. Roy wrote that he found Staff Sgt. Frizzell “manageable,” even though he was deemed “overly aggressive” by the RCMP’s own lawyer. Another investigator told Insp. Roy that Staff Sgt. Frizzell “began to yell at her and criticize her method of conducting the interview” in front of a witness; yet another colleague said Staff Sgt. Frizzell yelled at him and accused him of being “incompetent.”Staff Sgt. Frizzell told MPs in March of 2007 that he believed Deputy Commissioner George was behind an order he received on June 20, 2005, while he was leading a part of the pension investigation that involved her department, that forced him to stop investigating.

The order came after Deputy Commissioner George told three of Staff Sgt. Frizzell’s bosses that one of her high-ranking female employees felt Staff Sgt. Frizzell was harassing her. (Deputy Commissioner George said she did not ask that Staff Sgt. Frizzell be removed, only that he be “dealt with.”)

In his testimony, Staff Sgt. Frizzell said he believed Deputy Commissioner George interfered because she had learned he was investigating a lead that might have implicated her in the scandal.

However, Deputy Commissioner George said that when she contacted Staff Sgt. Frizzell’s bosses about the alleged harassment, she had no idea the investigator saw her as a potential suspect. Further, she said she had no intention of having him removed from the case.

Deputy Commissioner George maintains that her position has been misunderstood by MPs. She says she is concerned they turned a blind eye to Insp. Roy’s report, which raises questions about Staff Sgt. Frizzell’s conduct and his version of the events.

Insp. Roy, who is retired, declined to comment through a spokeswoman for Ottawa Police.

However, Insp. Roy is clear in his brief that he began informing his team in late May, 2005, to wind down their work. A memo he sent May 30 to the team said that meant “no more interviews will take place unless I direct so.” However, Staff Sgt. Frizzell continued to set up interviews with members of Deputy Commissioner George’s staff into June.

Insp. Roy wrote that he submitted his final report on the investigation on June 17, 2005; when Staff Sgt. Frizzell was ordered to stop investigating three days later, his only remaining task was to write a final report before returning to his regular duties.

Staff Sgt. Frizzell, who is now head of the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Unit, told The Globe and Mail that he has never seen Insp. Roy’s briefing.

“As far as I’m concerned, whatever he’s written isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” he said. “I’ve been vindicated time and time again. I’m not going to put any credence to what that guy has to say.”

Staff Sgt. Frizzell has been repeatedly lauded in public. He was awarded the force’s highest honour along with four other whistleblowers last year by interim Commissioner Beverly Busson. Toronto lawyer David Brown, appointed by the government last spring to do an independent investigation into the pension scandal, seemed to favour Staff Sgt. Frizzell’s version of the story over Deputy Commissioner George’s in his final report.

“I acknowledge the tension that has been relayed to me as existing between Staff Sgt. Frizzell and some other members of the investigative team,” Mr. Brown wrote. “I understand that these issues related to his interview style and desire to follow up on what he regarded as unfinished matters. … Even if Sgt. Frizzell’s style runs to one that is somewhat aggressive in some contexts, it seems to me that allegations of harassment on his part were manufactured in this case in order to discredit him.”

Mr. Brown said yesterday he could not recall whether he or other members of his task force saw Insp. Roy’s briefing, which suggests senior officers in the RCMP were well aware of problems with Staff Sgt. Frizzell.

Some of the complaints, Insp. Roy wrote, prompted a senior RCMP officer to send a memo to the broader investigation team in March, 2005, noting he was “tremendously concerned over the unprofessional conduct displayed by several members of this team. You embarrass yourselves as well as the RCMP,” the memo reads. “Some of these outbursts are bordering on physical.”

Insp. Roy said the author of the memo “was referring in particular to Sergeant Frizzell.”

Asked about the allegations, Staff Sgt. Frizzell, who declined an offer to see the memo, said Insp. Roy’s document “wouldn’t be worth anything in court.”

After the interview, Staff Sgt. Frizzell left a voice message for a reporter in which he said he was “devastated” by the allegations. “I don’t know what the motivation of The Globe and Mail is,” he said. “To say that you’ve chosen the wrong team … oh my God.”