CanWest News Service
New allegations of improper conduct involving the top echelons of the RCMP have been filed in Ontario Superior Court, according to a report in the National Post.
Five officers from an elite drug and organized-crime unit are suing for $1 million each in compensation, alleging their complaints of job harassment and intimidation were ignored.
All five — who were based in Stoney Creek, Ont., near Hamilton — are on extended medical leave with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The condition is allegedly linked by RCMP medical experts to the “poisoned environment” in a detachment filled with alleged racist taunting, verbal abuse and career-derailing actions by their superior, Insp. Jym Grimshaw.
RCMP officials have refused comment on the statement of claim, citing it as a matter now before the courts. Grimshaw could not be reached.
The complaints — which have not been proven in court — are similar to those in a case involving allegations of wrongdoing and cover-up in the handling of the RCMP pension fund, which are now being probed by a Commons committee.
In that instance, senior RCMP officers are accused of ignoring or covering up repeated warnings of wrongdoing and unethical behaviour.
The five named in the latest suit — Sgt. Peter Kidd, Const. Luis Cerritos, Const. Augustine Chung, Cpl.
David Hoto and Cpl. Gerard Markie — “are considered within the RCMP to be ‘rats, whistle blowers and troublemakers,’” the statement of claim says.
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