Douglas Quan (Postmedia News) – Despite an auditor-general’s report this week that suggested the RCMP needs to pare down its services and focus on core duties, one thing the force is not willing to give up is the promotion of its heritage in Canada and abroad.
According to the RCMP’s 2011-12 plans-and-priorities report posted online Friday, the force will be spending $11.3 million annually over the next three years pushing the RCMP “brand.”
The report says it is “essential that the RCMP’s icons be promoted as symbols of Canada internationally.
“Icons such as the Red Serge and the Musical Ride are distinct and unique symbols that provide the Government of Canada and the RCMP with a concrete way of engaging stakeholders and developing sustainable relationships based on trust,” the report states.
The Musical Ride’s three-dozen riders and horses tour across the country and abroad four to six months each year, according to the report. RCMP officers also appear in ceremonial dress at special events, such as Olympic Games, international summits and expos.
The RCMP also has licensing agreements for the commercial use of the RCMP image.
“The RCMP will continue to focus on maintaining the value of the brand by collaborating with partners to participate in events that generate local, national and international attention and project a positive image for Canada,” the report states.
Robert Gordon, director of the criminology school at Simon Fraser University, said Friday he would prefer that the money be spent on fighting organized crime.
“I guess the strategy is to refurbish the RCMP’s tarnished image by buying paint and Brasso rather than following through with the recommendations of several major reports that point to the structural decay in the organization and the need for massive changes,” he wrote in an email. “This is the equivalent of buying new curtains for a collapsing house in the hope that somehow it will make a difference.”
A report Thursday from Canada’s auditor-general found that the RCMP has been taking money out of investigations into organized crime and other areas in order to cover for financial gaps in its delivery of national police services, such as forensic evidence analysis and the updating of criminal-record databases.
The report found that during the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the RCMP’s federal and international operations directorate — which oversees organized crime investigations, border integrity and drug enforcement — reduced its budget by more than eight per cent or $47 million.
Sgt. Greg Cox, an RCMP spokesman in Ottawa, said in an email Friday that “actively promoting the RCMP showcases to Canadians our values and standards” and helps to build positive relationships with Canadians. All international travel is done on a cost-recovery basis.
He added that funds raised through the sale of products bearing the RCMP image are donated to programs that support at-risk youth.
I think you overestimate the public’s reaction. The news does not cover positive issues nearly as much as the negative. You hear nothing of the self sacrifice in Gods Narrows, community outreach to Northern Native children, members evacuating burning buildings like Chilliwack, Hope, and Burnaby, (leading to their own injuries), off duty dedication such as Codiac, bullying programs launched and run by members, external awards for bravery and dedication and the like. It just does not sell or grab attention as does the small minority of bad news. How long do you think the news will generate stories on the Montreal officers who supposedly wounded a bystander in the shots fired recently? A lot longer than the page 12 report on fine investigations into organized crime.
It is natural for someone to maintain a grudge when they feel that they have been mistreated. However that does not give you the evidence to broad brush persons or groups or organizations. Add up all the negative news and compare it to the positive side and you will find the negative is a small minority. Do the math.
Yeah, my experience has shaped my opinion plus those of some former DSSR’s I knew, and of others I know personally trust and the multiple cases I have read about. It’s not everyone, and there are bad apples everywhere in any outfit. My beef is with many of the cultural aspects and how management conducts things. Most of the beefs I have about hiring policies rest on the politicians. Any beefs I have with how day to day business is conducted rests with the RCMP. It is my $.02 worth, but a lot of what I speak is reflective of a lot of the public sentiment that is out there. There is a lot more to this than being some kind of media conspiracy.
“DT, i (SIC) have seen you playing both sides of this arguement.(SIC) ”
Hardly. I am, and always will be against hiring quotas and the like, however, I do not admonish someone of color or minority as incompetent unless there is empirical data to support such an allegation. (If it is not your intention to appear bigoted and anti minority you should be more clear.) It is the individual that makes their own decisions and as sickntired pointed out, you cannot readily spot the deficient genes all the time prior to hiring, and I would add, subsequently. I am also against broad brush categorization which I have stated previously on many occasions, a brush you wield with fervor when it comes to the RCMP. Like any large organization the RCMP always has had and always will have individuals who should not be in the occupation. It is much harder to deal with them in the present day due to factors we have canvassed regularly.
I am glad you referenced your experiences which we have established before as limited vis a vis the national police force with 16,000 officers. Your interaction was with how many officers? 50, 100, 200? Even at 200 you have only interacted with 0.0125% of the RCMP officers.
I know my arguments get worn out, but I just feel the outfit is just throwing money at the problem. What is the point in spending the money when too many people on the street don’t care. I understand the RCMP is too image conscious, but it has more to do with PC nonsense. Sickntired, the worst people I have encountered in the RCMP have been white males, but also some of the best as well. I am not saying dealing with the cancers and viruses is easy, but too often management won’t deal with these types of problems and it gets swept under the rug. Calvin, if you want to be a cop in Canada my opinion is you wear the same uniform as everyone else does. It’s and old debate, but the former Premier of BC didn’t wear a turban, so why can’t RCMP Sikh members? As far as only “White Males” should represent the RCMP it reminds me of a ad I once saw on a bus celebrating the 125th anniversary of the force. There was a group of mountie’s in red serge, but I don’t think there was 1 white male in the group. It’s stuff like that, along with telling a generation of white males not to bother applying and this recent minority hiring wave where W/males have been interviewed and passed and then bumped out of the system have fostered the kinds of statements I make. This is the image the RCMP has chosen to promote, and I am just drawing attention to it.
I do not agree with you on the ‘interesting perspective’ vis a vis JohnnyG Calvin. Statements such as “The RCMP would rather have an incompetent Sikh with a turban holding the Canadian Flag than a High flying white male who wears a stetson!” indicate bigotry. Unless there is some empirical data to show that the individual in question is in some manner incompetent, I would opine that the generalization occupies the category I mentioned. I would also opine that the general public does not care about gender or skin color as long as their complaint is properly attended to with dispatch and efficiency.
The same holds true with the broad brush organization categorization due to some personal issues suffered which could be narrowly moot. He cannot speak for every member of the organization and conclude that the ‘bus throwing’ epithet is common. It would be more accurate to preface his forays with “in my experience” and provide supporting data.
DT before you become the thought police here my statement is stating what the organization would rather hire in hypothetical terms. But, I will say that in my experience I have seen instances where minorities and females are cut more slack, not to mention the lower test scores they need to get interviews in the first place.
DT, i have seen you playing both sides of this arguement. “Interesting Perspective’
“Instead of spending a bunch of money so Sikh members can travel around the world holding the Canadian Flag”
“about instilling some pride in the membership by unfeminizing it”
“do away with PC quota’s”
JG
I guess only White male members can travel around the world holding the Canadian Flag.
I guess only males should be RCMP members
I suspect quota’s came about because the quota people were covertly and deliberately excluded in the first place.
It never occurred to me that all the problems in the RCMP occurred because Sikh (non white people), women and PC quotas (more non white people) were hired.
Interesting perspective?
Calvin Lawrence
sickntired, great points! The RCMP is rife with people who can’t do the job who slipped through training, but the second you call a spade a spade your coworkers will slice your throat and management is behind them. Management likes a lazy PC cut-throat who will throw his peers under the bus for such indiscretions above the competent hard workers who speak their mind because they are tired of working as hard as they do and seeing the RCMP become the joke that it has. The RCMP would rather have an incompetent Sikh with a turban holding the Canadian Flag than a High flying white male who wears a stetson!
JohnnyG: Stop wasting money training people who are going to wash out of training anyway. Hire the right people that aren’t lazy troublemakers, who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
No argument with you here but the question is: how to do this? The “lazy” and “asshole” genes don’t always make themselves apparent at the interview level (how else to explain our “leaders”). I’d bet that a frightening number of applicants who demonstrate or claim an eagerness to get their hands dirty backpedal once they learn through experience the nature of some of the dirt.
I agree with you that the quota system does sometimes result in the hiring of people that have no business in law enforcement. However, thinking back over my 30 years on the job I have to say that the vast majority of members who had well-deserved reputations as violent, screw-ups, drunks, thugs, lazy and just plain stupid (and often combinations of these) were and are English-speaking white guys. No quota system there.
The funds to support the Musical ride were transitioned from operating budgets to private sponsorship a number of years ago. Even if 11.3 m is spent from RCMP budgets on the Ride, it is a minuscule portion (less than .001%)of the billions in the RCMP budget. The Ride is not disimilar to the various police pipe bands, motorcycle drill teams or armed forces aerial display team. All Public Relations, all traditional, and all part of recruitment.
“…instilling some pride in the membership by unfeminizing it and bringing back the military tradition.”
Your familiar refrain is not going to be addressed anytime in the foreseeable future JohhnyG. You have to realize we are in a generational situation that has embraced a Nanny State philosophy wholeheartedly. You have to read no farther than: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/SC/11/04/2011BCSC0456.htm ; to see this in action. If you follow the news you will note the drunken VPD officer (assaulter of the newspaper person in Vancouver) received a conditional discharge for his actions.
These are but a few of the symptoms of society’s attitude. So goes society, so goes her institutions, of which the RCMP is one.
Having recently had the privilege to hear and speak with General Hillier, I was unaware of the depth he had viewed the military as dysfunctional and leaderless when he took over. Some of his points could have been substituted for points of contention in the RCMP. Seems that the Armed Forces also suffer the Nanny State effects. It was quite disheartening to hear that most of the politicians he met with were aghast at the fact we trained our military in the killing of others, and not to be nice friendly ‘peace keepers’.
“In this country, we could probably not give enough resources to the men and women to do all the things that we ask them to do. But we can give them too little, and that is what we are now doing. Remember them in your budgets.” — Hillier in his first speech as CDS on Feb. 4, 2005
Maybe the funds from Nanny State ventures should be redirected.
I think it’s a waste of money! The force needs to repair it’s image, but it must be done at the grass roots level and at home first. Instead of spending a bunch of money so Sikh members can travel around the world holding the Canadian Flag, (Like at the hockey Game in Vancouver tonight), how about instilling some pride in the membership by unfeminizing it and bringing back the military tradition. Impress upon them that they should wear their ties, head dress and polish their boots once again. Impress upon applicants that you need to live IN the craphole detachment area you are assigned. Also, hire on merit and do away with PC quota’s. Stop wasting money training people who are going to wash out of training anyway. Hire the right people that aren’t lazy troublemakers, who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. That isn’t a trendy idea for the Ottawa cocktail circuit, but it works with the common sense of the common people.
A few years ago a Mountie friend of mine opined, on a new website, that the RCMP had a bad habit of sacrificing its members and its actual job performance in favor of protecting and burnishing its image. “All show and no go” was how she put it. She was, as I recall, called on the carpet and threatened with a conduct investigation because she’d been honest (or stupid) enough to use her actual name. Sadly, nobody suggested that what she’d said was incorrect – just that she wasn’t allowed to say it.