(Victoria Times Colonist) - Saying he is “amazed” by what “little authority” commanders have to discipline bad Mounties, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has vowed to table new legislation “very soon” that would give local RCMP leadership the ability to act quickly in cases of misconduct.
With just three weeks to go before the House of Commons rises for the summer, Toews acknowledged during a Commons committee meeting Thursday that he’s got a “short deadline” to bring forward a series of “very specific” changes to the RCMP Act.
“You cannot have a situation where you want to discipline and the individual is then placed on leave with pay and that goes on for years,” he said.
“There has to be immediate consequences and an appropriate route by which the process is fair.”
His comments came days after the force’s top cop issued an open letter to Canadians complaining about an antiquated RCMP disciplinary process that’s forever bogged down in red tape.
While RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson didn’t mention any specific cases in that letter, it appears his frustration reached a climax with the case of Donald Ray.
The Alberta Mountie was docked 10 days pay, given a formal reprimand and demoted a rank – yet was allowed to transfer to B.C. and keep his job even though adjudicators concluded he’d engaged in a “disturbing pattern” of behaviour that involved drinking on the job, exposing his penis to an employee, having sex in a polygraph suite during lunch breaks and making sexually harassing comments.
Paulson told media that Ray’s conduct and the punishment he received were a “sorry, sad and shameful set of facts.”
Meanwhile, a recent memo obtained by media from Paulson to fellow officers called the Ray case a “sad stain on our reputation” and warned of increased scrutiny and the likelihood of more media reports about “salacious and troubling details of member misconduct.”
[Source]
So how many of the 720 plus whiteshirts in the Force have you met? Or is your slag just tongue in cheek?
Linda Pepper
My comment was said tongue in cheek, half for amusement and half for anything is possible. Your absolutely right – a white shirt would never do anything as low as to try and manipulate a social media site (cuz thats never happened) but then again they don’t lie, do anything unethical and abide by the core values of the force and certainly never protect one another when they see wrong doing. That being said I do have to say I have met a FEW honorable white shirts.
Wow, you guys are paranoid. So because readers of the notes here do not agree with some or all of your note, there is a grand conspiracy to silence you? And by the white shirts? RFLMAO. If you are members, you are allowed to go to a psychologist of your choice at taxpayer expense. The healthcare is not being “dismantled”. Do some reading. The taxpayers do not like special pensions for those in govt service. They get their way. 50/50 contributions in 2 years. There have been losses since I joined, this is nothing new to anyone in the workforce in this country. Its a trend not unlike other organizations and govt entities. Deal with it.
Musing that the white shirts be might pressing the the thumbs down button isn’t being a paranoid conspiracist. Those are the people who think this site is set up and being run by those “white shirts” and are tracking the IP addresses of those making entries….
Great comments Descartes and joe street cop, what you right is fact however people give you the thumbs down. Perhaps it’s the purple cool aid but at times I am convinced white shirts are directed to go on this site and give everyone the thumbs down just so it looks like what is being said is being strongly disagreed by the membership or the public. To that I say go read the comments the public are writing daily about the force. I have a large circle of friends that are members and they are all deeply unsatisfied and think the force is dysfunctional. I wonder, do white shirts sit back and think the force has sunk to a new low under my leadership…..likely not.
KP1958, I was thinking some of the same thoughts the other day. It’s as if the force has some kind of “posse” to go out and hit the red button the second something negative about the outfit is brought up. I don’t know if there is a lag time between when positive and negative ratings are posted. But, what I often see is 2-5 green thumbs than WHAM out of nowhere 15 red ones and the message is hidden. Then the green votes catch up, and the message is displayed again- than WHAM another 10-15 come out of nowhere again and the message is hidden again. It’s like everyone wearing a white shirt gets told to leave whatever they are doing and get to a computer.
You are right, the outfit has always had it’s detractors. But, what I am finding is that it’s not just the lowlife’s (clients) that feel this way anymore but the people who once supported the outfit. What I am finding is that most anyone who knows anything about the outfit has a negative opinion of it and much of it isn’t even skewed by media, but at the grass roots level.
You guys should read gordbuseys comment a couple of articles ago.
Recent events paint a disturbing picture that all serving members should take serious note of, as sitting around holding your breath watching someone else getting pummelled out of fear and apathy does not mean you may the next one on the hot seat.
The floowing events have happened with surprising speed and each is done without any consultation or input by any of us.
- Previous pay package unilaterally cleawed back, essentially a broken contract.
- Severance Pay eliminated
- MEAP scrapped
- Pension contributions increased, again no input or communication.
- Health Care being dismantled
- Recent Pay package after the smoke clears is a net -1.35% loss to members.
- Conservatives and Comm. (Deputy Minister) PAULSON wish to make RCMP Act changes on a short deadline, under the guise of disciplining “Bad Apples” and using Don RAY as the evil doer du jour. Pay close attention to the quote above by Public Safety Minister TOEWS,
“You cannot have a situation where you want to discipline and then the individual is then placed on leave with pay and that goes on for years”.
The dismissal policy has always been on the books, this is clearly a tactic to attack and dismiss the many members who have brought up harassment and abuse, that management covers up, ignores and then proceeds to punish the member relentlessly until they end up with serious health and well being harm issues that force them from work. This behaviour is a threat to all members and is a most sinister act.
When is the last time you saw a politician leap forward swiftly to do the right thing?
If this isn’t a set up to dupe the Canadian public into thinking we are going after the “BAD” mounties. I submit for your approval.
1: Policy already exists to discipline members which extends from forfeiture of pay up to and including DISMISSAL. Toews would not know what the RCMP Act lokked like if I smacked him in the head with it.
2:S/Sgt. Don Ray is suddenly the poster child for bad behaviour? As per point #1 the Force could fire him as it is in policy already. There is no way in hell senior officers did not know what he was doing & may be implicated as well.
3: Comm. Paulson woke up one morning and said, I can fix it all with changes to the RCMP Act.
If youn read between the lines above, you will find this directed at members who have been abused and bullied and are suffering from actual medical conditions brought on by years of inept, incompetent leadership. The goal is to get rid of members who have filed grievances, civil suits and not drank the purple kool aid.
The open letter is a Conservative smoke screen to take away public disgust with the whole negative Mountie media image and pretend that Comm. Paulson is a white knight riding in on his steed to save the Force. He has been in Ottawa for years and has been part of the same old same old that got him to the top.