RCMP Watch

Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun

The Mounties in B.C. now will have observers on their shoulder during investigations into in-custody deaths or other serious incidents involving the RCMP.

The pilot project announced in Ottawa Thursday by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP is aimed at restoring confidence in the force after two high-profile police shootings in the Interior.

It is a good start.

In conjunction with the RCMP office of investigative standards and practices, commission chair Paul Kennedy said his staff will begin to observe and assess the impartiality of investigations that involve police officers.

Since the Mounties gunned down the two young B.C. men, the perception that the ensuing investigations were biased has hung like a pall over the force.

Inquests into the deaths of Ian Bush, a 22-year-old Houston mill worker arrested for giving a false name in October 2005 and subsequently shot, and Kevin St. Arnaud, a 29-year-old drugstore theft suspect slain after a short chase in December 2004 in Vanderhoof, failed to dispel the distrust.

If anything, they raised serious concerns about the force’s lack of alacrity in investigating incidents involving its own members.

The commission is investigating both incidents and will issue reports later this year.

It has long had its own misgivings about that process, as have many Canadians.

Aside from announcing the pilot project in B.C. to address some of those concerns, Kennedy also made other recommendations in his annual report to Parliament, delivered Thursday.

Most importantly, he said, he needs new legislation with teeth to deal with suspected police misconduct.

“Effective policing relies on a supportive public that recognizes and values the role of the police in fostering safe communities,” Kennedy said.

“In an era of declining deference to authority and heightened suspicion of police, a better-equipped commission, with powers more closely aligned with the level of intrusiveness exercised by the RCMP, would go a long way to reassuring the public that Canada’s national police force continues to conduct itself in the public interest. Parliament and the Minister of Public Safety can accomplish this by amending the law.”

He has offered draft legislation that would see the commission folded into a new entity called the federal law enforcement review board with broader powers to review police conduct.

If he doesn’t like that suggestion, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day should bring forward his own legislation.

The appointment of civilian bureaucrat William Elliott to the top job at the RCMP is not enough to fix the systemic problems that plague the iconic force.

There has long been a need to reform the law to bridge the chasm between police powers and the authority of the commission to review cop conduct.

“Although it remains true that police conduct is subject to judicial review when policing activities result in criminal charges and public trials, the RCMP is increasingly achieving its objectives through covert operations aimed at preventing or disrupting criminal activities,” Kennedy said in his report.

“Such activities are rarely subject to public scrutiny since they remain below the radar of both the criminal courts and the public complaints machinery.”

Justice Dennis O’Connor, who investigated the Maher Arar incident, also recommended the commission be given beefed-up powers given the role of the RCMP in that travesty.

He wanted the mandate of the commission to be enhanced to permit a more credible review of the RCMP’s national security activities.

It’s long past time to put some bite behind the commission’s bark.

Established in 1988, the commission is an independent body whose mission is to contribute to excellence in policing through civilian review. It has long been frustrated in its efforts.

Let’s be honest — of the 48 interim reports issued by the commission last year (containing 184 findings) about half were “adverse to the position initially adopted by the RCMP.”

That means the Mounties were spewing crap more than half the time, and it suggests some within the force are contemptuous of the current process.

In the politic words of the commission: “These reports highlight longstanding problematic issues and propose remedial measures to improve policing and to restore and maintain public confidence in the RCMP.”

Concerns include:

- Use of the Taser.

- Use of police dogs.

- Inconsistency in the quality of public complaint investigations conducted by the RCMP.

- Observance of RCMP core values.

- Observance of protocols in police exchange operations.

As everyone in the country has come to understand, the federal police force is in crisis.

The pilot project announced in this report is the first indication RCMP brass recognize that and are beginning to respond constructively.

About one-third of the country’s Mounties are stationed in B.C.’s ‘E’ Division –5,900 regular members and about 1,700 civilian members and public service employees.

Most of B.C. is policed by the RCMP and it’s important that the Mounties not only feel supported by the public they serve, but also that the public feels confident in the force. This was the province most definitely in which to initiate this project.

That the force is going along with this idea is its first smart public relations move in months.

This kind of oversight isn’t the ideal situation, but as I said, it’s a good start.