RCMP Watch

Colin Freeze, Globe and Mail

The Federal Court of Canada yesterday upheld a nascent criminal investigation into whether one of the force’s most senior officers perjured herself before a parliamentary committee while testifying about the force’s pension-fund scandal.

Last February, Deputy Commissioner Barbara George told MPs that she had nothing to do with the removal of a senior investigator who was probing the improperly administered pension funds. A month later, her testimony was contradicted, as that senior investigator told the same group of MPs he was removed from the case after seeking explanations from Deputy Commissioner George.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced an independent investigation into the contradictory testimony, and the police force asked Deputy Commissioner George to stand aside, suspending her with pay.

A few days later, the senior Mountie probing the testimony advised the RCMP “he had personally decided to initiate a collateral criminal investigation into the allegation that the Applicant [Deputy Commissioner George] perjured herself,” court documents released yesterday say.

Deputy Commissioner George’s lawyers challenged that investigation in court, arguing that she was protected by “parliamentary privilege,” and that the investigation could not proceed.

Federal Court Judge Danièle Tremblay-Lamer disagreed. She said that “it would be inappropriate, under the circumstances of the case and at this early stage, for this court to quash and invalidate the criminal investigation” which, she noted, has yet to turn up any proof of wrongdoing.