RCMP Watch

Paul Everest, The Halifax Herald

An internal RCMP probe has determined that allegations of sexual harassment and racism raised against a former Digby Mountie are true.

In 2005, two women working out of the RCMP’s Digby office filed separate complaints against Staff Sgt. Wylie Grimm, then the commanding officer for that detachment. The women alleged he had made sexually suggestive and racist comments and engaged in inappropriate touching during a two-year span beginning in 2003.

An RCMP code-of-conduct investigation into the complaints ended in April 2006 when Mr. Grimm took a voluntary discharge.

The report was released on May 14.

Digby Mayor Frank Mackintosh said he learned about the probe’s outcome in the past few weeks.

“(The investigation) found that the girls were not willing participants in it and that the charges were founded,” he said. “I was pleased.”

Mr. Mackintosh said the female complainants — a civilian employee of the detachment and another who worked closely with police and maintained an office in the detachment — faced humiliation during the investigation.

“People tend to say it was nothing or it was the girl’s fault or whatever. And that’s kind of tough for people in a small town.”

One of the women, he added, has since moved away from the area.

The RCMP have said that Mr. Grimm will face no consequences in the wake of these findings.

“He’s a retired person,” said Const. Grant Webber, spokesman for Nova Scotia RCMP. “Once you leave the RCMP, they can’t do anything internally.”

Mr. Grimm now receives a full RCMP pension and benefits.

Mr. Mackintosh said it’s unfortunate the RCMP won’t take further action and he wonders if they are simply looking the other way because Mr. Grimm is “one of their own.”

“If you or I were to make a mistake, something would be done about it,” he said.