RCMP boss should be a cop: senator

Cindy E. Harnett (Victoria Times Colonist) – The federal government must replace embattled RCMP Commissioner William Elliott with an experienced RCMP officer, Liberal senator Colin Kenny said yesterday.

Senior Mounties have expressed discontent with the force’s civilian leader.

But a new commissioner will be “hamstrung” unless the government first sets up a board of directors for the troubled force, gives it independent status, and the funding — up to $1 billion — it will need over time to hire at least 5,000 more officers, he said.

“If they had a board of directors now this wouldn’t have happened,” said Kenny, an expert on municipal and national policing, who was in Victoria yesterday.

Elliott, a longtime bureaucrat with no policing experience, should have been screaming for the government to set up a board that would have helped him to go forward with major reforms on the force, Kenny said.

“This is a guy who is supposed to be able to stickhandle around Ottawa,” he said.

Instead, there is as yet no board and Elliott is the subject of a mutiny of sorts — with complaints coming from as many as 10 deputy and assistant commissioners, according to CBC News, accusing the commissioner of being “verbally abusive” and “insulting” to staff.

Elliott was brought in as a “cold shower” for the RCMP by the government, which maintained no one within the RCMP was capable of doing the top job, Kenny said, but Elliott has now “served his purpose.”

“Elliott’s mission is accomplished, and it’s time for a commissioner who has gone to Depot [RCMP training academy in Regina],” Kenny said.

“I give Mr. Harper credit for recognizing there was a problem in the force and the strategy was a first good step, but now it’s time to move on with a cop.”

The RCMP’s senior officers are eager now to implement reform, he said.

A long list of people are qualified for the commissioner’s job, including B.C.’s Gary Loeppky, former deputy commissioner of the RCMP, said Kenny.

The RCMP attempted to dampen the affair Wednesday with a statement comparing the dispute to a dysfunctional family trying to deal with its issues.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews stressed there will be no decision on the commissioner’s future until a workplace assessment overseen by his deputy minister is completed.

“That is just goofy,” said Kenny. “Why drag out the problem for four to six weeks?”

Getting on with finding the right replacement is the way forward, he said, because then the force could get on with reforming and hopefully hiring new officers for underserviced detachments throughout Canada.

The Liberal senator echoed the words of Julian Fantino, commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, who said Canada would benefit from one police force across all provincial and municipal borders.

Kenny dismissed the idea of creating a provincial police force because it “would drive the costs of policing up,” adding that it’s natural the province is looking into the comparative costs given B.C.’s contract with the RCMP expires in 2012.

“In my view, they are simply showboating to get leverage when the negotiations come up,” he said.