Campbell Clark, Globe and Mail
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott has quickly answered critics who objected to the appointment of a bureaucrat with no police experience, starting his tenure by reaching out to a 33-year Mountie veteran to serve as his right hand on police matters.Mr. Elliott was sworn in yesterday in a low-key, private ceremony while wearing a dark suit instead of the iconic red serge RCMP uniform; he became a peace officer with the power of arrest and badge number O.2438.
But he immediately announced to the Mounties that Deputy Commissioner Bill Sweeney, who had also been a contender for the top job, will move from regional command of the RCMP in the Prairies and territories to serve as his key adviser on operations.
That move is being seen as an informal split in functions, with Mr. Elliott heading the restructuring of the RCMP’s management, while Deputy Commissioner Sweeney supervises policing and investigations – at least temporarily.
“He will have a deputy, a second, who will take care of police aspects, and William Elliott will take care of restructuring, reorganization and governance,” said Tony Cannavino, president of the Canadian Police Association, the advocacy group for rank-and-file officers from forces across the country.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s choice of an outsider in Mr. Elliott was seen as a signal that a force beset by several scandals will be shaken up. But it riled some rank-and-file Mounties, who believe that only someone who had served on the front lines of police operations could lead them.
Mr. Elliott chose to eschew the dress uniform after several Mounties said he should not wear it, and yesterday there was no public pomp. A formal change-in-command ceremony will be held in August.
The new commissioner immediately sought to placate tensions by sending an e-mail to members of the force, pledging that his first job will be to meet Mounties across the country and announcing Deputy Commissioner Sweeney’s move to the RCMP’s national headquarters for an “initial period” of eight months.
“During this period, Deputy Commissioner Sweeney will provide invaluable assistance to me in my new role as Commissioner. Bill will play a key role in relation to operational matters,” Mr. Elliott said.
Deputy Commissioner Sweeney, who rose through RCMP ranks serving mostly in detachments and commands in the West, is seen as a policeman’s policeman.
And while he holds the force’s second-highest rank, the Edmonton-based officer comes from outside the much-criticized circle of top brass that surrounded former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli.
“I’ve heard good things about Bill Sweeney from front-line officers,” said Rob Creasser, an RCMP constable in Kamloops and vice-president of the B.C. Mounted Police Professional Association, which has been critical of the force’s management and called for major changes.
“I think the outside candidate [Mr. Elliott] can deal with the type of structural reforms required within the RCMP, but while that’s taking place, you still need someone to steer the ship.”
As Mr. Elliott began his tenure yesterday, the newly appointed chair of a task force mandated with redesigning the RCMP, David Brown, said he expects the panel will call for “sweeping” changes to be put into place by early next year.
In June, Mr. Brown, the then government-appointed investigator into the RCMP’s pension-fund scandal, labelled the force’s management “horribly broken” and called for a task force to recommend changes.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day yesterday appointed Mr. Brown to head the task force, which was asked to recommend ways to restructure RCMP management, to ensure whistleblowers could come forward from inside of the force and to find a way to ensure the force’s top leaders are held accountable.
“My suspicion is that there will be some fairly sweeping changes recommended by the task force, but it’s a little too early for me to predict how the rest of my colleagues will want to push this,” Mr. Brown said in a telephone interview.
Along with Mr. Brown, the former chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, the task force will include former RCMP commissioner Norm Inkster; Linda Black, the head of Alberta’s Law Enforcement Review Board; Larry Murphy, the federal government’s deputy minister of fisheries who previously served as a navy admiral; and Richard Drouin, a former chair of Hydro-Québec, who now heads the North American Electric Reliability Corp.
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