RCMP Watch

Waterloo Record, Editorial

They serve on the streets in the small communities across the country. They enforce the law when in a cruiser or on foot. In Ontario and Quebec, they focus on special areas of policing such as drug cases. On Parliament Hill, as every tourist in Ottawa knows, they stand in their bright red tunics, proudly representing all Canadians.

But, sadly, something is wrong with the institution to which these men and women belong: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Day after day, stories are slipping into newspapers and news- casts that suggest the RCMP has been infected by scandalous behaviour. In many cases, the allegations have come from credible sources: members or former members of the force.

How they must feel chagrined when they feel obliged to provide members of Parliament or newspaper reporters with information that is highly critical of the national police force.

The image of the RCMP as a well-run organization started to change last year when auditor general Sheila Fraser reported millions of dollars in inappropriate charges to the RCMP’s pension and insurance plans.

Several Mounties have already appeared before a Commons committee to provide startling testimony. Who could forget the testimony of Ron Lewis, a retired RCMP staff sergeant? He accused the force’s former chief, Giuliano Zaccardelli, of lying.

The police force has also come under strong criticism for its handling of the Maher Arar torture case and the investigation of the bombing of an Air India plane that had departed from Canada.

More recently, a Toronto lawyer has said he has the names of half a dozen current or former Mounties who are prepared to reveal further problems about the police force if they are asked to speak to a parliamentary committee. The allegations include the suggestion that senior officers misused their investigative powers.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has asked David Brown, a lawyer and former head of the Ontario Securities Commission, to look into the alleged financial abuses, but that’s not good enough.

So far Day has declined to call a public inquiry. Day has argued that an inquiry would take too long and be too costly. He has also pointed out that the government is about to appoint a new commissioner of the police force.

It would be nice to think that a new commissioner could correct all the problems that have arisen, but that would probably be naive. The problems are deep. They aren’t likely to go away when a new person takes over or because the Conservatives have taken over from the Liberals in Ottawa. Day should think most about those decent, hard-working members of the RCMP. They deserve to belong to an organization that lives by the rules it enforces.

He should establish a full inquiry into the Mounties’ problems.