RCMP Watch

Tonda Maccharles (Toronto Star) - A big shakeup is underway in the senior ranks of the RCMP, the Star has learned.

In the wake of several damaging chapters last year for the Mounties, RCMP commissioner William Elliott has put new people in several top jobs.

The moves include the instalment of a “change leader,” new financial and human resources bosses, and the departures of commanding officers in two key divisions – Ontario and the national capital region.

Elliott, the RCMP’s first civilian boss, has named assistant commissioner Keith Clark to lead a “change management team” to carry out the recommendations of an independent task force that in December called for a complete RCMP overhaul.

In a Feb. 6 internal memo, Elliott said some of the new appointments are “an important step in putting in place a more robust and better aligned” senior executive team.

The executive team yesterday listened to Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada’s chief of defence staff, address the theme of change. Hillier urged them to trust and re-engage the people at the front line. The message, Hillier’s office said, was for the RCMP’s leaders to remember “this is where you came from and made you what you are” and to think “outside the Ottawa bubble.”

Now gone are assistant commissioner Mike Séguin of Ontario’s “O” Division (replaced for now by Chief Supt. Norm Mazerolle) and assistant commissioner Ghyslaine Clément of the RCMP’s “A” Division responsible for operations in the national capital region (replaced by Chief Supt. Allen Nause). Gone too is Brian Aiken, head of the RCMP’s internal audit, evaluation and review, (temporarily replaced by Supt. René-Pierre Tremblay).

All three retired. (Séguin will start a new job as director of parliamentary accommodation services at the House of Commons and Aiken will be executive director in the federal Office of the Comptroller General.)

All had some involvement in the way the RCMP, under then-commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, handled initial allegations about mismanagement of the force’s pension fund, although their roles were not highlighted by a parliamentary committee report last week.

That report did condemn deputy commissioner Barbara George and urged she be cited for contempt of Parliament for failing to provide complete and truthful testimony. But George is still on active duty with “a number of human resources assignments,” said RCMP spokesperson Sylvie Tremblay.

Elliott replaced her as the chief human resources officer with deputy commissioner Peter Martin.

Acting deputy commissioner Alain Séguin becomes the new chief financial and administrative officer, replacing Paul Gauvin , the civilian ousted for his role in the pension scandal. Gauvin remains involved with major capital projects.