RCMP Watch

Kathryn May, CanWest News Service

Barbara George, the first high-ranking Mountie threatened with contempt of Parliament for misleading MPs, says she will fight until she is exonerated and reinstated in her job.

The deputy commissioner, who could have been an inside contender to be the country’s top Mountie, was suspended three months ago in the fallout over the RCMP pension fiasco and now awaits the findings of two investigations.

An accusation of perjury by Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj threw her into the spotlight of a parliamentary probe, as well as investigations led by the force she served for nearly three decades.

“I bear no malice or ill will. I can see how this came to pass and why people are so agitated,” she said during an interview at her Ottawa-area home. “I guess I’m collateral damage, but this is where I sit.

“And what am I focused on? Quite honestly, at getting my life back in order, rebuilding my reputation, working on my career and getting back my sense of self and place. Who I am is Barb George, but a lot of that is connected with the RCMP, so I need to feel good about that and get back the pride of those 30 years.”

George, a 56-year-old native of Newfoundland, is the first deputy commissioner in the force’s history to be suspended, forced to surrender her badge, security pass, uniform and powers of a peace officer.

She believes much of her plight was caused by misunderstandings compounded by poor communication. A string of minor incidents and an unexpected turn of events and personalities gathered in a “perfect storm” that took away her job, reputation and life as she knew it.

That’s why she can’t blame her accuser and investigator, Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell, for thinking he found the “smoking gun” that fingered her in the pension scandal. She might have jumped to the same conclusion in his shoes, chasing the same trail of letters, e-mails and conflicting stories.

She still recalls the “catastrophic event” and “numbness” she felt when interim Commissioner Beverley Busson quietly called her into her office and told her it would be best for the force if she stepped aside as the RCMP’s chief human resources officer. Busson knew Frizzell would tell MPs he believed George removed him from an Ottawa police investigation when he suspected she wrongly transferred money from the insurance to the pension fund.

George agreed to step aside for the sake of the force and take education leave to finish a master’s degree. “I got out and I was a zombie,” George said. “I honestly don’t know how I drove home. I’m not being over-dramatic, but all I can hear is the swish of the blood rushing through my ears. I’m stunned and came home to an empty house.”

But that was only the beginning. As expected, five Mounties testified before MPs, publicly accusing senior RCMP management of nepotism, breaking contracting rules, sidelining whistleblowers, burying evidence and improperly diverting funds from the force’s pension and insurance funds. Wrzesnewskyj publicly accused George of perjury over conflicting testimony about Frizzell’s removal.

Busson then suspended George from her job as deputy commissioner. George discovered the RCMP had launched internal and criminal investigations around allegations of perjury. However, a Federal Court judge ruled the RCMP could not use her testimony against her in its internal investigation because it is protected by parliamentary privilege.

With that ruling, all allegations were dropped against her except a charge of disgraceful conduct for failing to fully brief Busson for a report to the committee about the complaints surrounding Frizzell’s behaviour. That internal hearing is expected in the late fall.

Meanwhile, George continues her fight to “get the truth out” and go back to work.

“It is the best force in the world. We recruit the best, train them well and the esprit de corps is a thing of beauty that I think needs to be cherished and polished a bit so we get back to members swelling with pride when they wear the red serge.”