Kathryn May (Ottawa Citizen) – Barbara George, the deputy commissioner suspended from the RCMP in the fallout over the force’s pension scandal, gets her badge back and goes back to work today.
The 30-year veteran, who has been suspended for eight months, is expected to return to work where she will find out what her new job will be within the force. RCMP Commissioner Bill Elliott is expected to announce details of George’s reinstatement today.
Meanwhile, the Commons public accounts committee has been in closed meetings the past several days over recalling George to explain the conflicting testimony that was at the centre of her removal from the job last spring. The committee has asked her to appear Dec. 11.
For months it has been speculated the RCMP and federal lawyers were negotiating with George and her lawyers about her return. Her husband Tom Maybee said little about it: “Let’s wait until she’s back in the job and in the future we may have more details.”
George, who keeps her rank, is one of six deputy commissioners — the force’s second highest rank. She was the force’s chief human resources officer when she was suspended last March following the dramatic testimony of five Mounties and a civilian whistleblower at a parliamentary committee where they accused the RCMP of corruption and coverup in the misuse of the force’s pension and insurance funds.
The scope of that job has since been changed and is now being filled by an acting assistant commissioner. It’s not expected she will return to that position.
George is the first deputy commissioner in the force’s history to be suspended, ordered to surrender her badge, security pass and powers as a peace officer. She argued from the start that she would fight until she was exonerated and reinstated in her job.
In an interview last summer, she said much of her plight was caused by a string of misunderstandings, which were compounded by poor communication. She said she believed these misunderstandings, along with an unexpected turn of events, gathered in a “perfect storm” and she became “collateral damage.”
George wasn’t even among the senior executives blamed in the original complaints in 2003 when insiders first raised red flags about managers misusing funds in the RCMP pension plan.
She found herself in the spotlight and was eventually suspended over conflicting testimony at a public accounts committee about how and why RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell was pulled off the Ottawa police criminal investigation into the pension fiasco shortly before it was shut down.
It’s expected that MPs want to ask George more questions about the conflicting testimony and provide her version of events.
MPs, however, can still take action if they aren’t satisfied with her responses or feel she deliberately misled the committee. All testimony at parliamentary committee is protected by parliamentary privilege and can’t be used against witnesses in a legal proceeding.
MPs could waive privilege if they conclude she misled them. That testimony could be turned over to the Crown to lay perjury charges. Parliament has never waived privilege.
The committee could pursue contempt of Parliament charges; issue a report rebuking her for not being more forthcoming; or do nothing at all.
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