Scandals surrounding the RCMP
Encyclopedia
While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
has a history dating back to 1873 and has been involved in several high-profile controversies during that time, particularly in the 1970s.
and the North
. The new organization was created by an amalgamation with the Dominion Police
, giving the RCMP a national security
mandate as a departure from its earlier role as a frontier
police force. Early controversies grew from its preoccupation with Communism
and the labour movement
. Following from its operations in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
, the RCMP intervened in labour disputes, not as an impartial law enforcement agency, but to assist with breaking strikes. In one incident, RCMP officers clashed with striking coal miners for 45 minutes in Estevan, Saskatchewan
in 1933 and killed three miners during the melee (see Estevan Riot
). Part of its strategy against labour organizing included extensive use of spies
for surveillance of suspected Communists, which was revealed at the court trial that convicted the leadership of the Communist Party
under Section 98
of the Criminal Code of Canada
in 1932. Political surveillance activities were conducted out of its Criminal Investigation Department
until a separate branch, the RCMP Security Service
, was established in 1950. The RCMP was also the force used to stop the On-to-Ottawa Trek
by precipitating another bloody clash that left one Regina city police
officer and one protester dead in the 1935 Regina Riot. The Mounties were frequently criticized for these activities by labour and the left, including one of its most prominent surveillance targets, Member of Parliament
J. S. Woodsworth
. A dispute with the Government of Alberta over prohibition
led to the creation of a separate Alberta Provincial Police
from 1917 to 1932.
s during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, as well as the impact of the federal government's efforts during that time to relocate Inuit into modern settlements.
In the same year, a Royal Commission
was formed by Justice David McDonald entitled Inquiry Into Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
to investigate allegations of vast wrongdoing by the national police force. The inquiry's 1981 recommendation was to limit the RCMP's role in intelligence operations, and resulted in the formation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
three years later.
, in an attempt to link the explosives with the FLQ
. This was later admitted by Solicitor General
Francis Fox
on October 31, 1977.
reporter John Sawatsky
in his front-page exposé
headline "Trail of break-in leads to RCMP cover-up" on December 7, 1976. The story won the Vancouver Sun the Michener Award
that year.
It wasn't until the following year that it was uncovered that the October 6, 1972, break-in at the Agence de Presse Libre du Québec office, had been the work of an RCMP investigation dubbed Operation Bricole, not right-wing militants as previously believed. The small leftist Quebec group had reported more than a thousand significant files missing or damaged following the break-in. One RCMP, one SQ
and one SPVM
officer pleaded guilty on June 16, 1977, but were given unconditional discharges.
A similar break-in occurred at the same time, at the office of the Mouvement pour la Défense des Prisonniers Politiques Québécois.
In 1974, RCMP Security Service Corporal Robert Samson was arrested trying to plant explosives at the house of Sam Steinberg, founder of Steinberg Foods in Montreal. While this bombing was not sanctioned by the RCMP, at trial he announced that he had done "much worse" on behalf of the RCMP, and admitted he had been involved in the APLQ break-in.
On April 19, 1978, the Director of the RCMP criminal operations branch, admitted that the RCMP had entered more than 400 premises without warrant since 1970.
a barn owned by Paul Rose's mother in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Rochelle, Quebec
. They suspected that separatists were planning to meet with members of the Black Panthers from the United States. The arson came after they failed to convince a judge to allow them to wiretap
the alleged meeting place. This was later admitted by Solicitor General
Francis Fox
on October 31, 1977.
Staff Sergeant Donald McCleery was involved in the operation, and today runs his own "investigation and surveillance" company.
members, in an investigation dubbed Operation Ham. This was later admitted by Solicitor General
Francis Fox
on October 28, 1977. John Starnes
, head of the RCMP Security Service, claimed that the purpose of this operation was to investigate allegations that the PQ had funneled $200,000 worth of donations through a Swiss banking account.
, he was pilloried as the most likely suspect by the RCMP themselves, although the RCMP was asked to investigate Bennett by James Jesus Angleton
of the CIA. The accusations and interrogations by the police led to the breakdown of Bennett's marriage and early retirement.
In the 1980s it was discovered that the mole had actually been Sergeant Gilles Brunet, the son of an RCMP assistant commissioner.
. Controversy arose after officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used pepper spray
and strip search
es against protesters, who were objecting to the presence of several autocratic
leaders such as Indonesian president
Suharto. A subsequent public inquiry concluded that the RCMP was at fault, showing a lack of professionalism a failure of planning. The report also charged that the Canadian government interfered with police operations, possibly in an effort to shield certain leaders from being publicly embarrassed by the protests.
after being attacked inside the holding cells at a Pincher Creek
police station. After two hung juries, Ferguson was convicted at a third trial of the killing and found guilty of manslaughter
.
to Montreal
, Maher Arar
was detained by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, acting upon information supplied by the RCMP.
Arar was sent to Syria where he was imprisoned for more than 10 months, tortured and forced to sign a false confession that he had trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. A public campaign ended in his release and won a public inquiry into his case, which found that he had no ties to terrorism.
Like Arar, Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin are Canadian Muslim men who were detained and tortured overseas while under investigation by Canadian investigators. They were all detained when they arrived in Syria and taken to the same Syrian detention centre — the Far' Falastin, or Palestine Branch — of the Syrian Military Intelligence. All were tortured. All were interrogated by the same Syrian interrogation team, who accused them all of links to terrorism using information and questions that could only have originated with Canadian agencies. The Arar Inquiry has already determined that the RCMP sent questions for Abdullah Almalki to his Syrian interrogators. As in the case of Arar, unnamed Canadian officials used the media to publicly accuse El Maati and Almalki of having ties to al-Qaeda. No Canadian official has admitted to making these accusations in the media, and many years later, no evidence has ever been produced to back their claims. Like Arar, El Maati and Nureddin were eventually released without charge. Almalki was cleared, acquitted and released. When they returned to Canada, they all called for a process which would expose the truth about the role of Canadian agencies in what happened to them, and which would help them clear their names and rebuild their lives. Their stories and the story of the RCMP investigation likely responsible for what happened to at least three of them are told in a new book by Kerry Pither called Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror.
On September 28, 2006, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli
issued a carefully worded public apology to Arar and his family during the House of Commons committee on public safety and national security:
In a subsequent December 2006 appearance in front of the Commons committee, Zaccardelli said the timeline—regarding what he knew at the time and what he told government ministers—given in his first appearance in September was inaccurate. He resigned the following day.
On January 26, 2007, after months of negotiations between the Canadian government and Arar's Canadian legal counsel, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology "for any role Canadian officials may have played in what happened to Mr. Arar, Monia Mazigh and their family in 2002 and 2003" and announced that Arar would receive $10.5 million settlement for his ordeal and an additional $1 million for legal costs. Ahmad El Maati and Abdullah Almalki, meanwhile, still await answers in their cases from the secretive Iacobucci Inquiry into the RCMP and other Canadian agencies' alleged role in their overseas detention and torture.
, revealed a secret audit that detailed misuse of millions of dollars by the RCMP of its own members' pension fund.
He also revealed that several people had been forced from their jobs because of the scandal, but that there had not been a proper probe into the irregularities. The same day his story was published, Commissioner Zaccardelli announced the force would pay back to the pension fund the millions misused and he called for a police probe by Ottawa Police Force, though Zaccardelli somehow managed to maintain control over the probe and nobody was subsequently charged.
After Zaccardelli's resignation in 2007, a public accounts committee heard several testimonies from former and serving RCMP officers alleging serious fraud and nepotism at the upper management level under Zaccardelli. The fraud allegations go back to 2002 and are related to RCMP pension and insurance plans for members of the force. Zaccardelli launched and then two days later cancelled a criminal investigation into the matter, which was resumed by the Ottawa Police Service
after his resignation. That investigation found serious nepotism and wasteful spending. A follow-up investigation by the Auditor-General found millions of dollars inappropriately charged to the pension and insurance plans.
A subsequent investigation conducted by a former head of the Ontario Securities Commission strongly criticized the management style of Zaccardelli, which he said was responsible for "a fundamental breach of trust" and called for a major shake-up of the force. Specifically, RCMP members and employees who attempted to address the pension fund issue suffered "career damage" for doing so, according to the investigators findings. Interim RCMP Commissioner Beverley Busson
concurred with the recommendations and promised that individuals who the upper ranks attempted to silence would be thanked and recognized.
judge, David Ramsay, who pled guilty to misconduct with young prostitutes, similar allegations were made against Constable Justin Harris and other RCMP officers. Harris was accused of having touched an underage prostitute, paying a prostitute for sex, and refusing to pay at all, between 1993 and 2001.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act forbids a hearing to take place more than one year after a senior officer has been made aware of such allegations, but because the allegations had been made against nine officers with little evidence, the RCMP did not launch a criminal investigation against Harris, and did not launch a misconduct hearing until 2005. On October 4, 2006, the RCMP disciplinary board decided to stop all proceedings against Harris because the investigation conflicted with the RCMP Act. (This decision has since been appealed by the senior RCMP officer in B.C.) Public outcry from people like Daisy Kler of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter criticized the RCMP's internal investigation policies.
, 22 was arrested in Houston, British Columbia
. At the RCMP detachment office, Bush died due to a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Koester and Bush were alone in the interrogation room. Koester claimed that he was being choked from behind to unconsciousness and acted in self defence. An investigation was conducted by an RCMP team brought in from another region. That investigation was reviewed by several agencies including the Ministry of the Attorney General of BC, by Crown Counsel, and the federal RCMP Public Complaints Commission
. Koester was cleared of any wrongdoing. The Coroner's Inquest into the death reached the same conclusion.
Conflicting evidence was given at the inquest. The analyses of the blood splatter
evidence by an RCMP forensics officer, Jim Hignell, and Edmonton
police constable, Joseph Slemko, differed; the former supporting Koester's account, the latter contradicting it.
on October 14, 2007, and waited 10 hours at the airport before being taken into police custody. He died after being taser
ed a total of five times by a group of four RCMP officers. Police have been heavily criticized for their handling of the incident, and the incident has revived debate concerning police use of tasers in Canada. , a public inquiry
is evaluating the use of conducted energy weapons (Tasers) in British Columbia, and to provide the public with a complete record of the circumstances of Robert Dziekanski’s death.
. In addition to this, memos were distributed referring to British Columbia's Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS - a nationally renowned repository of some of the top AIDS research in the world - as the "Centre for Excrements", and suggesting stacking radio shows with callers against Insite.
, a former spokeswoman for the British Columbia
Division, came forward with a claim that she had been the victim of sexual harassment
by senior officers as far back as 1991, when she graduated from the RCMP Academy
.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
has a history dating back to 1873 and has been involved in several high-profile controversies during that time, particularly in the 1970s.
Early controversies
Until 1920, the RCMP and its forerunner, the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, operated only in Western CanadaWestern Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
and the North
Northern Canada
Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...
. The new organization was created by an amalgamation with the Dominion Police
Dominion Police
In 1868 the Dominion Police began as a police force protecting the Parliament Buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and by 1911 it served as Canada's eastern police force .In May 1918, the 969...
, giving the RCMP a national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
mandate as a departure from its earlier role as a frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
police force. Early controversies grew from its preoccupation with Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and the labour movement
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
. Following from its operations in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the most influential strikes in Canadian history, and became the platform for future labour reforms....
, the RCMP intervened in labour disputes, not as an impartial law enforcement agency, but to assist with breaking strikes. In one incident, RCMP officers clashed with striking coal miners for 45 minutes in Estevan, Saskatchewan
Estevan, Saskatchewan
Estevan is the eighth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located at , which is near the southeastern corner of the province. The Souris River runs by the city. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Estevan No. 5.-History:...
in 1933 and killed three miners during the melee (see Estevan Riot
Estevan Riot
The Estevan Riot, also known as the Black Tuesday Riot, was a confrontation between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and striking coal miners from nearby Bienfait, Saskatchewan which took place in Estevan, Saskatchewan on September 29, 1931. The miners had been on strike since September 7, 1931...
). Part of its strategy against labour organizing included extensive use of spies
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
for surveillance of suspected Communists, which was revealed at the court trial that convicted the leadership of the Communist Party
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
under Section 98
Section 98
Section 98 of the Criminal Code of Canada was a law enacted after the Winnipeg General Strike banning "unlawful associations." It was used in the 1930s against the Communist Party of Canada....
of the Criminal Code of Canada
Criminal Code of Canada
The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...
in 1932. Political surveillance activities were conducted out of its Criminal Investigation Department
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
until a separate branch, the RCMP Security Service
RCMP Security Service
The RCMP Security Service is the former branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which had responsibilities of domestic intelligence and security for Canada...
, was established in 1950. The RCMP was also the force used to stop the On-to-Ottawa Trek
On-to-Ottawa Trek
The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a long journey where thousands of people had unemployed men protesting the dismal conditions in federal relief camps scattered in remote areas across Western Canada. The men lived and worked in these camps at a rate of twenty cents per day before walking out on strike in...
by precipitating another bloody clash that left one Regina city police
Regina Police Service
Regina Police Service, formed in 1892, is the municipal police force for the City of Regina, Saskatchewan.During the late 1890s, Regina was capital of the Northwest Territories, though not more than a collection of frame buildings and tents...
officer and one protester dead in the 1935 Regina Riot. The Mounties were frequently criticized for these activities by labour and the left, including one of its most prominent surveillance targets, Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
J. S. Woodsworth
J. S. Woodsworth
James Shaver Woodsworth was a pioneer in the Canadian social democratic movement. Following more than two decades ministering to the poor and the working class, J. S...
. A dispute with the Government of Alberta over prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
led to the creation of a separate Alberta Provincial Police
Alberta Provincial Police
The Alberta Provincial Police was a police force active in Alberta, Canada between 1917 and 1932. In 1917, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police left Alberta due to a lack of sufficient resources in light of its increased responsibilities for national security during World War I...
from 1917 to 1932.
Killing of Inuit sled dogs
There have been many Inuit accounts related to the alleged killings of sled dogSled dog
Sled dogs, known also as sleigh man dogs, sledge dogs, or sleddogs, are highly trained types of dogs that are used to pull a dog sled, a wheel-less vehicle on runners also called a sled or sleigh, over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines.Sled dogs have become a popular winter recreation...
s during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, as well as the impact of the federal government's efforts during that time to relocate Inuit into modern settlements.
Inquiries
In 1977, the Quebec provincial government launched the Keable Inquiry into Illegal Police Activities, which resulted in 17 members of the RCMP being charged with 44 offences.In the same year, a Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
was formed by Justice David McDonald entitled Inquiry Into Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP, better known as the McDonald Commission, was a Royal Commission called by the Canadian government of Pierre Trudeau to investigate the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after a number of illegal activities by the RCMP Security Service...
to investigate allegations of vast wrongdoing by the national police force. The inquiry's 1981 recommendation was to limit the RCMP's role in intelligence operations, and resulted in the formation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...
three years later.
Theft of dynamite
In April 1971, a team of RCMP officers broke into the storage facilities of Richelieu Explosives, and stole an unspecified amount of dynamite. A year later, in April 1972, officers hid four cases of dynamite in Mont Saint-GrégoireMont Saint-Grégoire
Mont Saint-Grégoire is a mountain in the Montérégie region of southern Quebec. The mountain is composed of essexite and syenite, strongly contrasting with the surrounding sedimentary rocks...
, in an attempt to link the explosives with the FLQ
Front de libération du Québec
The Front de libération du Québec was a left-wing Quebecois nationalist and Marxist-Leninist paramilitary group in Quebec, Canada. It was active between 1963 and 1970, and was regarded as a terrorist organization for its violent methods of action...
. This was later admitted by Solicitor General
Solicitor General of Canada
The Solicitor General of Canada was a position in the Canadian ministry from 1892 to 2005. The position was based on the Solicitor General in the British system and was originally designated as an officer to assist the Minister of Justice...
Francis Fox
Francis Fox
Francis Fox, PC, QC is a member of the Senate of Canada. He is a former Canadian Cabinet minister and is the former Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, and thus was a senior aide to Prime Minister Paul Martin. He also worked as a lobbyist in the 1980s.-Life and career:Born in...
on October 31, 1977.
Break-ins and bombing
A series of more than 400 illegal break-ins by the RCMP were revealed by Vancouver SunThe Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
reporter John Sawatsky
John Sawatsky
Ferdinand John Sawatzky is a Canadian author, journalist and expert on interviewing techniques.-Early career:Born in Winkler, Manitoba, he graduated from Mennonite Educational Institute in Abbotsford and attended Simon Fraser University in the late 1960s. Graduating in political science, he...
in his front-page exposé
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
headline "Trail of break-in leads to RCMP cover-up" on December 7, 1976. The story won the Vancouver Sun the Michener Award
Michener Award
The Michener Award is one of the highest distinctions in Canadian journalism. The award was founded in 1970 by Roland Michener, who was Governor General of Canada at the time, and his wife Norah...
that year.
It wasn't until the following year that it was uncovered that the October 6, 1972, break-in at the Agence de Presse Libre du Québec office, had been the work of an RCMP investigation dubbed Operation Bricole, not right-wing militants as previously believed. The small leftist Quebec group had reported more than a thousand significant files missing or damaged following the break-in. One RCMP, one SQ
Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec or SQ is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Québec...
and one SPVM
Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal is the police force for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. With about 4,400 officers and 1,600 civilian staff, it is the second largest municipal police agency in Canada after the Toronto Police Service and second largest in the province behind the...
officer pleaded guilty on June 16, 1977, but were given unconditional discharges.
A similar break-in occurred at the same time, at the office of the Mouvement pour la Défense des Prisonniers Politiques Québécois.
In 1974, RCMP Security Service Corporal Robert Samson was arrested trying to plant explosives at the house of Sam Steinberg, founder of Steinberg Foods in Montreal. While this bombing was not sanctioned by the RCMP, at trial he announced that he had done "much worse" on behalf of the RCMP, and admitted he had been involved in the APLQ break-in.
On April 19, 1978, the Director of the RCMP criminal operations branch, admitted that the RCMP had entered more than 400 premises without warrant since 1970.
Barn-burning scandal
Perhaps the best-remembered scandal, on the night of May 6, 1972, the RCMP Security Service burned downArson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
a barn owned by Paul Rose's mother in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Rochelle, Quebec
Sainte-Anne-de-la-Rochelle, Quebec
Sainte-Anne-de-la-Rochelle is a community in Quebec situated within the Regional County Municipality of Le Val-Saint-François in the administrative region of Estrie....
. They suspected that separatists were planning to meet with members of the Black Panthers from the United States. The arson came after they failed to convince a judge to allow them to wiretap
Telephone tapping
Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line...
the alleged meeting place. This was later admitted by Solicitor General
Solicitor General of Canada
The Solicitor General of Canada was a position in the Canadian ministry from 1892 to 2005. The position was based on the Solicitor General in the British system and was originally designated as an officer to assist the Minister of Justice...
Francis Fox
Francis Fox
Francis Fox, PC, QC is a member of the Senate of Canada. He is a former Canadian Cabinet minister and is the former Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, and thus was a senior aide to Prime Minister Paul Martin. He also worked as a lobbyist in the 1980s.-Life and career:Born in...
on October 31, 1977.
Staff Sergeant Donald McCleery was involved in the operation, and today runs his own "investigation and surveillance" company.
Theft of PQ members list
In 1973, more than thirty members of the RCMP Security Service committed a break-in to steal a computerized members list of Parti QuébécoisParti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
members, in an investigation dubbed Operation Ham. This was later admitted by Solicitor General
Solicitor General of Canada
The Solicitor General of Canada was a position in the Canadian ministry from 1892 to 2005. The position was based on the Solicitor General in the British system and was originally designated as an officer to assist the Minister of Justice...
Francis Fox
Francis Fox
Francis Fox, PC, QC is a member of the Senate of Canada. He is a former Canadian Cabinet minister and is the former Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, and thus was a senior aide to Prime Minister Paul Martin. He also worked as a lobbyist in the 1980s.-Life and career:Born in...
on October 28, 1977. John Starnes
John Starnes
John Starnes is a Christian singer, a particularly high tenor, well-known for appearing on TV alongside Jimmy Swaggart during his crusades, and on Bill Gaither's Homecoming tours....
, head of the RCMP Security Service, claimed that the purpose of this operation was to investigate allegations that the PQ had funneled $200,000 worth of donations through a Swiss banking account.
Intelligence mole
In 1972, it was suspected that there was a Soviet infiltrator in the ranks of Canadian intelligence. Suspicion initially fell upon Leslie James Bennett. With Bennett's personal leftist politics, and past acquaintanceship with defector Kim PhilbyKim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, he was pilloried as the most likely suspect by the RCMP themselves, although the RCMP was asked to investigate Bennett by James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
of the CIA. The accusations and interrogations by the police led to the breakdown of Bennett's marriage and early retirement.
In the 1980s it was discovered that the mole had actually been Sergeant Gilles Brunet, the son of an RCMP assistant commissioner.
Excessive use of force at the 1997 APEC Summit
In 1997, the APEC summit was held in VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. Controversy arose after officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used pepper spray
Pepper spray
Pepper spray, also known as OC spray , OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent that is used in riot control, crowd control and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears...
and strip search
Strip search
A strip search is the stripping of a person to check for weapons or other contraband.-Legality of strip searches:...
es against protesters, who were objecting to the presence of several autocratic
Autocracy
An autocracy is a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state. It is derived from the Greek : and , and may be translated as "one who rules by himself". It is distinct from oligarchy and democracy...
leaders such as Indonesian president
President of Indonesia
The President of the Republic of Indonesia is the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Indonesia.The first president was Sukarno and the current president is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.- Sukarno era :...
Suharto. A subsequent public inquiry concluded that the RCMP was at fault, showing a lack of professionalism a failure of planning. The report also charged that the Canadian government interfered with police operations, possibly in an effort to shield certain leaders from being publicly embarrassed by the protests.
Killing of Darren Varley
In 1999 RCMP Constable Michael Ferguson fatally shot local resident Darren VarleyDarren Varley
Darren Varley born in Pincher Creek, Alberta was a truck driver who lived in Pincher Creek, Alberta his entire life. On October 2nd, 1999, he had just finished a long day at work and headed to a local pub where he was to meet his sister. After several hours of drinking, Varley had become intoxicated...
after being attacked inside the holding cells at a Pincher Creek
Pincher Creek, Alberta
Pincher Creek is a town in the southwest of Alberta, Canada. It is located immediately east of the Canadian Rockies in the centre of ranching country, north of Waterton Lakes National Park.The town's mayor is Ernie Olsen.- History :...
police station. After two hung juries, Ferguson was convicted at a third trial of the killing and found guilty of manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
.
Torture Scandal: The stories of Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Maher Arar
On September 26, 2002, during a stopover in New York City en route from a family vacation in TunisiaTunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Maher Arar
Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation.Arar was detained during a layover at John F...
was detained by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, acting upon information supplied by the RCMP.
Arar was sent to Syria where he was imprisoned for more than 10 months, tortured and forced to sign a false confession that he had trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. A public campaign ended in his release and won a public inquiry into his case, which found that he had no ties to terrorism.
Like Arar, Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin are Canadian Muslim men who were detained and tortured overseas while under investigation by Canadian investigators. They were all detained when they arrived in Syria and taken to the same Syrian detention centre — the Far' Falastin, or Palestine Branch — of the Syrian Military Intelligence. All were tortured. All were interrogated by the same Syrian interrogation team, who accused them all of links to terrorism using information and questions that could only have originated with Canadian agencies. The Arar Inquiry has already determined that the RCMP sent questions for Abdullah Almalki to his Syrian interrogators. As in the case of Arar, unnamed Canadian officials used the media to publicly accuse El Maati and Almalki of having ties to al-Qaeda. No Canadian official has admitted to making these accusations in the media, and many years later, no evidence has ever been produced to back their claims. Like Arar, El Maati and Nureddin were eventually released without charge. Almalki was cleared, acquitted and released. When they returned to Canada, they all called for a process which would expose the truth about the role of Canadian agencies in what happened to them, and which would help them clear their names and rebuild their lives. Their stories and the story of the RCMP investigation likely responsible for what happened to at least three of them are told in a new book by Kerry Pither called Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror.
On September 28, 2006, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli
Giuliano Zaccardelli
Giuliano Zaccardelli, COM is a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who was the Commissioner of the RCMP from 2 September 2000 to 15 December 2006. Zaccardelli's departure from the RCMP was linked to the force's involvement in the Maher Arar Affair...
issued a carefully worded public apology to Arar and his family during the House of Commons committee on public safety and national security:
Mr. Arar, I wish to take this opportunity to express publicly to you and to your wife and to your children how truly sorry I am for whatever part the actions of the RCMP may have contributed to the terrible injustices that you experienced and the pain that you and your family endured.
In a subsequent December 2006 appearance in front of the Commons committee, Zaccardelli said the timeline—regarding what he knew at the time and what he told government ministers—given in his first appearance in September was inaccurate. He resigned the following day.
On January 26, 2007, after months of negotiations between the Canadian government and Arar's Canadian legal counsel, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology "for any role Canadian officials may have played in what happened to Mr. Arar, Monia Mazigh and their family in 2002 and 2003" and announced that Arar would receive $10.5 million settlement for his ordeal and an additional $1 million for legal costs. Ahmad El Maati and Abdullah Almalki, meanwhile, still await answers in their cases from the secretive Iacobucci Inquiry into the RCMP and other Canadian agencies' alleged role in their overseas detention and torture.
Pension fund scandal
In 2004, Andrew McIntosh, an investigative journalist at The National PostNational Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
, revealed a secret audit that detailed misuse of millions of dollars by the RCMP of its own members' pension fund.
He also revealed that several people had been forced from their jobs because of the scandal, but that there had not been a proper probe into the irregularities. The same day his story was published, Commissioner Zaccardelli announced the force would pay back to the pension fund the millions misused and he called for a police probe by Ottawa Police Force, though Zaccardelli somehow managed to maintain control over the probe and nobody was subsequently charged.
After Zaccardelli's resignation in 2007, a public accounts committee heard several testimonies from former and serving RCMP officers alleging serious fraud and nepotism at the upper management level under Zaccardelli. The fraud allegations go back to 2002 and are related to RCMP pension and insurance plans for members of the force. Zaccardelli launched and then two days later cancelled a criminal investigation into the matter, which was resumed by the Ottawa Police Service
Ottawa Police Service
The Ottawa Police Service serves the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.-History:The OPS roots come from the formation of the "Bytown Association" in 1847. In 1855 Roderick Ross was the first Chief Constable for the newly formed City of Ottawa...
after his resignation. That investigation found serious nepotism and wasteful spending. A follow-up investigation by the Auditor-General found millions of dollars inappropriately charged to the pension and insurance plans.
A subsequent investigation conducted by a former head of the Ontario Securities Commission strongly criticized the management style of Zaccardelli, which he said was responsible for "a fundamental breach of trust" and called for a major shake-up of the force. Specifically, RCMP members and employees who attempted to address the pension fund issue suffered "career damage" for doing so, according to the investigators findings. Interim RCMP Commissioner Beverley Busson
Beverley Busson
Beverley Ann Busson, COM, OBC is a former Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She was the first female to hold this post from December 16, 2006 to July 16, 2007, and was appointed on a temporary basis in the wake of Giuliano Zaccardelli's resignation amid controversy that erupted...
concurred with the recommendations and promised that individuals who the upper ranks attempted to silence would be thanked and recognized.
Const. Justin Harris and the Prince George RCMP
Following the 2002 case of a Prince GeorgePrince George, British Columbia
Prince George, with a population of 71,030 , is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, and is known as "BC's Northern Capital"...
judge, David Ramsay, who pled guilty to misconduct with young prostitutes, similar allegations were made against Constable Justin Harris and other RCMP officers. Harris was accused of having touched an underage prostitute, paying a prostitute for sex, and refusing to pay at all, between 1993 and 2001.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act forbids a hearing to take place more than one year after a senior officer has been made aware of such allegations, but because the allegations had been made against nine officers with little evidence, the RCMP did not launch a criminal investigation against Harris, and did not launch a misconduct hearing until 2005. On October 4, 2006, the RCMP disciplinary board decided to stop all proceedings against Harris because the investigation conflicted with the RCMP Act. (This decision has since been appealed by the senior RCMP officer in B.C.) Public outcry from people like Daisy Kler of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter criticized the RCMP's internal investigation policies.
Ian Bush Incident
On October 29, 2005, Ian BushIan Bush
Ian Bush , a resident of British Columbia, Canada, was killed while in police custody on October 29, 2005 by Constable Paul Koester of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police . Significant ongoing controversy has been generated as a result of the case. Ian Bush was a popular young man in Houston BC...
, 22 was arrested in Houston, British Columbia
Houston, British Columbia
Houston is a forestry, mining and tourism town in the Bulkley Valley of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Its urban population is approximately 3600 people, with approximately 2000 in the surrounding rural area. It is known as the "Steelhead Capital" and it has the world's largest...
. At the RCMP detachment office, Bush died due to a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Koester and Bush were alone in the interrogation room. Koester claimed that he was being choked from behind to unconsciousness and acted in self defence. An investigation was conducted by an RCMP team brought in from another region. That investigation was reviewed by several agencies including the Ministry of the Attorney General of BC, by Crown Counsel, and the federal RCMP Public Complaints Commission
Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP
The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP is an independent Canadian government agency responsible for complaints, as well as complaints from members of the RCMP, of improper conduct of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police....
. Koester was cleared of any wrongdoing. The Coroner's Inquest into the death reached the same conclusion.
Conflicting evidence was given at the inquest. The analyses of the blood splatter
Bloodstain pattern analysis
Bloodstain pattern analysis is one of several specialties in the field of forensic science. The use of bloodstains as evidence is not new; however, the application of modern science has brought it to a higher level...
evidence by an RCMP forensics officer, Jim Hignell, and Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
police constable, Joseph Slemko, differed; the former supporting Koester's account, the latter contradicting it.
Robert Dziekański Taser incident
Robert Dziekański was a Polish immigrant who arrived at the Vancouver International AirportVancouver International Airport
Vancouver International Airport is located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, about from Downtown Vancouver. In 2010 it was the second busiest airport in Canada by aircraft movements and passengers , behind Toronto Pearson International Airport, with non-stop flights daily to...
on October 14, 2007, and waited 10 hours at the airport before being taken into police custody. He died after being taser
Taser
A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects "neuromuscular incapacitation" and the devices' mechanism "Electro-Muscular Disruption technology"...
ed a total of five times by a group of four RCMP officers. Police have been heavily criticized for their handling of the incident, and the incident has revived debate concerning police use of tasers in Canada. , a public inquiry
Braidwood Inquiry
The Braidwood Inquiry was a public inquiry conducted in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, examining the safety of Tasers and the death of Robert Dziekanski. The two-stage inquiry is being conducted by retired Court of Appeal of British Columbia and Court of Appeal of the Yukon Territory Justice...
is evaluating the use of conducted energy weapons (Tasers) in British Columbia, and to provide the public with a complete record of the circumstances of Robert Dziekanski’s death.
Royal Inland Hospital Taser Incident
In May 2008, at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, an RCMP officer used a taser on 82 year old Frank Lasser while he was in his hospital bed. He was reportedly "delirious" and wielding a knife.Allegation of political bias against Insite
In October 2008, it was revealed that the RCMP had used taxpayer money to pay individuals to write negative, politically biased reports about the Vancouver safe injection site, InsiteInsite
Insite is the only legal supervised injection site in North America, located at 139 East Hastings Street, in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. The DTES had 4700 chronic drug users in 2000 and has been considered to be the centre of an "injection drug epidemic"...
. In addition to this, memos were distributed referring to British Columbia's Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS - a nationally renowned repository of some of the top AIDS research in the world - as the "Centre for Excrements", and suggesting stacking radio shows with callers against Insite.
Catherine Galliford claim of sexual harassment
In November 2011, Corporal Catherine GallifordCatherine Galliford
Catherine Galliford is an Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal in British Columbia, Canada.Galliford served as spokesperson for the Missing Women's Task Force , and is slated to testify before the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry...
, a former spokeswoman for the British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
Division, came forward with a claim that she had been the victim of sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
by senior officers as far back as 1991, when she graduated from the RCMP Academy
RCMP Academy, Depot Division
RCMP Academy, Depot Division has been providing police training to Royal Canadian Mounted Police "cadets" since its establishment in 1885. The facility is located in the west part of Regina, Saskatchewan, near the airport, and consists of several buildings.In the RCMP's early days, Depot had a...
.
External links
- RCMP scandals and setbacks since 2006, Globe and Mail, March 29, 2007
- Marc looks into the RCMP's history by Marc Emery, Cannabis Culture MagazineCannabis Culture MagazineCannabis Culture is a Canadian magazine and online magazine devoted to cannabis and the worldwide cannabis culture. Cannabis Culture publishes stories about the struggle to legalize marijuana, profiles of marijuana paraphernalia, articles on how to grow marijuana, interviews with prominent...
, September 2, 2007 - Kerry Pither's Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror documents how three men targeted by an RCMP national security investigation were detained, interrogated and tortured overseas. It tells the stories of Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki, Maher Arar and Muayyed Nureddin.