Explosive report reveals RCMP’s toxic culture of racism, misogyny and homophobia

RCMP’s toxic culture

Racism, misogyny and homophobia — these are the characteristics of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) toxic culture according to a new report released last month.

The report, “Broken Dreams Broken Lives,” was written by former Supreme Court of Canada justice Michel Bastarache, who had been engaged as an independent assessor to review the more than 3,000 claims of sexual harassment experienced by women who worked for the RCMP. He found that the experiences of these women in the RCMP were nothing short of devastating.

Former RCMP Officer Who Spoke Out About Force's Culture Takes Her Own Life

VANCOUVER — Former RCMP officers who suffered sexual harassment and bullying on the job are grieving the suicide of an ex-Mountie who advocated for change within the force they say ruined so many lives.

Catherine Galliford, who was one of the first Mounties to speak out about her experiences at the hands of fellow officers, said she was devastated to learn that Krista Carle, with whom she graduated from Depot division in Regina, had taken her own life.

Missing Mountie

Could Bob Paulson’s days as top banana of the RCMP be numbered?

If he doesn’t start showing more cooperation in bringing about fundamental change to the nation’s police force, he could be headed for a change in his career path. Some critics would argue it comes not a moment too soon. The organization he runs is more top down than Donald Trump.

RCMP Overtime Cost $900K During Undercover Terror Operation

VANCOUVER — The RCMP spent just over $900,000 in overtime pay over the course of a five-month undercover operation that led to the arrests of two terrorism suspects in British Columbia.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request show the Mounties paid at least 200 people, mostly police officers, $911,090.54 for overtime work during the investigation, which was code named Project Souvenir.

Before Parliament Hill attack, RCMP got 3 warnings, reduced patrols

Mounties received at least three warnings of potential terrorist attacks on uniformed officers before last year's shootings on Parliament Hill, yet the RCMP wound down extra patrols around the parliamentary precinct just days before the tragedy, newly disclosed documents show.

The RCMP unit that patrols Parliament Hill, which shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, successfully stormed, was understaffed by at least 29 positions at the time of the attack.

Info Commissioner Slams BC Gov't for Email Deletions, Asks RCMP to Probe

The Information and Privacy Commissioner has slammed the British Columbia government for deleting too many emails and has asked the RCMP to investigate whether a former ministerial assistant lied under oath.

"I am deeply disappointed by the practices our investigation uncovered," Elizabeth Denham wrote in a report released today, Access Denied: Record Retention and Disposal Practices of the Government of British Columbia.

Subject Harper to RCMP criminal investigation over offshore tax haven scandal, 3 out of 5 Canadians say

A significant majority of Canadians (61%) want to see Stephen Harper subjected to an RCMP criminal investigation over his and his government’s role in the KPMG tax haven scandal which allowed billionaires to pay no taxes while obtaining federal and provincial tax credits, according to Google Consumer Survey.

The poll commissioned by ThinkPol found that only 13% of Canadians oppose such a move while 26% of the respondents preferred not to express their opinion.

Conservatives ask RCMP to investigate Citizenship leak to media

OTTAWA—The government is calling in the RCMP to investigate another highly sensitive leak to the media, this time at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, according to media reports.

The CBC reported late Friday afternoon that the Citizenship ministry has requested the RCMP investigate the release of “sensitive information” to journalists this week.

“Leaks such as these are unethical and are against the law,” a memo obtained by the broadcaster read. “As such, we have contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who have now launched an investigation. The trust that the public, our partners and elected officials have in us is the cornerstone of our democratic functions.”

Federal Election 2015: RCMP Take Protesters Away From Harper's Surrey, B.C. Rally

SURREY, B.C. — A man ran towards Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a rally in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday evening and was grabbed by RCMP officers before being taken away.

The incident came minutes after another protester at the Conservative event attended by many members of the South Asian community stood up with a sign reading "Climate Justice" before being taken away.

Have the Mounties become Harper’s private police force?

Are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police turning into Dudley DoWrong?

You remember, of course, Dudley DoRight. He was the cartoon Mountie with the Mulroney-esque jaw, arch-enemy of the villainous Snidely Whiplash. Snidely made his living tying damsels in distress to railway tracks; Dudley made his by whisking them away just before the onrushing train turned them into Cubist art.

CSIS Might Blow Efforts Abroad If Caught By Authorities: RCMP

OTTAWA - The RCMP is concerned new anti-terrorism legislation might hurt — not help — its security efforts overseas, internal notes say.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service's new powers to disrupt threats "could inadvertently jeopardize existing relationships" the Mounties have fostered if authorities discover what CSIS is doing, RCMP briefing notes warn.

There will be additional pressure on the Mounties to co-ordinate with the spy service so that criminal investigations are not "negatively affected," add the notes, prepared for RCMP deputy commissioner Mike Cabana's appearance at a Senate committee.

Dawson Creek RCMP Shooting: Man Dies At Site C Dam Open House

UPDATE - July 20, 2015: The coroners' service has issued a news release identifying the victim as 48-year-old James Daniel McIntyre of Dawson Creek.

UPDATE - July 17, 2015: An apparent witness video of the incident has emerged and the province's police watchdog acknowledged that investigators initially misidentified the person shot.

The man who was killed by police was not the same person who disturbed the public meeting, said the Independent Investigations Office.

Federal Court orders public safety minister, RCMP to hand over gun registry data

OTTAWA - A Federal Court judge has ordered that Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney and the RCMP commissioner immediately hand over an external hard drive containing a copy of all Quebec gun registry data.

Judge Luc Martineau gave the government until 10 a.m. Tuesday morning to deliver the hard drive to the court — effectively issuing a vote of non-confidence in government assurances that all the remaining long-gun registry records would be preserved while court challenges continue.

Missing, Murdered Aboriginal Women: RCMP Release Updated Findings

OTTAWA - Aboriginal women continue to be most frequently killed by men they know, the RCMP said Friday as it released updated findings on missing and murdered indigenous women.

Another 32 aboriginal women have been murdered and 11 more have disappeared since the force last reported on the issue 13 months ago. Its initial report put the tally at 1,181 murdered and missing women, between 1980 and 2012.

The RCMP said Friday that female victims, regardless of their ethnicity, continue to be targeted most often by men within their own homes and communities.

RCMP Class-Action Suit Sought By Female Mounties Alleging Discrimination

VANCOUVER - At age 22, Quebec native Joanne Mayer was greeted at her first RCMP posting in Gibsons, B.C., with a handshake and a blunt statement from the sergeant: "We don't think women should be in the force, and especially not French-speaking ones."

Mayer said that along with her regular duties, she spent over two years doing "sexist" chores including making coffee, ensuring there was an ample supply of cream and sugar, and cleaning police cruisers.

Suzanne Legault, Information Watchdog, Wants Mounties Charged

OTTAWA - An unprecedented Conservative bid to rewrite the law in order to retroactively erase the RCMP's mishandling of gun registry records sets the table for legislated, after-the-fact cover-ups of far more serious crimes, Canada's information commissioner declared Thursday.

In a damning new report tabled in Parliament, Suzanne Legault concluded that the practice establishes a "perilous precedent" of rewriting laws — one that could jeopardize the ability of authorities to prosecute electoral fraud or other government scandals.

Conservatives block probe into RCMP Parliament Hill privilege breach

The governing Conservatives have used their majority muscle to shut down an investigation into an alleged breach of privilege that saw two New Democrat MPs barred from the Commons, albeit briefly, by the RCMP.

The move came after House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer sided with NDP MPs Nathan Cullen and Craig Scott, who had both lodged formal complaints in recent weeks over their respective run-ins with the Mounties.

Terror fight hampering work on other criminal files, senior Mountie says

OTTAWA — Shifting hundreds of RCMP officers to counterterrorism duty has hurt the national police force’s efforts to fight organized crime and espionage, a senior Mountie says.

The resource challenge is “negatively impacting” the force’s ability to do everything it’s expected to do, says Mike Cabana, deputy RCMP commissioner for federal policing.

“As a result, the RCMP recognizes that it needs to find a longer-term solution to be able to respond to the breadth of its federal policing mandate,” Cabana told the Senate national security committee Monday.

Mounties Stonewalled Request for Improperly Collected Data

Last fall, Daniel Therrien, the government's newly appointed privacy commissioner of Canada, released the annual report on the Privacy Act, the legislation that governs how the government collects, uses and discloses personal information. The lead story from the report was the result of an audit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police practices regarding warrantless requests for telecom subscriber information.

The audit had been expected to shed new light into RCMP information requests. Auditors were forced to terminate the investigation, however, when they realized that Canada's national police force simply did not compile the requested information. When asked why the information was not collected, RCMP officials responded that its information management system was never designed to capture access requests.

CSIS, RCMP, National Defence's Lapsed Funds Total $11 Billion Since 2007

OTTAWA - New figures show the country's three major national security institutions were collectively unable to spend $11 billion of their budgets over the last eight years.

The statistics on lapsed funds at National Defence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP were presented today at the annual Conference of Defence Associations Institute meeting, which also heard a renewed warnings that the military is on the verge of a major equipment rust out.

The numbers stand in contrast to the rosy assessment of the Harper government's defence spending record as presented by Jason Kenney, the newly appointed minister.