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BLACK-SHEEP COMMENTARIES by UNFOUNDED PRIDE, BIGGER FALL April 29, 2007 IT seems that too many officers in the RCMP are oblivious to a basic experience in life: Unfounded pride of place inevitably leads to a fall from honour and respect. Vying for the lead is the RCMP’s E Division which still refuses to accept plain truth recorded Oct.14, 2007, in an eyewitness’s video of callous policing by a corporal and three constables pouncing on a bewildered Robert Dziekanski, tasering and handcuffing him, and then standing idly by as he dies. In the immediate aftermath of Dziekanski’s death, totally inaccurate information was given to several non-commissioned officers whose duty was to keep the media and public informed. When compared with the truth depicted in the citizen’s video, their explanations amounted to disinformation. The officer in command of a homicide investigation team ordered that the disinformation was to stand uncorrected for an indeterminate period. Because the eyewitness video made the manner of Dziekanski’s death a worldwide cause celebre, it is reasonable to assume that Commissioner William Elliott had more than an inkling of what had occurred on that day at Vancouver’s airport before he was formally briefed by E Division’s commander. It was hugely inflammatory police behaviour that immediately tested the leadership of the RCMP and its ability to act responsibly and in the public interest. Elliott was confronted with a worst case scenario: culpable and egregious actions by four members of the RCMP that warranted an immediate investigation by an independent civilian police force. It was Elliott’s moment of truth. He blinked, stepped aside, and allowed the RCMP to conduct a less than impartial investigation including a pernicious junket to Poland – a faint-hope expedition to ferret out negative information about an innocent man’s past. Elliott, a career bureaucrat and lawyer, was appointed commissioner effective July 16, 2007, succeeding Giuliano Zacardelli. In a press release dated July 6 of that year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper described Elliott as having “…experience and expertise to successfully manage …the RCMP. He will be able to provide the Force with the renewed leadership that it critically needs at this time.” Leadership was called for in the Dziekanski case; Elliott did not provide it. On July 13, 2007, a few days before Elliott’s appointment the government appointed a committee to examine the culture and governance of the RCMP. On Dec.14, 2007, Chairman David Brown presented the federal government with Rebuilding the Trust: Report of the Task Force on Governance and Cultural Change in the RCMP. Rebuilding the Trust begins with an expression of the magnitude of the task undertaken by the committee: “The RCMP is a national symbol. The “red serge” has been a source of national pride and is recognized around the world as a symbol of who we are and what living in Canada means. However, in the last few years, trust in the management of the RCMP has been shaken. This has had a stunning impact on the members and employees of the RCMP and on the Canadians they serve. Trust in the management of the RCMP needs to be rebuilt.” The committee acknowledged that during its inquiry the RCMP was under intense public scrutiny – the investigation of Justice Dennis O’Connor into the Arar affair; the Air India Inquiry; and investigations and inquiries into the tasering death of Robert Dzieskanski – all of which complicated the difficult challenge facing the committee. The Brown committee concluded that “there is a need to radically overhaul the way in which the RCMP is governed … that there is a need to improve significantly the accountability of the RCMP to the public, to elected political leaders and to the members of the Force.” I have no way of knowing whether the federal government searched deep into the command ranks to find an officer with the strength of purpose, energy and leadership qualities to change the priorities of the RCMP and the club-culture of its command structure. I suspect that the search among the upper ranks of the officer class did not go deep enough. And that troubles me because the commander-in-chief of the RCMP should always be a man or woman who has experienced the reality and danger of policing and achieved promotion on merit alone, exhibiting honesty, leadership and independence from government. In my opinion the appointment of a senior bureaucrat/lawyer to lead the RCMP was a grave mistake. It simply creates the impression that the RCMP is just another government department. It stands as condemnation of the entire officer corps as inadequate and unable to inspire the rank and file. In my next column: more on E Division and contract policing; and a critique of the recent Ontario Supreme Court judgment declaring that members of the RCMP are entitled to form an association to represent themselves. * * * Published by the North Shore News – April 29, 2009
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Gadfly at:
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