A Prime Time Crime Exclusive
By Bob Cooper
I wrote this RCMP recruiting cause and effect a couple of years ago as a cautionary tale but someone apparently took it as a challenge to double-down on their lunacy. In the words of the late PC #410, Ian ‘Bunny’ Hay, “Oh yeah? Watch this!”
Like the old saying that there’s nothing so bad as it couldn’t be worse, the brain-trust at RCMP HQ rolled up their sleeves and got right down to work solving their long-standing recruiting problems. Being modest people, the product of their toil had to be obtained through FOI and it appears they have a lot to be modest about.
Charting the course of this trial balloon is Vaughn Charlton who is the director of ‘gender-based-analysis-plus’ at the RCMP and formerly of Status of Women Canada. Ms. Charlton was brought in last year by then-Commissioner Bob Paulson and put in charge of really stupid ideas. Her best to date has to be ‘looking at diversity and inclusion as seriously as we look at security’ as if the latter is worth trading off for the former.
Any normal, ‘unwoke’ person knows what the solutions are starting with a major pay raise to bring RCMP wages more in line with those of their city counterparts. This would not only attract more applicants but stem the exodus of serving members who are leaving for city forces and taking invaluable experience with them. Others include civilian governance, reforming critical staffing areas like transfers, promotions, grievances, and implementing the collective bargaining rights that were mandated by the courts two years ago but slow-walked ever since. The RCMP Discipline system is badly in need of an overhaul to streamline it thereby ensuring quicker resolutions, fairness, consistency, and being able to deal effectively with genuine cases of workplace harassment instead of ignoring and covering them up and ultimately paying billions in settlements while the perpetrators go scot-free.
These are consistently dismissed by the Liberal elites and RCMP bosses who’ve been force-fed the Kool-Aid. They cost money that our betters would sooner spend pandering to their base, paying off convicted terrorists, and virtue signalling with slogans like Removing Barriers which is nothing more than an SJW euphemism for lowering standards. Under current thinking “groups more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system” (criminals) are among those who should be courted and the need for good hearing and vision may be overrated.
I can see it now. Citizen: “I want your number” Mountie: “Regimental or FPS?”. Other ‘barriers’ under review include spending 26 weeks at Depot and Credit checks. Perhaps in this age of working from home they can just shut down Depot and offer recruits training by correspondence along with credit counsellors and a debt consolidation program.
The coming outcry from organizations like the RCMP Veterans’ Association, not to mention the general public, will be met with assurances that these are all just discussion points in a free-wheeling process and nothing is cast in stone. Don’t believe a word. That any of this is even remotely being considered beggars belief.
The trust that society places in their law enforcement agencies demands they be held to the highest of standards with admission requirements (Yes, “barriers”) that are commensurately high and rigorous in order to maintain that trust.
Not surprisingly I’ve had a lot of mail on this today. A former colleague tweeted ‘Surrey, get out while you can’.
One retired and very proud member of the RCMP that I know summed it up this way:
“All of the senior brass that agree with this bullshit are doing so, knowing full well that they are dive bombing this organization into the ground. Disband them and be done with it. It hurts too much to watch my old outfit being turned into a joke.”
How very sad.
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Bob Cooper is a retired Vancouver police officer. He walked a beat in Chinatown and later worked in the Asian Organized Crime Section and the Homicide Squad.
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What group was paid billions while others left scott free?
Right on the money. As soon as they made the Commissioner a Deputy Cabinet Minister, thereby erasing the separation between legislature and judiciary, I could forsee all the politically correct bullshit coming and pandering to the vocal minorities. Nice to see Coop has mellowed in retirement, his piece is not X rated even if it is seen as politically incorrect.
This plan is an absolute travesty against Canada’s rich policing history and the devoted men and women who built the force. Liberalism has no place here!
Very interesting discussion with regards to how the RCMP is evolving. I must accept the RCMP I joinned in 1972 was different than the RCMP of the March West. Changes are the new constant. How the RCMP will continue to evolve, mature or disappear is unknown and very difficult to predict. It is more a question of which changes are prioritized and implemented, which ones are must have and which ones are nice to have? Bob, you raised lots of areas for improvements in this article, especially at paragraph # 4…..”Any normal unwoke person…..”.
It seems to me that finding out root causes of why Canadians are not joining or why current members are leaving for City Forces as you mentionned, assuming these root causes are not known already, is a key first and prioritize the implementation of corrective actions. Why does the RCMP needs to consider hiring Canadians that may have a criminal record or that are much older is intriguing to me as well. Trying to remain open minded, focusing on managing changes, the new normal, I would add that it might be interesting to read something as to the rationale applied.
Some people have a criminal record for minor offences and one time error and may have been pardoned….Older people may have lots to contributes as well. Lots of life experiences to tap into perhaps? To me it is more how these ideas are justified and applied, how they are controled, which checks and balances are in place etc.
With regards to these two ideas I must say they first shock hence why I am suggesting root causes as to why the RCMP seems to be getting worse at first glance. It may not be so given they have not been implemented and data about their successes or failure is not available yet. On the other hand if the RCMP is not fixable at all, and truly needs to be fixed, then perhaps it should be disbanded and a Federal Force only created anew. It would be sad but it maybe something we will need to accept if there are no other ways. Of course the Goverment would have to support such analysis and needed corrective actions. I wonder if that is a priority to them?