RCMP

Effort to suppress protocol “secrecy for secrecy’s sake,” court rules

Topics: 
Justice Department, RCMP, Government transparency, Government ethics
Rating: 
0
Suzanne Boudreau

Don Butler – April 25, 2013

The federal government’s attempts to suppress a legal protocol between the RCMP and the justice department amount to “secrecy for secrecy’s sake,” says the Federal Court of Appeal.

In a decision dated April 17, the court ruled that everything except the first three paragraphs of the 17-paragraph protocol should be disclosed to Ottawa resident Suzanne Boudreau, a former military prosecutor and justice department lawyer who first asked for it under access to information in 2006.

House Status of Women Committee hears shocking testimony from former female Mountie

Topics: 
RCMP, Harassment
Rating: 
3
Robert Paulson

Jessica Bruno – March 11, 2013

For the first time since it started its study on harassment in the federal workplace six months ago, the House Status of Women Committee heard directly from a former Mountie who was sexually abused by her colleagues and bosses in the RCMP. It may be the only first-person testimony the committee hears on the topic due to restrictions it has put on its own witness list.

“I didn’t realize I was the only face,” said former Mountie Sherry Lee Benson-Podolchuk, who testified by video conference from Winnipeg March 7 about her 20 years with the RCMP, during which she said she was raped, sexually harassed, threatened, and ostracized by her colleagues and boss.

With Nortel verdict, RCMP's fraud unit racks up dismal conviction record

Topics: 
White-collar crime, RCMP, IMET, Anti-corruption efforts
Rating: 
3

Jeff Gray – January 14, 2013

The RCMP’s white-collar crime investigators announced criminal charges in two high-profile cases of alleged fraud in Toronto on the same day in 2008: One against former executives at the helm of Nortel Networks Corp., and the other targeting former executives of Royal Group Technologies Ltd.

These two high-profile cases were seen as signs that the Mounties’ Integrated Market Enforcement Teams (IMET) were finally starting to hook large fish and combatting Canada’s reputation as a place where corporate crimes went unpunished.

MPs aren’t getting full story on RCMP workplace harassment

Topics: 
Harassment, RCMP, Legislation
Rating: 
4

Chris Plecash – November 26, 2012

Members of the House Standing Committee on the Status of Women are getting a “sanitized version” of how the RCMP deals with claims of harassment by its own officers, says a former Mountie who reached an out of court settlement with the RCMP in 2009.

“From my perspective, they really need to see the faces of the victims,” Sherry Benson-Podolchuck told The Hill Times. “You need to have a face of what a victim looks like, and then you really get the impact of how much damage is done to somebody who suffers from harassment.”

RCMP sets sights on white-collar crime

Topics: 
RCMP, White-collar crime, Anti-corruption efforts
Rating: 
4
The following are selected extracts

Douglas Quan – November 25, 2012

The RCMP is hoping that a new strategy of going after crooked securities lawyers, investment advisers and stock brokers as if they were drug dealers and mobsters will turn around the fortunes of its white-collar crime units.

Formed almost a decade ago, the force’s Integrated Market Enforcement Teams have struggled to produce results. As of last week, they had secured criminal convictions against 11 people, according to data provided by the force.  Twenty-nine others have cases pending before the courts.

Legal settlements cost Ottawa $500 million

Topics: 
Justice Department, RCMP, HRDC, National Defence, Transport Canada
Rating: 
3

Paul McLeod – October 31, 2012

The federal govern­ment paid out more than $500 million in legal settlements in the last fiscal year, according to new public accounts data.

The largest payout in the 2011-12 fiscal year was $448 million to settle 3,929 abuse claims through Aboriginal Af­fairs and Northern Development Canada. That’s an average of $114,000 per settlement.

B.C. rights advocates demand probe of RCMP operation

Topics: 
RCMP, Reprisals
Rating: 
0

CBC News – October 30, 2012

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is demanding an investigation by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP into the force’s entire operation against a whistleblower who informed on an officer’s posting of bondage photos on the internet.

The BCCLA said new information in unsealed court documents reveal that the RCMP marshalled apparently disproportionate resources in its investigation of New Westminster, B.C., resident Grant Wakefield, who drew the RCMP’s attention to the photos posted by Port Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jim Brown.

Court clears release of judgment involving secret RCMP protocol

Topics: 
RCMP, Justice Department, Access to information, Government transparency
Rating: 
3
Suzanne Boudreau

Don Butler – October 22, 2012

A judge has ordered the release of a Federal Court judgment that had been suppressed for more than three months after the government argued that it disclosed too much information about a secret protocol between the RCMP and Justice Canada.

In a ruling late last week, Justice Marc Nadon of the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed a government motion to keep the July 12 judgment by Justice Mary Gleason confidential. He provided no reasons for his decision.

Open courts principle at issue in suppressed decision over secret RCMP protocol

Topics: 
RCMP, Justice Department, Access to information, Government transparency
Rating: 
0

Don Butler – October 14, 2012

In what one legal expert calls an “extraordinary” move with implications for the principle of open courts, a Federal Court decision has been suppressed for nearly three months because government lawyers argue it contains too much information about a secret protocol between the RCMP and Justice Canada.

The protocol, lugubriously entitled “Principles to Implement Legal Advice on the Listing and Inspection of RCMP documents in Civil Litigation,” allegedly sets out procedures for access by Justice Canada lawyers to evidence obtained by the RCMP in criminal investigations that may be relevant in civil litigation involving the federal government.

Search warrant reveals details of RCMP warrantless wiretaps

Topics: 
RCMP, National security
Rating: 
0

Andrew Duffy – September 30, 2012

The RCMP used an emergency provision of the Criminal Code to tap the phones of six terror suspects without court authorization in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, newly released documents reveal.

Ottawa engineer Abdullah Almalki and Toronto truck driver Ahmad El-Maati were among those subjected to unauthorized wiretaps in October 2001. The practice has since been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.

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