New RCMP Commissioner...............Letter to the editor..............

"Re "RCMP Commissioner; Out to get him?" (Letter, ) -

I am disappointed in the headline for your editorial. At minimum it is inflammatory. Your speculation that the approximately 26,000 regular members, civilian members and support staff could or would somehow collectively develop and engage in a disruptive strategy intended to badly affect our new civilian commissioner and to seek public support for such action, is a sad and inaccurate commentary on members' collective integrity, respect for the rule of law and for the role of government in our parliamentary democracy and misjudges how we view our responsibilities to, value and take pride in our relationship with the public.

We take no pride in the organizational circumstances that led to the need to break the tradition in place since 1873 to appoint from within the organization. It is agreed that that tradition was motivational, valued and important to all members and indeed there is pain and sincere regret. But by far most members can get their head around the reality that those appointments came from within the senior management level of the force; the very level where the serious shortfall arose.

Retired RCMP Commissioner Norm Inkster, a member of the government's search committee, voted in favour of recommending Commissioner William Elliott to government. He even met with veterans before any public announcement and answered all our questions. Other very effective informal and internal communication avenues gave me the sense that the commissioned officer corps, serving and inactive, fully realized that this restorative course of action was necessary and beneficial for the force, the government and the people of Canada.

Notwithstanding some isolated sentiments to the contrary from within or outside, that same sense flowed forth from street levels where feed back suggests that our men and women just want to move on and go out each day and/or night to do what they joined for and have sworn to do because they love doing it. For you to suggest that somehow they collectively may possibly sit around dreaming up ways "to get him" does a disservice to their dedication. You may wish to consider if an editorial apology is appropriate.

The esprit de corps prevalent within the force of loyalty, devotion, regard for its honour and interests was, is and remains summarized in our institutional motto, "Maintiens Le Droit." Commissioner Elliott has now taken an oath and committed himself to do just that. I do not know of any other member who will not fully support him in that commitment. "

The best way to get their reputation back is by moving forward and concentrating on the crooks and terrorists.....of which there is no shortage.Maintiens le droit.

Deputy RCMP Commissioner- "has the respect of every member of the force"

RCMP Commissioner

Management by "walking around" -talking to the front line people always helps an organization. Let's hope that the problems can be fixed in a relatively short time frame and that the focus once again returns to dealing with criminals and terrorists.Let's hope they regain their reputation as the world's premier crime fighting organization.Maintiens le Droit.

RCMP Commissioner..........and get back to the basics...........there is nothing better in restoring the reputation of the RCMP than good

police work and investigations. There is no shortage of work. Enough with the fancy reports and studies and generating paperwork.Deeds speak.There also needs to be a better effort retaining or rehiring top retired investigators since a significant number have already retired or will retire shortly. The bench strength needs to be improved.Maintiens le Droit

The new RCMP Commissioner..................

Former bureaucrat appointed new RCMP Commissioner

Respect is earned.

Ed Clark was an example of a bureaucrat that successfully made the transition to head the TD Bank.Let's hope that Commissioner Elliott can make the same successful transition to head the RCMP.There's no shortage of problems but if members are treated with respect and the leader is competent ,then hopefully things will change for the better. They need to get back to the basics of dealing with criminals and terrorists instead of being just another paper shuffling bureaucracy. The members deserve it and Canadians deserve it .Actions speak louder than words- the track record will speak for itself.About 15,000 hard core criminals have $40 billion + operations in Canada.Maintiens le Droit.

Commissioner Busson is to be thanked for her many years of service to Canada , especially the last six months in which she had to deal with a multitude of serious problems at the same time. Many members have a great deal of respect for her( and hoped she would have stayed on).

RCMP -setting the record straight

RCMP- heads will be rolling

RCMP- hopefully there will be some experienced officers on the task force

A tale of two RCMP's... police force was sharply divided between the bosses and the underfunded and understaffed rank-and-file

"A summary of Duxbury's report, obtained by CanWest News Service, flags the stress of mounting workloads, insufficient funding, "disconnected" senior leadership, poor communication flow between lower and upper ranks and the weak "people management" of the top bosses. Many argue the impact of such a culture played out in recent months in the damning and sometimes acrimonious testimony of Mounties at the public accounts hearings into the pension scandal....

The study indicates these groups felt betrayed by senior managers, whom they didn't trust, thought too political, and identified as careerists who "play the game" to get to the top. This group's discontent increased significantly over the three years, while senior management's views of the force just got better and better.

The percentage of constables and corporals "committed" to the force slid from 67 per cent in 2001 to 50 per cent in 2003. Over that same period, those who felt the RCMP was a "below average" place to work increased and more said they would never join today.

Half said they would never encourage their kids to follow in their footsteps to become Mounties because "it is changing for the worse and becoming too political," according to the report.

The biggest drop in physical and mental health was among constables and corporals, which the study indicated was attributed to "circumstances at work" rather than aging.

But Duxbury said the most worrisome decline in commitment was among the sergeants and staff sergeants, the "bedrock" and key middle management layer that keeps the organization together. About 80 per cent were committed in 2001, but that fell to 59 per cent in 2003. One in five said the RCMP was a lousy place to work and they would never join today........."

Restoring the Mounties good name...............

"Perhaps they could also look at the underfunding and understaffing via the "Program Renewal"( more like Program Destruction) in the 90's and the loss of valuable senior investigators.

They might also want to look at the extra demands of the Charter without a corresponding increase in manpower to keep up with it and why dedicated officers like Staff Sgt Stenhouse and Cpl Read were turfed while trying to protect Canadians and why major criminal organizations are operating quite freely? You might want to also find out why the Mounties are being blamed for not doing enough to prevent the Air India bombing but today, if they try to take preventive measures against potential terrorists, they are violating a person's rights? It's nice to be an armchair quarterback when in some cases they have seconds or minutes to react.Do you want them to prevent an attack or not? Terrorists don't walk around with neon signs over their heads saying "I'm a terrorist". They have to do investigative work and while they may not have 100% of the info they need, someone needs to make the final decision if they only have 70-80-90% of the information.If they err on the side of prevention, they get criticized. This is not a game . There are bad people out there and there are bad people out there who would like to kill as many people as possible and not think anything about any consequences.

If you want an inquiry then by all means make sure you cover all the bases not just selective ones.Of course while they are trying to set the organizaation back on the right course- senior Officers will be tied up for 3 years dealing with hearings and getting documents.

You need a very capable Commissioner with very capable Deputy Commissioners to clean house.When senior investigators need backing , they should get it instead of covering things up and making them worse and punishing the whistleblowers- a word most don't like since they were just trying to do their jobs but were stonewalled.Too bad the media weren't awake during the Liberal tenure.The problems didn't start last year.When did Cpl. Robert Read run into problems- in the 90's.
"

Under whose watch?..........

...meanwhile the criminals are pretty happy the spotlight has been diverted away from their operations.

Crime beat- Which is why the RCMP have to get back to basics.......

That's a mediocre stamp of approval for the leadership. People are lacking confidence, but not in the frontlines."

....and where does the buck stop? They should have concentrated on the crooks instead of stonewalling dedicated investigators.

update
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070423.RCMP23/TPStory/National

"We do fear that there may have been cover-ups that took place and there have been allegations that Access to Information requests weren't forthcoming the way they were intended to," Mr. Wrzesnewskyj said.

He said he also expects to hear evidence this week on the flow of information on the matter inside the RCMP, and to find out when former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli learned of irregularities in the RCMP's pension fund.

He said more information on that matter will come to light with today's scheduled appearance of Deputy Commissioner Paul Gauvin.

Conservative MP John Williams also said that he expects new information to keep coming to the forefront.

"Suspended RCMP official asks court to quash probes"

Too bad Cpl Robert Read and Staff Sgt Stenhouse weren't reinstated- long ago

Angus Reid poll about the RCMP

Question 2 should have been phrased

saying that "some on the force" have committed fraud and abuse

instead of the broad brush tarnishing the whole force

"saying that "the force" has committed fraud and abuse"

At any rate, they should be concentrating on putting the major crooks and terrorists out of action instead of deep sixing honorable, respected investigators who became whistleblowers out of necessity.Good policing and attention to serious internal concerns will restore their reputation.

RCMP- a step in the right direction but the same needs to be done to beef up the investigative backbone right across the country

RCMP - a letter

During the 13 Liberal reign ,they were pretty well reduced to just another neutered government paper shuffling bureaucracy especially on the investigative end.Much akin to a factory that brings in raw materials though the back door , processes them and then ships out the finished product. However during the Liberal's tenure time, the assembly lines just seemed to be going round and round and round with few finished products making it out the door.There was a lot of emphasis on pomp and circumstance, quite another having the resources to get investigations done in a timely manner.

Mountie bashing disguised as concern for the "irregularities" in the RCMP pension fund.

Too bad these scribes have such short memories.They could have promoted the independence aspect of the RCMP Commisioner during the 13 year reign of their Liberal buddies. 13 years of the Sounds of Silence.But now that the Conservatives are in government, it's time to trot this out?Yes they should have been politically independent long ago. The Beaudoin case was Exhibit A.- but their Liberal pals were in charge.

Too much finesse and nuance, not enough putting the crooks out of commission during the Liberal reign.

Weston- RCMP

Rest assured this didn't sit well with the rank and file and as they say, the dam finally burst last week.

Licia Corbella has her laundry list on the RCMP

Most RCMP officers shouldn't be tainted by the few bad apples- they are honorable, dedicated and prepared to lay down their lives to protect Canadians.What role did underfunding for 13 years have to play on a lot of investigations?

It's a question of a lack of leadership at the senior levels.How many investigations were stymied by a lack of funds? There have been a lot of whistleblowers that had the courage to stand up like Cpl. Read and Staff Sgt Stenhouse and then there were those courageous officers that stood up for their character and integrity and professionalism at their hearings.No organization with about 24,000 people is going to be firing on all 8 cylinders with each and every one.However when dedicated officers are deep sixed for actually doing their job of trying to protect Canadians, there is something wrong.Remember they weren't jettisoned for corruption, or incompetence but for going to the media after they had exhausted efforts to get things fixed- in Read's case -keeping criminals from slipping into the country.Imagine getting turfed when you thought you were actually doing your job.

There were those who preferred using the stetsons and scarlet tunics as bookends at trade shows.The Musical ride was promoted for all it was worth. As long as there was a colorful performance, the perception was that all was well in law and order.Acting as marketing tools is not their prime function- protecting Canadians is their first priority.There was a lot of smoke and mirrors going on and reorganization after reorganization after reorganization. Meanwhile few crooks were caught but lots of reorganizations.There was also plenty of paperwork and reports and studies and PR appearances and statistics , but few crooks put away during the 13 year Liberal reign compared to the criminal activity going on across the country.

A lot of their reports could have been written by Ph'D's in bureaucratese but few criminals were caught.As for planning and priorities, the Liberals knew well in advance that there would be a lot of RCMP retirements in a short time frame. They had 13 years to prepare for it but apparently it wasn't that much of a priority since that time is now and there are thousands of experienced officers retiring in the next few years. You can't make an equal trade between a novice and a senior investigator with 25-30 years of investigative experience.How long is it going to take the rookies to be effective? So on top of everything else there is a major brain drain which also has to be addressed.If 7000 retire in the next few years, you will have about 40% of the officers with less than 5 years experience.The crooks are laughing themselves silly.

There were many , many solid officers in the ranks who were let down over the years.They joined to put the crooks away yet had many internal roadblocks thrown in their path- a lot to do with lack of funding.The media seem to be in a feeding frenzy bashing the RCMP yet they seemed to miss the main target over the years, the Liberals who allowed a once proud organization to deteriorate by not properly funding them but there seemed to be plenty of money available for such things as Adscam.

Yes we are all aware of the high profile cases like Beaudoin, who had a great injustice done to him, however the media seem to overlook the minor fact that the major crooks in the country ,during the Liberal tenure, were doing $40 billion + in yearly operations, but that doesn't seem to tweak their curiosity?? Very few arrests were made compared to the activity taking place.Why? As for the RCMP officers killed at Mayerthorpe, why should it have taken 2 years to investigate the most highly prioritized case? Not enough experienced investigators or ....?

Bottom line, some senior management were probably more interested in pomp and circumstance, keeping a lid on things instead of fixing things,and probably were more concerned with their own careers than in the well being of their organization.There was lots of paper shuffling, few arrests.The situation will be rectified .It didn't have to be this way if the media were awake during the Liberal tenure.The issue now is restoring confidence by placing the most competent people at the top ,providing the proper funding and providing incentives to slow down the brain drain.There are still many dedicated officers doing their jobs faithfully daily. There's no point trying to tarnish the whole organization for the lack of leadership.There are many, many competent officers, especially at the Sgt to Chief Superintendent level.The whole organization isn't broke- the leadership could do with a complete overhaul- the sooner the better.

The price of spin.................

Perhaps they can focus on Maintiens le Droit-the crooks are doing $40 billion + in Canada and the terrorists are here but not wearing neon signs to identify themselves. It might be an idea for the RCMP to concentrate on putting the crooks away instead of becoming a paper shuffling bureaucracy and the media should do some investigative work for a change instead of regurgitating press conferences. Canadians might be better served if both institutions did their jobs properly..