The RCMP should refocus on its role as a law
enforcement agency, rather than acting as a government
department, according to
Bureaucrats in Uniform: The Politicization and Decline of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, released today by The Fraser Institute.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police advertises itself as Canada's
national police service, an organization of excellence, and a
world leader in integrated policing. By and large, general
surveys of public opinion indicate that the RCMP is widely
respected by Canadians. In contrast, there have been several
studies, as well as occasional public complaints, showing that
the RCMP is in crisis not only because it is underfunded, but
because it has succumbed to an even greater problem:
politicization.
The latter has resulted in a decline in the core competencies of
the force, namely, the enforcement of federal laws. That is, the
RCMP as an institution appears to be less capable today than it
was in the past, and less capable than it proclaims itself to be.
Among the most serious reasons advanced for the current problems
in the force is that it responds directly to political
instructions. This is especially serious because the RCMP is
above all a "guardian" institution, like the Canadian Forces and
the courts of law.
"Once the police take political direction, the rule of law is
subverted. And the rule of law, it must be emphasized, is a
pillar of constitutional democracy," said author Barry Cooper, a
senior fellow at The Fraser Institute. Two examples of
politicization of the RCMP from the 1990s were the investigation
of the Air Canada Airbus purchase by the Mulroney government,
which was initiated by the government of the day, and the
explicit political direction given to the federal police
concerning security arrangements for the APEC meetings in
Vancouver.
Cooper points out that the problem of politicization has been
exacerbated by the over-centralization of political power in the
Prime Minister's Office. The participation of the RCMP in the
recent Sponsorship Scandal is in some respects the logical
outcome of the preceding decade and a half of change, but all the
more serious because the Mounties are central to the
administration of justice in Canada.
Cooper suggests that the path to reform lies in returning the
RCMP to its role in enforcing federal laws: organized crime,
internal security, interdiction of illegal immigrants, as well as
major crimes that occur inter-provincially.
"These tasks once were performed admirably by the RCMP.
Accordingly, and even though it flies completely in the face of
current thinking about the RCMP, the best solution may be found
by combining the latest technical advances in policing around the
world with a return to the original 'paramilitary' ethos that
built the RCMP's reputation in the first place. This means, quite
simply, returning the RCMP to its area of core competence:
policing," he noted.
It is clear that any police force must strike a balance between
being held accountable to political authority, but without being
an agent of politicians or becoming a law unto itself. When the
RCMP investigates political corruption or criminal activity by
politicians and officials, it should be under the direction of an
independent special prosecutor, along the lines worked out in
British Columbia.
"Whether or not there exists the political and bureaucratic will
to bring the reality of the RCMP closer to its formal purpose,
one thing seems clear: the politicization of the RCMP has damaged
both the police and the political order," concludes
Cooper.