Opinion: No wonder Indigenous peoples don't believe the country still doesn't get it. The RCMP has lost its moral authority
Read Part 1 of this series, Allegations that B.C. RCMP officers abused Indigenous women ‘swept under the carpet,’ says ex-Mountie, here.
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After reading that the senior rank of RCMP officers responsible for B.C. had ignored and not investigated renewed allegations of abuse of First Nations girls and women by members of the force in Prince George, words fail me.
The unprecedented conviction of judge David Ramsay in 2004 for his violent sex abuse of Indigenous teenaged girls staggered the country — the most-infamous crimes by a judge in Canadian history.
The score of young First Nations women who eventually came forward, however, also accused nine Mounties and a lawyer, yet no one else was charged.
Staff Sgt. Garry Kerr and Const. Lisa Mackenzie renewed those allegations in 2011, and eventually the RCMP Civilian Review and Complaints Commission concluded that senior officers dissembled for years and failed to respond.
Doug Hayman, a veteran Ontario social services executive appointed regional director for children and families in Prince George when the original allegations surfaced, was flabbergasted to read its report.
“Appalling dereliction of duty by the RCMP,” said Hayman, who retired as an assistant deputy minister. “Guilt or innocence notwithstanding, the foot-dragging, the passing of the buck, and shuffling issues away with lies and misdirection are almost criminal.”
Hired in 2006 from Saskatchewan as B.C.’s first children and youth Representative because of this case, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond interviewed the victims and was similarly shocked.
“The absence of internal accountability and the scope for officers to abuse their power and role means that B.C.’s policing at the hands of the RCMP is broken,” said Turpel-Lafond.
“This complaint and the facts reflect racism, exploiting, ignoring victims and demeaning women and girls who were in need of protection and support. This reflects not a single bad decision but a decade of indifference.”
Kash Heed, a former senior police officer and provincial solicitor general, shook his head but was not surprised the renewed allegations against the Mounties were ignored.
“This is standard operating procedure within the RCMP — you could go back to the McDonald Commission (an inquiry into the activities of the force in the 1970s), the Pickton inquiry, the two missing and murdered girls and women inquiries. We see the same response over and over again from the RCMP. It’s always the same response: ‘Sorry, we’ll do better.’ But they don’t do better, nobody is held to account, and we don’t see any change.”
He added: “This report wasn’t as assertive as it should have been given the need for change within this iconic institution.”
First Nations leader Bill Wilson cynically shrugged: “What did you expect? Of course they covered it up. … This case called into question the validity of the entire white man’s legal system and its relationship to Aboriginal people.”
In 2004, after Ramsay’s sentencing, Wilson and Carrier Sekani Tribal Council Chief Harry Pierre called on Amnesty International or some other international human rights organization to help First Nations.
The RCMP never has been called on the carpet to explain what happened or to justify its incompetent response — hiding behind the excuse that ongoing investigations could be compromised.
Lead investigator Cpl. Judy Thomas was made available briefly to the media and explained: “From 1999 until 2002, we didn’t have any substance. We had rumours only. … We heard it third-hand, just rumours off the street, various ministry workers hearing it. There were the rumblings of something going on. So we were trying to establish what was happening. … We didn’t have anything concrete.”
Why did it take three years to identify one rotten judge in a town where these girls and women were picked up within blocks of the RCMP detachment?
“There were various projects in that area at that time. You also have to appreciate the fact that there are other investigations ongoing,” Thomas said. “To be able to (put together) a surveillance team you need something concrete, something more than just third- and fourth-hand rumours. … It was just discussed in general, but to put a team together, you need more basis. These were just rumblings.”
She acknowledged that even she believed that where “there is smoke there is usually fire.”
Thomas said the RCMP got a break in 2002 when one of the victims appeared before Ramsay in a child-custody hearing and collapsed on the courthouse steps. Afterwards, the girl agreed to testify against him.
“From there, once one person had disclosed, other young women started coming forward … from 2002 until the following year,” Thomas said.
Media officers ended the news conference when reporters pressed for information about who made the decisions not to conduct surveillance.
A score of young women came forward and accused not just Ramsay, but the nine Mounties and a lawyer. No one else was charged, and the death of one considered key to the case was seemingly a major hurdle.
The only RCMP officer to face a disciplinary hearing didn’t because the force waited too long to invoke the Code of Conduct under the RCMP act. Such accusations had to be brought within a year, a time limit not amended in 2014. He denied any wrongdoing, as did the other officers.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Still, the silence of the provincial government on this report is damning — especially when Premier David Eby just handed the force an extra $230 million.
Hundreds of Indigenous women and girls have been murdered or gone missing over the last several decades across the nation — about 20 a year since 2000.
Can anyone really believe such willful blindness of senior Mounties would have happened if the women were white?
This is structural racism laid bare.
For too long, First Nations have had to abide and choke down the bile of RCMP institutional indifference.
No wonder Indigenous peoples believe the country still doesn’t get it. In a land with a Highway of Tears, the sky weeps.
It is time for that inquiry into the RCMP that First Nations leaders and others have demanded for 20 years. The force has lost its moral authority.
imulgrew@postmedia.com
twitter.com/ianmulgrew
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Ian Mulgrew: Allegations that B.C. RCMP officers abused Indigenous women ‘swept under the carpet,’ says ex-Mountie
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