Essentially, yes.
Our chapter was not so much to look at what had happened but rather at whether we thought the RCMP had dealt with the case and the allegations that had been brought forward in an appropriate manner.
There were serious issues with human resource practices. There were serious issues with contracting. There was an internal investigation done. And then they brought in the Ottawa Police Service to do an investigation.
Our conclusion was that they had dealt with it adequately. There are a couple of issues, though, that we think need to be resolved.
One is that the memorandum with the Ottawa Police Service indicated that the Ottawa Police Service would be reporting to someone in the RCMP. They assured us that they conducted their investigation independently, but as a minimum, this could give the perception that they were not independent. There is no policy in place for when independent investigations are done about the RCMP operation. So that needs to be corrected.
The other issue that needs to be looked at, going forward, is on the disciplinary action, because there was an appeals court decision in February 2006 that affected their ability to take disciplinary action.
Under the RCMP Act, they must begin disciplinary action within a year of becoming aware of an incident. The RCMP have always treated that year as being at the end of a criminal investigation, so they would do them sequentially. This was appealed. At the appeals court, the judge ruled they had to begin from the moment that senior management became aware of an impropriety or a suspected impropriety. This will have to change their way of doing it, or they will have to change something in the act to define that one-year period. By the time this decision came out in February 2006, it was too late for them to take action on this particular case.
So it was because of that court decision.