I truly believe the RCMP would be a much better police service if it were accountable.
I have the experience right now of being counsel and public complaint director at the Calgary Police Commission. I never have to spend any time struggling to do my job. They are there. They are accountable. Just recently, as an example, we conducted a survey, and the Calgary Police Service had 89% approval from its citizens. I think that says a lot. I think any police service in this country would be very pleased to have that kind of result.
That's the kind of impact that would come from accountability. If you know you're going to be checked...and this is what happened with CSIS. When they figured out that we were going to be there, that we were going to be looking at their files, that we were going to be auditing, everything changed. I saw it over the course of five years. By the time I left, it was a different organization.
In my view, there's no question it would make the RCMP a stronger and a better police service.