Evidence of meeting #52 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rcmp.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
That's correct.
Liberal
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
That's correct.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Could you give me some examples of special public inquiries that have taken place in the last couple of years?
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Very simply, in the last three years, since I've been at the CPC, there have been no public inquiries. We've conducted our work through investigations and reviews.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
When we talk about public inquiries, we're talking about public inquiries that are led by the commission.
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
That's correct.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Are these generally infrequent? Could you remind us of the last one?
Senior Director, Operations, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The last one would have been the APEC inquiry conducted by Justice Hughes in Vancouver.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
That was under the auspices of the Commission for Public Complaints.
Most of your work is investigations outside of public inquiries, and these you cannot self-initiate, you were saying. At the moment, you cannot self-initiate them.
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
It's a little more complex than that.
Liberal
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Yes, and unfortunately, we probably need quite a bit more time.
I can commence, as chair, what's called a chair-initiated complaint, but that's after the fact.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
It's after what fact? Is it after the fact of the incident occurring?
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Exactly. For example, there might be a report in the media of a specific incident that clearly is problematic. As chair, I can commence an investigation into that on the basis that it's in the public interest that the commission do so.
A specified activity review is much broader. A specified activity review would allow the commission to review systemic processes....
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
It would be out of the blue. It wouldn't be in reaction to a media story or to something you heard somewhere.
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
That's correct. It could, for example, be as a result of a certain pattern we might be seeing in the reports we are doing.
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
No, we can't do that.
Liberal
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
We can't do that now.
If we were to see a certain pattern that was causing us concern, we'd be able to initiate a specified activities review.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Based on your experience, does it happen that you notice patterns to which you would like to respond through a review? Is this something that is fairly frequent, or does it happen very infrequently? Is this new power something that is really going to help you change the culture of the RCMP? Or is it more sporadic that you would notice a pattern?
For example, for the current problem with sexual harassment, would you have been alerted to a pattern, or would that really be something that would come through the media?
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
That really came more through the media.
In terms of how our reviews can affect the culture of the RCMP, I think the commission's work on CEW usage was very instrumental and is a good example.
Interim Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
It's taser use.