Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I retired from the RCMP 3 years ago. I was a staff sergeant at the time. I spent 40 years with the RCMP, 33 of them as a division staff representative, meaning I represented members internally. Initially, you heard from Mr. Townsend. I did the same type of work he did. I spent 33 years representing RCMP members. I think I am well-placed to describe what happens in harassment cases, disciplinary measures and so forth.
However, I would like to point out that the current version of the RCMP Act was initiated in 1976, in response to the famous Marin report, put out by the commission headed by Justice René Marin. I hope you have a look at the report and the 200 or so recommendations it made. Two of the main recommendations called for the independence of both the external review committee for public complaints and the external review committee for RCMP member grievances. The report recommended not only that they be independent, but also that their decisions be binding. It took 10 years for that recommendation to become law. It did not happen until 1988. So a tremendous amount of work went into that component.
In addition, two years ago, Bill C-43 was introduced in the House of Commons. My colleague will cite a few passages from it later. That said, since the legislation was passed, this is where things stand.
One of the things I want to draw your attention to is the fact that multiple reports have been prepared: the Brown report, the Université de Montréal report and the submissions pertaining to the task force. I have them all here so you can look at them. You will see precisely what the RCMP's problems are as regards harassment, intimidation and the inability of senior management to show accountability in this area. I say “show accountability” because all this time, these people have not been held accountable to anyone, as my colleague pointed out.
That is why, as parliamentarians, you always have this ambiguity on your hands, in terms of how to handle a large organization like the RCMP. They are not formally accountable to anyone.
For comparison purposes, a police chief is accountable to a board. So a group of individuals review his or her decisions. Those decisions are made independently. As you can see, the brief we provided to the committee was prepared with organization and concision in mind. We wanted you to understand exactly what we mean.
I will give you an example of the kind of decision made regarding grievances filed by members. Decision TG-192—which I will leave with you—says this:
This grievance also challenged a Force decision not to uphold a member's complaint of harassment.
That's just one example of a decision, but you'll see there are many.
The decision rendered reads as follows:
The Commissioner disagreed with the Committee's finding of harassment with respect to the first incident and denied the grievance.
That has always been the case at the RCMP because the committees aren't independent in their ability to make a decision. That's what happens when you leave the decision to a person in a position of authority. That is how things work at the RCMP now, and this bill won't change a thing. You'll see the same kinds of situations triggering all the investigations that have taken place and that will continue into the future.