With regard to the second question, Surrey did a lot of work and found that by leaving contract policing, it would have its own police board where the mayor would be chair, and it could appoint people who represented the demographic diversity of Surrey. It also found that it would have much more flexibility in terms of hiring people and that there would not be this three-year cycle. A lot of RCMP officers will come into detachments that perhaps are 1,000 or 2,000 miles away from their homes, stay for three years and move out. The disadvantage of exiting from contract policing is that it obviously requires start-up funds. Although Surrey is estimating that it will save money, that is in part based upon projections that the RCMP is due for a raise. Now that they have a union, they will probably get one. Obviously, this was all done before COVID.
I'm not sure that I followed your first question exactly, but thank you for praising me for understanding French. I've tried throughout my career, but not with the greatest success.
The paramilitary.... I think this goes back to the problem that my co-panellist spoke about: police officers' experiencing sexism and racism within the ranks. One of the reasons why that festers is that there's a hierarchical structure. The RCMP was not even based on Sir Robert Peel's model of a civilian police. It was rather based on the Irish constabulary, which was a colonial occupying force within Ireland, and wore the red because that is what the military wore. I agree with my co-panellist that the roots of paramilitarism in the RCMP run extremely deep. They run from the start of the RCMP. They are reinforced in Regina where everyone trains, and they're reinforced within the command structure. It will take a brave and inspired leader to really fight that. We've had one civilian leader for the RCMP. That didn't work out so well. I think what you're seeing is that the institution and the paramilitarism of the institution are very durable.