Thank you for your invitation.
I will make my opening remarks in English, but I will be happy to answer your questions in both official languages.
I've written, as many of your know, at length about the CBSA and the RCMP on accountability and governance within the intelligence community. I sit on a police services board, and I lecture on police governance, so this is something that's dear to my heart.
I believe this is the third time this bill has been reintroduced. It's important this bill pass, not just for the sake of accountability but because there's growing awareness of inherent institutional bias and the importance of independent review bodies and publicly transparent follow-ons. The bill also offers an opportunity to remedy known shortcomings in the design of the current Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP.
The PCRC mirrors comparable changes in some provinces. In Ontario, Justice Tulloch's “Report of the Independent Police Oversight Review” was the first and only independent systemic review in Canada of the police oversight system to tackle how complaints against police officers and discipline are handled. Justice Tulloch's report has 129 recommendation aimed at enhancing the public's trust in the system. In addition, Justice Murray Sinclair tabled a comprehensive report on the Thunder Bay police. I commend both reports to this committee as they directly inform the committee's work on this bill. Justice Tulloch and Senator Sinclair pulled back the veil and exposed inherent bias in systems and organizations.
Ontario recently established the new inspector general of policing, as well as the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency. LECA was intended to mitigate biases and, in so doing, bolster public confidence in investigative processes.
The rule of law is foundational to democracy. In line with the growing and evolving public expectations and scrutiny of law enforcement, the PCRC will provide an important mechanism to shore up public legitimacy by ensuring compliance and propriety among Canada's two largest law enforcement agencies, which together field about 26,000 uniformed members who are tasked with investigating many of the most important threats to Canada's national security and public safety. While compliance and propriety are the sine qua non, independent review should also assess for proportionality, necessity, reasonableness and efficacy.
Specifically, I recommend the following with regard to subclause 28(8):
One, that the legislation enshrine a six-month limit for the RCMP or CBSA to provide written comment on the findings of a complaint or public interest investigation unless there is genuine ongoing litigation or other court proceedings that such disclosures might compromise. Absent timely input from the RCMP or CBSA, the PCRC should have explicit authority in statute to release the public findings of an investigation. This is to avoid an agency needlessly delaying the public release of findings as is currently the case with the RCMP, as public reporting has shown that some CRCC reports have been languishing for up to four years.
Two, as I explained in my book, the actual concepts that inform a review should be written into the legislation, including but not necessarily limited to compliance, propriety, proportionality, necessity, reasonableness and efficacy. The point of independent review is not just to ensure compliance. Rather think of it as peer review that has as its objective to make the agency better at what it does instead of being reduced to a mere discipline instrument. Complaints and review thus aim to become a process of continuous institutional improvement and transparency about those efforts as a key feature of democracy.
Three, the public needs to have confidence that findings and recommendations are actually being implemented. Therefore, agencies should be required to report back annually on plans and progress in implementing the PCRC findings and recommendations.
Four, the bill currently lacks explicit wording to deconflict its mandate from that of the ERC, NSIRA and NSICOP. For public interest investigations only, the PCRC should be required to deconflict with these other mechanisms. Reviews are time-consuming and resource-intensive for agencies. Therefore, the RCMP and CBSA should not have to commit resources to answering the same queries from different agencies.
Finally, five, the RCMP and CBSA should receive financial compensation for the resources they need to expend on responding to PCRC complaints and reviews. Otherwise, additional onus of review comes at a net cost to operations for an agency.
Thank you.
I have more proposals, but I only had five minutes.