Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. I want to thank you very much for this opportunity to address you and assist you—

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the committee members and the chair for this opportunity to assist you in your review of this very important bill to introduce the right to unionization and collective bargaining to RCMP members. In its way, it's really quite an historic mom

Public Safety committee  Yes, thank you, Chair. Then on harassment, this is one of the most serious issues facing the RCMP today. It's a part of the culture. You have fiefdoms where arbitrary conduct can go unseen. You have some isolated posting where they're all subject to a certain sergeant, and perpe

Public Safety committee  The big question I have is, what's broken here? I don't think I've heard the case about why we need to change the current system. I believe last week Deputy Commissioner Dubeau indicated there hadn't been consultation with members broadly on the issue or really any consultation

Public Safety committee  You would find some of the more serious cases would then end up going to the Public Service Labour Relations Board. No doubt you would probably have the association negotiating some clause in the collective agreement that says fair treatment in the workplace, or no harassment in

Public Safety committee  Presumably the current system would remain in place and I think the issue of a vacuum is a very real one. I think you heard last week about how the RCMP commissioner has unilaterally cut the legs out from under the Mounted Police Members Legal Fund, which has been representing me

Public Safety committee  This is amusing in some ways, but only because of how bad it is. Under the old system, you already did not have any adjudication. You could file a harassment complaint or grievance and if you got that resolved in less than four or five years, you would be lucky. Frankly, I don't

Public Safety committee  You can also grieve those. You would be able to grieve those. In terms of the employer liability or responsibility, it's a situation where had the employer been put on notice of the problem and taken effective steps to deal with the problem.... If the employer doesn't know there'

Public Safety committee  Probably the thrust of some of these exclusions, like the transfers ones, is that the RCMP wants to reserve unto itself that they're still a paramilitary organization. If we tell you you're going to the front lines, or you're going to this remote community, that's where you're go

Public Safety committee  I can answer that in a couple of seconds. At the end of the day, even removing the exclusions doesn't mean their subject matter is necessarily going to be subject to the collective agreement. It will still be subject to collective bargaining. If the RCMP as the employer, or the

Public Safety committee  Actually, these exclusions may well run afoul of that.

Public Safety committee  That's one, yes. There's that one and there's another one that they link to in it. Yes, I read it.

Public Safety committee  I see the statistics, but I have to confess that I've been involved in enough human rights cases at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that I often doubt how those statistics are created. I have to confess in all fairness that when I read that report, “Results and Respect in th

Public Safety committee  On the surface of it—

Public Safety committee  Yes.