Commission calls for closure of RCMP Depot with “militaristic” training and “traditional paramilitary culture”

Photo: Cadets at RCMP Academy Depot Division.

The  North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), the forerunner of the present-day Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), was established in 1873.

Journalist Stephen Maher writes in Maclean’s magazine that Canada’s first prime minister modelled the NWMP on the Royal Irish Constabulary, “a colonial, paramilitary force designed to project power over a subject people”.

Beginning in 1885 all NWMP/RCMP cadets have been required to go through six months of training at Depot, the RCMP Academy in Regina, Saskatchewan.

It is the only location where the RCMP trains its cadets.

As such, it is where the RCMP officers who comprise the controversial Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) are trained.

Scott Blandford, a 30-year veteran with a major police force who is now a professor at Wilfred Laurier University, describes the Depot as “essentially military boot camp”.

Retired Dalhousie professor Chris Murphy and former RCMP assistant commissioner Cal Corley have also commented: “Too many aspects of the training at Depot reinforce an outdated traditional paramilitary culture.”

And former Supreme Court of Canada justice Michel Bastarache wrote in Broken Dreams, Broken Lives: The Devastating Effects of Sexual Harassment on Women in the RCMP (November 2020) that the nature of training cadets receive at Depot contributes to the toxic culture within the RCMP.

Bastarache wrote the report as part of the $125 million settlement of claims from 2,304 female Mounties who were sexually abused or harassed on the job.

Mass Casualty Commission recommendations

The final report (March 2023) of the Mass Casualty Commission has recommended that the RCMP phase out the Depot.

The Commission recommended (on page 56): “The RCMP phase out the Depot model of RCMP training by 2032 and the RCMP consult with the Métis and Saskatchewan Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations with respect to how the land and the facility should be used in the future.”

Asked about this recommendation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently stated: “Depot is a Canadian institution just as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are. We know how important it is for the local economy, but we also know how impactful it is in training police officers who then serve all across the country. We will continue to look very carefully at the recommendations.”

Overall, the Commission stated (on page 145) its “recommendations to the RCMP [are] about the changes needed to transform from its present paramilitary structure to a police service that better reflects contemporary Canadian legal norms and community expectations.”

Photo: On November 16, 1885, Metis resistance leader Louis Riel was hung at Depot. University of Manitoba professor Sean Carleton: “Mounties still get trained at the spot where Riel was killed by the state.”

Photo: Depot, 1937.

RCMP Heritage Centre

The RCMP Heritage Centre, currently in the process of seeking to become a national museum, is located on the grounds of the Depot.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Press reported: “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the 2019 election campaign that the Liberals would expand the RCMP Heritage Centre, which is currently operated by a charitable organization, into a national institution. …The centre has spent years advocating to gain national museum status, which would require the federal government to amend the Museums Act. National museums operate as Crown Corporations and have their operating costs covered by Ottawa.”

Abolish C-IRG

The Globe and Mail editorial board recently commented: “The time for delicacy is over. The [Mass Casualty] commission’s findings about the RCMP are so stark that the only responsible conclusion is that Canada’s national police force needs to be torn down to its foundations, and then those foundations need to be dynamited.”

More specifically, a new coalition has called for the abolition of the RCMP’s C-IRG unit.

The C-IRG is comprised of RCMP officers who request to be temporarily reassigned from their regular duties. The controversial police unit has received at least $49.9 million since 2017-18 for its actions to enable the construction of the TC Energy Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory, the Government of Canada-owned Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline on Secwepemc territory, and Teal Jones logging in the Fairy Creek watershed.

After receiving nearly 500 formal complaints against the C-IRG alleging excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and Charter violations, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, an independent federal watchdog agency, launched a systemic investigation of the C-IRG this past March.

PBI-Canada is part of Abolish C-IRG, a new coalition of frontline defenders, lawyers, professors, researchers, students, non-profits and settler allies.

On March 22, the coalition called for a suspension of C-IRG deployments during the CRCC systemic investigation.

The letter states: “The CRCC reviews can take years to complete, and it is irresponsible to have this unit continue operations during that time, enabling the continuation of unlawful use of force, arrests, detentions, and assaults that have sparked such an investigation.”

Then on April 19, the coalition issued this letter, signed by Indigenous land defenders and 60+ organizations, that states: “We call on the Province of British Columbia, the provincial Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General, the federal Ministry of Public Safety and Prime Minister’s Office, and RCMP ‘E’ Division to immediately disband the C-IRG.”

You can follow Abolish C-IRG on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For more, see The RCMP promoted a video for recruitment. But critics say its focus on ‘military-style’ policing won’t attract new and diverse cadets (Toronto Star, February 27, 2020).