Photo by The Phoenix News of RCMP CRU-BC vehicle.
PBI-Canada has been following the “systemic investigation” by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), now called the Critical Response Unit-British Columbia (CRU-BC).
As CBC journalist Brett Forester has previously reported: “More than 100 grievances accepted for investigation contain allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and charter violations by the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”
That investigation was launched in March 2023. In early April 2026, CBC News journalist Chantelle Bellrichard reported: “Watchdog’s report on controversial RCMP unit delayed due to lack of chairperson. Civilian Review and Complaints Commission has been without a chairperson since January 2025.”
Also in April 2026, Phoenix News, the student newspaper at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) in Kelowna, reported: “With a stonewalled federal investigation, the controversial RCMP group has recently been spotted on-campus by students, and questions are beginning to swirl as to why it might be here.”
That article adds: “UBCO is not the first campus to take clear note of the presence of the CRU-BC on its campus beyond the campus encampments of 2023-2024, as UBC-Vancouver has recently seen. By virtue of a freedom of information request filed by Breach Media, it has become known as recently as March 2026 that the then-C-IRG was actively monitoring the UBC-Vancouver campus encampment of 2024 as soon as it became active.”
More from The Breach on this at: “A notorious RCMP unit shaped B.C. universities’ reaction to Palestine encampments: From Fairy Creek to university campuses, CRU-BC is positioning itself as the go-to police force for repressing dissent”.
In a statement provided to The Phoenix News about the CRU-BC on the UBCO campus, RBC Off-Campus commented: “It is shameful that UBC has repeatedly welcomed the RCMP onto campus under the guise of ‘security’ and ‘community safety’. Cops don’t make us safe. Normalizing police presence is dangerous. we know that the CRU branch of the RCMP has collaborated with universities to suppress life-affirming, anti-genocide student protest for Palestine. We know that they violated Indigenous Land Defenders’ charter rights. Cops off campus means more safety for everyone.”
The RBC Off-Campus campaign has denounced the building of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia. The RCMP C-IRG launched three militarized raids on the territory (in January 2019, February 2020 and November 2021).
In May 2022, CBC News reported: “In a letter dated April 29, [the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination/CERD] said the governments of Canada and British Columbia ‘have escalated their use of force, surveillance, and criminalization of land defenders to intimidate, remove and forcibly evict Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en Nations from their traditional lands…’ The letter goes on to name the RCMP, the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) and private security forces as the perpetrators.”
CRCC report expected within months
With the appointment of an interim chairperson CRCC in April 2026, we anticipate the report will be released within the broad timeframe of early-July (at the very earliest) to mid-October 2026 (at the very latest).
