MONTREAL – About 100 RCMP officers rallied in Montreal to protest what they describe as strained working conditions and labour relations on Tuesday.
Demonstrators gathered at noon in front of RCMP headquarters in Westmount and then marched to the Atwater metro station, where officers took the subway to the Hyatt Regency Hotel to attend a meeting with management.
The protest was held in reaction to budget cuts that have affected undercover wardrobe expenses and reduced healthcare and pension benefits.
Retired RCMP staff sergeant and president of the Mounted Police Association of Quebec, Gaétan Delisle, noted that the officers are caught between a rock and a hard place, with no permission to unionize and no independent grievance system.
“We want to rebuild pubic confidence in the RCMP,” he said in a statement. “The system is broken right now and the members are not well represented.”
The lack of an independent tribunal means that officers do not have a formal process to lodge complaints where an outside body will hear the issues, a particular problem in light of recent sexual harassment allegations and reports of bullying in the police force.
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