RCMP will no longer investigate themselves, commissioner declares

OTTAWA – The RCMP will no longer allow Mounties to investigate themselves in cases involving serious injury or death of suspects, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said Thursday.

The Mounties will refer cases to outside police forces, or provincial or federal review agencies, Elliott told a news conference at RCMP headquarters.

"The RCMP must strive to be as open and transparent as possible and fully accountable for its actions," Elliott said.

"I’m convinced we need to collectively raise the bar in terms on how we respond to situations where life is lost, serious injuries sustained, or sensitive matters of public trust and confidence are raised."

In cases in which it is not possible to call in outside investigators, the new policy will ensure that officers are screened for conflict of interest and that the investigating officer outranks the officer being probed, said Elliott.

Alberta and Ontario already have special investigation units and other provinces, such as Manitoba and Nova Scotia, are moving in that direction, he said.

There have been many calls for the RCMP to stop the practice of Mounties investigating fellow officers in cases involving injury or death.

Paul Kennedy, the former head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, released a report last summer asserting that the RCMP must refer investigations to outside police forces to ensure independence.

Kennedy also pushed for more civilian involvement in probes involving death, serious injury and sex assault.

"We are not saying that the RCMP should never investigate itself. But we are saying that in certain circumstances, they should not," Kennedy told a news conference when he released his report last August.

Elliott, who has promised a new policy on RCMP officers conducting internal investigations, has said it is not always possible for other forces to investigate, particularly if an incident occurs in a remote area.

The federal government, for its part, has committed for years to improve oversight of the RCMP, but it has said that it is awaiting the pending report from the Air India inquiry before finalizing a broad new mechanism.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Thursday he supports the new RCMP policy.

Calls for the Mounties to cease investigating each other have escalated in recent years, particularly following the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in October 2007, after he was Tasered by RCMP officers at the Vancouver International Airport.

There have been several other deaths across the country that have also raised questions, including the mysterious shooting death in 2009 of John Simmons, a Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq, following a standoff with RCMP officers at his Cape Breton home.

In November, a New Democrat MP from British Columbia introduced a private member’s bill that proposed that creation of an independent watchdog to probe cases of deaths in RCMP custody.

Nathan Cullen said the bill would create a "civilian investigation service" modelled after Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, a civilian agency that looks into all of the Ontario Provincial Police’s in-custody deaths.

Cullen said his initiative was sparked by the death of Ian Bush, a 22-year-old who died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head following a struggle with a B.C. Mountie in July 2005.