{"id":838,"date":"2019-07-11T19:17:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T19:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/chapter\/5-2-the-rcmp-act\/"},"modified":"2021-09-08T21:12:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T21:12:41","slug":"the-rcmp-act","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/chapter\/the-rcmp-act\/","title":{"raw":"5.3 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act","rendered":"5.3 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act"},"content":{"raw":"The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act is comparable to British Columbia's Police Act in that it provides a legal framework that defines the way in which disciplinary procedures will be administered. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act contains two provisions for investigating wrongdoing by the RCMP, the External Review Committee, and the Public Complaints Commission.\r\n\r\nThe External Review Committee reviews appeals made by RCMP officers who have been disciplined under the\u00a0Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act. The Public Complaints Commission is an independent team of civilians that rule on the outcome of investigations of police complaints. Critics suggest that the investigators will favour the police officer and investigate an offence with bias.\r\n\r\nIn June 2013, the federal government passed Bill C-42, which created the\u00a0Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act\u00a0that is designed to enhance accountability and transparency by:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Creating a new Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP to replace the existing Commission for Public Complaints (CPC) against the RCMP and providing it with enhanced powers<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Establishing a statutory framework for handling investigations of serious incidents involving RCMP members, which will improve the transparency and accountability of these investigations<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Modernizing the RCMP's discipline, grievance, and human resource management processes, with a view to preventing, addressing, and correcting performance and conduct issues in a timely and fair manner, which includes enabling the commissioner to establish a specific process for the investigation and resolution of harassment when a member of the Force is a respondent<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThis following text is a copy of an official work that is published by the Government of Canada.\u00a0The reproduction has not been produced in affiliation with, or with the endorsement, of the Government of Canada.[footnote]Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/annualstatutes\/2013_18\/FullText.html[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nThis enactment enhances the accountability of the RCMP by reforming the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/acts\/R-10\">Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act<\/a>\u00a0in two vital areas. First, it strengthens the RCMP review and complaints body and implements a framework to handle investigations of serious incidents involving members. Second, it modernizes discipline, grievance, and human resource management processes for members, with a view to preventing, addressing, and correcting performance and conduct issues in a timely and fair manner.\r\n\r\nIt establishes a new complaints commission, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP. Most notably, it sets out the authority for the CRCC to have broad access to information in the control or possession of the RCMP, it sets out the CRCC\u2019s investigative powers, it permits the CRCC to conduct joint complaint investigations with other police complaints bodies, and it authorizes the CRCC to undertake policy reviews of the RCMP.\r\n\r\nIt establishes a mechanism to improve the transparency and accountability of investigations of serious incidents (death or serious injury) involving members, including referring the investigations to provincial investigative bodies when possible and appointing independent civilian observers to assess the impartiality of the investigations when they are carried out by the RCMP or another police service.\r\n\r\nIt modernizes the RCMP\u2019s human resources management regime. In particular, it authorizes the Commissioner to act with respect to staffing, performance management, disputes relating to harassment, and general human resource management.\r\n\r\nIt grants the Commissioner the authority to establish a consolidated dispute resolution framework with the flexibility to build redress processes through policies or regulations. It provides for a disciplinary process that will empower managers or other persons acting as conduct authorities to impose a wide range of conduct measures in response to misconduct and that requires conduct hearings only in cases when dismissal is being sought.\r\n<h1><strong>Jurisdiction of the Current Commission for Public Complaints<\/strong><\/h1>\r\nThe Commission for Public Complaints (CPC)\u00a0has jurisdiction over a complaint from a member of the public that concerns the conduct of an\u00a0RCMP\u00a0member while performing a policing duty or function. These duties and functions include criminal investigations, public complaint investigations, policing public events, security assignments, and intelligence operations.\r\n\r\nA complaint must also involve:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>An\u00a0RCMP\u00a0member or other person appointed or employed under the authority of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/acts\/R-10\">Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act.<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li>An\u00a0RCMP\u00a0member or other person who, when the complaint is made, is not deceased, retired, or resigned, or has been dismissed from the Force.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Conduct that occurred after\u00a0September 30, 1988, the date the\u00a0CPC\u00a0became authorized to take complaints.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<p>The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act is comparable to British Columbia&#8217;s Police Act in that it provides a legal framework that defines the way in which disciplinary procedures will be administered. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act contains two provisions for investigating wrongdoing by the RCMP, the External Review Committee, and the Public Complaints Commission.<\/p>\n<p>The External Review Committee reviews appeals made by RCMP officers who have been disciplined under the\u00a0Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act. The Public Complaints Commission is an independent team of civilians that rule on the outcome of investigations of police complaints. Critics suggest that the investigators will favour the police officer and investigate an offence with bias.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2013, the federal government passed Bill C-42, which created the\u00a0Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act\u00a0that is designed to enhance accountability and transparency by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Creating a new Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP to replace the existing Commission for Public Complaints (CPC) against the RCMP and providing it with enhanced powers<\/li>\n<li>Establishing a statutory framework for handling investigations of serious incidents involving RCMP members, which will improve the transparency and accountability of these investigations<\/li>\n<li>Modernizing the RCMP&#8217;s discipline, grievance, and human resource management processes, with a view to preventing, addressing, and correcting performance and conduct issues in a timely and fair manner, which includes enabling the commissioner to establish a specific process for the investigation and resolution of harassment when a member of the Force is a respondent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This following text is a copy of an official work that is published by the Government of Canada.\u00a0The reproduction has not been produced in affiliation with, or with the endorsement, of the Government of Canada.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/annualstatutes\/2013_18\/FullText.html\" id=\"return-footnote-838-1\" href=\"#footnote-838-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This enactment enhances the accountability of the RCMP by reforming the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/acts\/R-10\">Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act<\/a>\u00a0in two vital areas. First, it strengthens the RCMP review and complaints body and implements a framework to handle investigations of serious incidents involving members. Second, it modernizes discipline, grievance, and human resource management processes for members, with a view to preventing, addressing, and correcting performance and conduct issues in a timely and fair manner.<\/p>\n<p>It establishes a new complaints commission, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP. Most notably, it sets out the authority for the CRCC to have broad access to information in the control or possession of the RCMP, it sets out the CRCC\u2019s investigative powers, it permits the CRCC to conduct joint complaint investigations with other police complaints bodies, and it authorizes the CRCC to undertake policy reviews of the RCMP.<\/p>\n<p>It establishes a mechanism to improve the transparency and accountability of investigations of serious incidents (death or serious injury) involving members, including referring the investigations to provincial investigative bodies when possible and appointing independent civilian observers to assess the impartiality of the investigations when they are carried out by the RCMP or another police service.<\/p>\n<p>It modernizes the RCMP\u2019s human resources management regime. In particular, it authorizes the Commissioner to act with respect to staffing, performance management, disputes relating to harassment, and general human resource management.<\/p>\n<p>It grants the Commissioner the authority to establish a consolidated dispute resolution framework with the flexibility to build redress processes through policies or regulations. It provides for a disciplinary process that will empower managers or other persons acting as conduct authorities to impose a wide range of conduct measures in response to misconduct and that requires conduct hearings only in cases when dismissal is being sought.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Jurisdiction of the Current Commission for Public Complaints<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The Commission for Public Complaints (CPC)\u00a0has jurisdiction over a complaint from a member of the public that concerns the conduct of an\u00a0RCMP\u00a0member while performing a policing duty or function. These duties and functions include criminal investigations, public complaint investigations, policing public events, security assignments, and intelligence operations.<\/p>\n<p>A complaint must also involve:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An\u00a0RCMP\u00a0member or other person appointed or employed under the authority of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/acts\/R-10\">Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>An\u00a0RCMP\u00a0member or other person who, when the complaint is made, is not deceased, retired, or resigned, or has been dismissed from the Force.<\/li>\n<li>Conduct that occurred after\u00a0September 30, 1988, the date the\u00a0CPC\u00a0became authorized to take complaints.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-838-1\">Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/annualstatutes\/2013_18\/FullText.html <a href=\"#return-footnote-838-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":123,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-838","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":835,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":954,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/838\/revisions\/954"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/835"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/838\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=838"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=838"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/ethicsinlawenforcement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}