CRCC’s Mandate, Stats and Major Reports Outstanding

General Information

The CRCC receives complaints from the public relating to the on duty conduct of RCMP members, including allegations of bias and or racism.

At the request of a complainant who is dissatisfied with the RCMP’s disposition of their complaint, the CRCC conducts a review of the complaint including allegations of bias and racism and makes recommendations.

The Commission is assessing the data it collects as part of the public complaint process, taking into consideration what other Canadian Police Oversight agencies across the country have recently publically undertaken in relation to the collection of race-based data.

The CRCC has initiated a systemic review of the RCMP’s Bias-Free Policing Model.

The CRCC has initiated various CICs & PIIs which have included issues related to bias and racism:

Policing in Northern BC
Raymond Silverfox
Amber Tuccaro
John Simon
Boushie (Interim Report sent to RCMP Commissioner Jan. 2020)

The following excerpt from the CRCC’s 2017 Northern BC report is of relevance:

“Although the Commission's community engagement reflected a certain level of satisfaction with the RCMP particularly in rural areas, there remained a perception by many community members that the RCMP is biased against Indigenous people. Despite the Commission being unable to substantiate that view through its policy and file review, the Commission acknowledges that the noted weaknesses in some policies and procedures may affect the overall transparency and accountability of the RCMP, which in turn can foster distrust and feed community perceptions that often reflect an individual's personal experiences.”

In addition, the Northern BC Report commented on the use of force in its recommendation no. 19:

Recommendation No. 19: That the RCMP modify the Subject Behaviour/Officer Response database and reporting policies to enhance accountability by ensuring issues identified through the reporting process can be monitored, tracked, and independently reviewed.

Review Reports

In complaint review reports, the Commission has discussed the special considerations applicable to the arrest and detention of Indigenous persons. The Commission has stated that the overrepresentation of Indigenous groups in the criminal justice system is widely recognized in Canada.

Furthermore, the Commission has indicated that the impact of colonialism continues to reverberate across Indigenous communities. Commissioners of the RCMP have repeatedly acknowledged that the conduct of its members has systematically contributed to some of the grave injustices faced by modern Indigenous peoples.

Historical events are inextricably linked to the policing of Indigenous communities, where a lack of trust between police and the community are central challenges to effective policing. Police response to criminal incidents in such communities requires awareness and sensitivity to these fundamental contextual factors.

The Commission has noted that contributing to safer and healthier Indigenous communities is one of the five current strategic priorities for the RCMP. As part of achieving this objective, the RCMP has recognized the value of the following relevant initiatives:

working collaboratively with the communities to ensure enhanced and optimized service delivery by developing relevant and culturally competent police services;
maintaining and strengthening partnerships with Indigenous communities, policing and government partners, stakeholders and with Indigenous organizations; and
promoting and using alternative / community justice initiatives for Indigenous people.

In assessing the conduct of RCMP members when performing complaint reviews, the Commission has analyzed whether the RCMP members whose conduct was the subject of the complaint had considered or applied the above principles.
Furthermore, in the course of conducting complaint reviews and public interest investigations, the Commission has assessed whether the conduct of RCMP members was discriminatory or biased on the basis of prohibited grounds of discrimination such as race, colour, or ethnic origin.

To assess allegations of discrimination, the Commission has applied the test outlined by the Supreme Court of Canada in Moore v BC (Education) 2012 SCC 61, namely whether the complainant (or person affected by the RCMP conduct examined in the complaint):

has a characteristic protected by the applicable human rights legislation;
experienced an adverse impact with respect to an area protected by the human rights legislation; and
the protected characteristic was a factor in the adverse impact.

For example, when conducting its Chairperson-initiated complaint and public interest investigation into the RCMP's investigation of the death of Colten Boushie, the Commission assessed whether there had been discrimination on the basis of race or perceived race. The Commission submitted its interim report on this matter to the RCMP Commissioner in January 2020 and is awaiting her response to issue its final report.

Delays in receiving the Commissioner’s response to interim reports

Pursuant to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, the CRCC cannot issue its final report until it has received the Commissioner’s response to an interim report.

As of this date, the CRCC is awaiting the Commissioner’s response to 181 interim reports. These include:

8 files have been waiting over 3 years
59 files have been waiting between 2 and 3 years
63 files have been waiting between 1 and 2 years
51 files have been waiting less than one year

The average time taken by the RCMP to respond to the CRCC’s interim reports is 1.5 years.

The oldest case has been pending before the Commissioner for 3.7 years.

In 2019-2020, the Commission issued final reports on cases that had been before the RCMP Commissioner in some instances almost 3 years. The CRCC’s Chairperson emphasized in her final reports on those cases that:

Timeliness is important in achieving the shared goal of excellence in policing through accountability;
Lengthy delays serve to obscure transparency, dilute the effect of findings, and reduce or eliminate the value of recommendations; and
Public confidence and trust in the RCMP is eroded when civilian oversight is perceived to be delayed

The issue of delays pertaining to receiving Commissioner responses to interim reports was discussed on a semi-annual basis during the last bilats between the RCMP Commissioner and the CRCC Chairperson. In addition, the delays are being mentioned in the CRCC’s 2019-2020 annual report. Finally, in December 2019, the CRCC and the RCMP signed a memorandum of understanding which indicates that the RCMP have six months to respond to interim reports.

Additional items of relevance

The CRCC was involved in the efforts to develop an informal process to deal with complaints between the RCMP and the Wetsuwet’en. The focus of those efforts was building trust between the communities and the RCMP by following an indigenous justice program.

Letter of February 13, 2020, of the CRCC’s response to concerns about RCMP actions in Wet’suwet’en Territory raised by the BCCLA, the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

As these matters had not yet been investigated, the Chairperson of the CRCC indicated that she ‘cannot comment in any way on the merits of the issues you raise, or on the current situation on or around Morice West Forest Service Road. However, in order to address your request that the Commission initiate a Public Interest Investigation into this matter, I will set out my understanding of the concerns you are raising, and their similarity to certain other issues examined by the Commission in previous cases.’
…..

Among other topics, the issues examined in the Commission's Kent County report included:

the use of arrest;
the use of detention and search powers;
the use of force;
the adequacy of communication with members of the public;
the planning, management, and execution of the arrests at the protest camp;
the handling of spiritual items, and/or interference with the spiritual practices of Indigenous peoples involved in the protests; and
the role of the RCMP in the policing of protests by Indigenous peoples pertaining to Indigenous land rights, and whether there was differential treatment of Indigenous peoples compared to other protesters.

The Commission found that RCMP members did not demonstrate bias in general, or engage in differential treatment of Indigenous protesters when making arrests. Although the Commission made several findings and recommendations regarding the need for training and policy development with regard to Indigenous cultural matters and the handling of sacred items, it found that RCMP members did not, either deliberately or unwittingly, unnecessarily interfere with Indigenous ceremonies or sacred items.

CRCC investigations

Various factors may delay an investigation conducted by the CRCC, such as:

The need to place the CRCC’s investigation into abeyance until the conclusion of a related investigation or proceeding, such as a criminal investigation into a death or serious injury caused by an RCMP member conducted by a special investigative unit like the British Columbia Independent Investigations Office, or a criminal prosecution related to the incident being investigated by the CRCC;

The volume of documentation received from the RCMP, which must be reviewed and analyzed (for example, the public interest investigation into the RCMP’s response to anti-fracking protests in New Brunswick involved multiple terabytes of documentation including thousands of video files);

The number of witnesses to be interviewed by CRCC investigators (for example, more than 130 civilian witnesses and RCMP members were interviewed by Commission investigators for the public interest investigation into the RCMP’s response to anti-fracking protests in New Brunswick);

Scheduling issues regarding interviews;

The Commission sometimes is the causes of delays to the process – often because we are a micro-agency and staffing upheavals can and have contributed to some of our delays;

Consideration should be given to the CRCC’s budget (and lack of increase) relative to that of the RCMP. It is impossible to predict when or how many times the CRCC will feel compelled to conduct a PII or CIC/PII in a given year – even though technically the CRCC must have resources before undertaking an investigation, there is often public demand for action and the CRCC has to play the role of impartial investigator; and

Although the Interim Chairperson responded to the RCMP’s request to assist with the Boushie file, no request for additional funds was made. Consequently, decisions such as these have an impact on timeliness of other investigations.

Annex with CRCC Statistics for the Fiscal Year 2019-2020

Complaints

The public lodged 3,641 complaints with the CRCC.

2,317 of those complains met the criteria laid out in section 45.53 of the RCMP Act.

92% of complaints were lodged with the CRCC and 8% were lodged with the RCMP.

The public lodged 22% more complaints than the previous year.

2,988 in 2018-2019
3,641 in 2019-2020

How does the CRCC receive complaints?

55% on-line
34% over the phone
5% by mail
4% by fax

Service Standards:

94% of complaints were sent to the RCMP within the 7-day service standard
42% of satisfied and interim reports were completed within the 120-day service standard
78% of final reports were delivered within the 30-day service standard.

Top allegation categories:

Neglect of duty
Improper attitude
Improper use of force
Improper arrest
Improper search of premises
Irregularities in procedure

Reviews

The Commission received 296 requests to review the RCMP’s handling of public complaints.

The Commissioner issued 394 review reports.

313 satisfied reports
57 interim reports
24 final reports

The RCMP Commissioner accepted approximately 76% of Commission recommendations and 85% of adverse findings.

The Commission has the following public interest investigations and systemic reviews underway:

RCMP’s investigation of the death of Colten Boushie
RCMP’s policies and procedures regarding street checks
RCMP’s policies and procedures regarding strip searches
RCMP use of force against an elderly couple
RCMP’s bias-free policing model
RCMP’s crime reduction-type units

Interim Reports