Systemic Racism in the RCMP (RCMP)

Issue

To address concerns regarding systemic racism in the RCMP.

Response

Background

The RCMP faces greater scrutiny amidst the racial reckoning that Black, Indigenous, Asian, and racialized communities experienced throughout the pandemic. This includes tumultuous events, including the death of George Floyd, the discovery of hundreds of Indigenous residential schoolchildren’s remains, and the rise of Anti-Asian Hate.

This has resulted in an increase in calls to hold the RCMP, and other government departments and agencies accountable, culminating in the release of the previous parliamentary session’s Standing Committee of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, “Report on Systemic Racism in Policing in Canada”, just this past June. This report included a variety of recommendations directed at the RCMP to tackle systemic racism. These range from, shortening the response rate time to the Civilian Rights and Complaint’s Commission, to collecting disaggregated race-based data.

Over the past two years, the RCMP has initiated a review of its policies and programs to ensure they are barrier-free for all equity-seeking groups. This included a GBA+ analysis of its recruiting process, which identified areas for improvement such as the expansion of applicant eligibility to Permanent Residents. Further reviews are underway to address areas that are barriers to diverse applicants.

Over the past year, the RCMP has been working towards the development of its first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy.  The strategy is designed to establish a strong foundation for equity, diversity and inclusion practice, by being clear and coherent about directions for focused action including on recognizing and living RCMP values that speak to  the fundamental dignity of all individuals.

The Strategy will support leaders at all levels of the organization and engage them to establish:

The strategy is an important component of the RCMP’s response to concerns of systemic racism from the public, the media and government.

Vision 150 bolsters the RCMP’s commitment to tackling systemic racism through organizational culture change. The RCMP will accomplish this by implementing key initiatives such as the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, including the RCMP’s upcoming Anti-Racism course, a new suite of performance metrics, and through renewal of the RCMP’s Core Values. Each of these initiatives will work to educate RCMP personnel on systemic racism, discrimination, and unconscious bias, among other social phenomena.

Collection of disaggregated race-based data is a key Vision 150 initiative. The RCMP seeks to use this to determine if certain police intervention methods disproportionately affect certain marginalized communities. The RCMP has been working in collaboration with Statistics Canada, and in consultation with policing partners across the country, to help ensure that the data collected, across multiple mandates and jurisdictions, is reliable, accurate, and respectful of individual privacy rights.  

Vision 150 will propel the RCMP’s efforts in tackling systemic racism in its service delivery and its practices, and will act as a launch pad to regain the public’s trust. These initiatives are a testament to the RCMP’s firm commitment in tackling systemic racism in the RCMP.

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