Parliamentary Committee Notes: Anti-Racism At The RCMP
Date: May 11, 2022
Classification: Insert classification
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes/No
Branch / Agency: RCMP
Proposed Response:
- The RCMP acknowledged that systemic racism exists in the organization and took strong action in support of anti-racism in its Vision 150 Plan to Advance Equity, Accountability and Trust. Since developing its plan, the RCMP launched a robust EDI Strategy, deployed mandatory training entitled United Against Racism and took meaningful steps towards the collection of race-based data.
- The RCMP’s approach to systemic racism was supported in the 2021-2022 Federal Budget, which allocated $75 M over five years and $13.5 M ongoing to address the issue of systemic racism in the RCMP.
- The RCMP’s Bias-Free Policing policy, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act, and the RCMP Act guide all interactions between RCMP members and members of the public. The RCMP’s Bias-free policing policy means equitable treatment of all persons by all RCMP employees in the performance of their duties, in accordance with the law and without abusing their authority.
- The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC) recently released its report on the RCMP's bias-free policing model. The CRCC found that there are a number of shortcomings with the RCMP's national policy on unbiased policing. The RCMP supports the Commission's recommendations and remains committed to comprehensive organizational reform to provide modern, inclusive and unbiased policing services will allow us to better serve our communities.
- The RCMP is also an important contributor to the Government’s response to Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security’s Report on Systemic Racism in Policing in Canada. The RCMP accepts most of its findings and is ready to support any broader government action to address systemic racism.
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 such as 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 address systemic racism. Recommendations range from shortening the response rate time, implementing the recommendations contained within the Civilian Rights and Complaint’s Commission report on the RCMP's bias-free policing model, and collecting disaggregated race-based data.
Vision 150 bolsters the RCMP’s commitment to addressing systemic racism through organizational culture change. The RCMP will accomplish this by implementing key initiatives such as the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, deploying a mandatory Anti-Racism learning series to employees, and exploring race-based data collection on interactions between Regular Members and the public.
The EDI 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 is an important component of the RCMP’s response to concerns of systemic racism from the public, the media and government, and will support leaders at all levels of the organization and engage them to establish:
- solid governance;
- clear, transparent and accountable practices;
- stronger education, awareness and training regimes, and
- the foundations for culture change.
The RCMP launched the United Against Racism learning series in December 2021. The training was designed to develop the knowledge and skills to understand racism and its roots to become informed allies and advocates. Each of these initiatives will work to educate RCMP employees 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 will use race-based data to evaluate if its policies and practices lead to disproportionate policing outcomes for Black, Indigenous and other racialized communities. The RCMP has been working in collaboration with Statistics Canada to ensure its approach is consistent with data standards adopted by Canadian law enforcement agencies.
Since receiving support for this initiative in Budget 2021, the RCMP has implemented a dedicated team to lead the implementation of race-based data collection throughout the organization. The team will also lead the department’s efforts to address systemic racism in the RCMP. The team will include the right skills and expertise to help the RCMP work within an Anti-Racism framework.
The newly created Office of RCMP-Indigenous Co-Development, Collaboration and Accountability (RICCA) has both internal and external-facing roles, providing a culturally-sensitive setting where employees can seek support, and where solutions to issues related to policing in Indigenous communities are addressed, using a collaborative approach.
More recently, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP completed a review of the RCMP’s bias free policing model, which guides interactions between RCMP members and members of the public. The objective of the review was to determine whether the RCMP's bias-free policing model is adequate, appropriate, sufficient and clear. The review included an investigation of policies, mandatory training, as well as the public complaint and code of conduct processes as they relate to bias-free policing. The review also included an investigation of the means that the RCMP has to evaluate compliance with its own bias-free policing policies. The final report issued 13 recommendations, all of which were accepted by the Commissioner in her March 1, 2022 response.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Suelyn Knight, Executive National Advisor – Race Based Data Collection, 613-793-6650
Approved by: Nadine Huggins, CHRO, 343-552-2226
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