Occupy Toronto: RCMP: Integrity or Corruption

RCMP officers and employees have slowly been coming forward in greater numbers in recent days to talk about some of the abuse that they are subjected to and corruption that they see, on the job and from senior officers and/or co-workers.

I have to say that it takes a huge amount of courage for a member of the RCMP or any other Police, Intelligence and Military agency to do this and these officers should be commended and supported by Canadians. They certainly have my personal respect and admiration.

I’m referring to both the women who were sexually harassed in a way that can only be described as both vicious and malicious and to the men who were bullied and abused likely for no other reason than they disagreed with the wrong person or objected to some unethical behaviour.

The fact is that it is these members of the RCMP who are coming forward to bring these issues out in the open that are the ones who actually care about the integrity of the RCMP.

Those who cover up the abuse, enable and promote the abusers and enforce silence on those who object, are the ones who are undermining the integrity of Canada’s largest police force and destroying it’s professional reputation.

Why should the treatment of Police, Intelligence and Military employees matter to Canadians outside of those agencies?

For two reasons:

1. First and foremost, Charter Rights apply to every Canadian. There should be no exceptions under any circumstances. 
2. The same employees that are corrupt and abusing their power against their co-workers are also going to be abusing their power against Canadians outside of those agencies. The only way to end the Culture of Impunity and Secrecy that protects the abusers is to support the abused as well as demand a Culture of Transparency. The abused are the ones courageously standing up to defend the integrity of their agency and they are the ones that can ensure that integrity is maintained for all Canadians as well as themselves and their co-workers.

And hopefully members of other agencies like other Police Departments (Provincial and Municipal) and CSIS as well as our Military complex will also come forward so that we can deal with the entire problem and resolve it for everyone, not just one segment at a time.

This particular issue impacts all of us.