Will the RCMP’s new oversight body have any teeth when it comes to the force’s national security work? Let’s hope so…
Will the legislation being tabled today change anything when it comes to oversight of the RCMP’s national security work? Let’s hope so.
Back in 2002, then-RCMP public complaints commissioner Shirley Heafey spoke out to say that the RCMP was refusing to cooperate with her attempts to investigate the force’s post-9/11 national security investigations. In effect, she said, there was no civilian oversight of the RCMP’s national security work. Turns out that they had a lot to hide at the time — given their now well-documented role in the overseas detention and torture of Canadian citizens wrongfully labeled as security risks.
Heafey’s successor, Paul Kennedy, said much the same thing when testifying before the standing committee on public safety seven years later.
Let’s hope this legislation doesn’t ignore the Arar Inquiry’s recommendations made in December 2006, and supported by a recent public safety committee report, which itself won majority support in a House of Commons vote in December last year.
And lets hope this is just a first step, and that we see follow up on the Arar Commission’s call for an integrated review mechanism for all the agencies engaged in national security work.
