A report expected to recommend sweeping changes to the RCMP will be released in Ottawa on Friday in response to sliding public confidence in the national police force and low morale within its ranks.
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The Task Force on Governance and Cultural Change in the RCMP, headed by Toronto lawyer David Brown, is expected to recommend more oversight for the national police force, CBC News has learned.
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Expected recommendations include an arm's-length ombudsman, to whom front-line officers could raise concerns without fear of reprisals.
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Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day asked the task force to review the RCMP after Brown released a scathing report in June outlining mismanagement of Mountie pension and insurance plans.
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At that time, Brown declared the culture and management of the RCMP to be "horribly broken."
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"We cannot allow the image of our national police force to slip any further in the esteem of its own members or in the public they serve," he said.
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Chief Supt. Fraser MacAuley blew the whistle on the Mounties' pension fund scandal, which led to Brown's first investigation. He was among those Mounties who said he came forward when he saw wrongdoing within the force, only to be punished for his efforts.
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"We know what is going on," MacAulay said in April during his appearance at a parliamentary committee. "I was removed because I came forward, that is all."
A year of scandal, tragedy
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Brown has spent the last five months coming up with recommendations.
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New Democrat MP David Christopherson said he hopes Brown starts with the top "to mitigate the omnipotent power" the RCMP commissioner wields.
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"I mean, there is no checks and balances on that power," Christopherson told CBC News.
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It has been a scandal-plagued year for the Mounties that featured the resignation of RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli after he admitted he had given incorrect testimony to a parliamentary committee looking into the Maher Arar affair.
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The force has also faced heavy criticism over its handling of the pension scandal and the fatal takedown of a Polish immigrant involving Taser use by four Mounties at Vancouver International Airport in October.
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The RCMP has also been reeling from the recent deaths of two members killed in the line of duty in separate shootings in two northern communities.
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The slayings led to heavy examination of the RCMP's policies on officer backup request procedures in short-staffed and remote detachments.
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The ranks of the RCMP seem ready to move quickly on Brown's report. A full-day meeting has been scheduled for Monday involving every RCMP manager across the country to discuss the recommendations.