Government, RCMP relationship questioned

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The door is wide open for the federal government to use the police to further political agendas in Canada, say opposition members and at least one former RCMP investigator.

Questions about how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force deals with the federal government have been raised in the House of Commons and elsewhere recently, as Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark continues to pound Prime Minister Jean Chretien for his role in helping secure a business loan for a constituent.

An exchange on Feb. 15 between Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault and the Opposition's deputy Indian Affairs critic added more fuel to the fire and brought the discussion directly into the realm of First Nation politics. Betty Hinton, Alliance MP for Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys, rose in the House to ask a question.

"Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago the Eskasoni Band of Nova Scotia was $13 million in debt," she said. "Today that band is more than $35 million in debt, thanks to the federal government's third-party management. I think it is a perversion of logic to call that successful. Third-party managers do not get to the root of the problem; forensic audits do. When will the minister institute forensic audits whenever financial problems are so obvious?"

Minister Nault fielded the question.

"I want to report to the Opposition, because it has asked this question a couple of times, that this minister and this department do not have the authority to implement forensic audits. That is done by the RCMP or the proper policing authority," he said. "If there are allegations or misrepresentation of funds in any way, those allegations should be brought forward to the police authorities and they will take the action as it relates to forensic audits."

But a letter written in December 1998 by Phillip Murray, then commissioner of the RCMP, tells a different story about the federal government's role in police investigations involving First Nation governments. Murray was responding in writing to the Reform Party's Indian Affairs critic of the day, Mike Scott. Scott had written to Murray, reporting allegations of corruption in an unnamed First Nation. Murray began his answer by telling Scott that he had forwarded the original letter to Scott Serson, then the deputy minister of Indian Affairs. The commissioner wrote that was standard practice.

"In cases of misappropriation of band funds and/or assets, DIAND will initially review the allegations. Should that department believe that an investigation is warranted, it will refer the case to the RCMP for investigation." Murray wrote. "In fact, all complaints that are lodged with the RCMP are either investigated or referred to the appropriate government institution for assessment."

George Wool, a former RCMP commercial crime investigator who now practices law in Surrey, B.C. said that is typical of the kind of unhealthy relationship between the police and the government that convinced him to leave the federal force after 21 years. He believes the former commissioner's remarks reveal the line between policing and politics has been unacceptably blurred in Canada and opens the door for misuse of government and/or police powers.

Reed Elley, the Alliance Indian Affairs critic, said his party sees an opportunity to show Canadians that the federal Liberal government is not above using the police for its own purposes.

"That's why we're trying to smoke him out," he said, explaining the reason for his deputy critic's question in the Commons. "So we can get some kind of clear statement from him that will be interpreted, I think, broadly as government policy on this. Take, for instance, the whole issue of forensic audits. On the one hand they say, "No, no. We can't do anything about this unless the band chief and council authorize it." However, if there is an investigation, then they keep talking about how the RCMP have the authority to investigate. And then of course you have what heid in the House the other day, and they don't seem to jive. We're going to be pursuing what exactly is the truth of this matter because it's not fair to either Native people or the general Canadian public to get these mixed messages."

In recent weeks, there have been several media reports detailing how the federal ethics commissioner is appointed by and answerable only to the prime minister, and that put the commissioner in a difficult position when asked to decide if the prime minister has broken the rules. Columnists have written that senior government officials have few real limits on their power and are virtually untouchable no matter what liberties they take with the rules of conduct. Elley said that is a political reality that his party wants to bring to an end.

"There are strong, powerful people involved in these things and the deeper you dig, the more you come to that conclusion," he said.

Wool was one of the original commercial crime investigators in a unit set up by Rod Stamler, an old-school police officer who quit the RCMP in disgust when the Mulroney government changed the way the police interact with the government after several cabinet ministers were investigated and charged.

Wool said the force has been declawed when it comes to investigating government officials.

"What they've basically done is turn the RCMP into a municipal traffic detail with really no interest in investigating corruption in politics or anything of the sort," he said.

The ex-Mountie lived on a First Nation territory while he was with the RCMP. Later, he defended some of the Native people who were charged after the Gustafsen Lake confrontation. He said he worked as an investigator in the days when the Mounties took pride in keeping politicians honest and believes the changes made in the early 1980s have had a disastrous effect on the morale of the force.

"The government quite often will use the RCMP for its purposes, like launching an investigation of . . . wel, whatever the government wants investigated. In a completely democratic society, the police are independent. They don't work for the government, they work for the law. That's what I always found to be unacceptable when I was in the RCMP - to get directions from the government saying 'you will investigate so and so.' In a democracy the police don't answer to anybody, except to the court," he told Windspeaker.

"There was an old saying, back in the 60s. Judges used to remind police officers that 'you are the eyes and ears of the court.' You're not the eyes and ears of the media; you're not the eyes and ears of the politicians. The politicians should have no more standing in the police office than the lowly drug addict or drunk. What they've done is they've politicized the RCMP to the point where an agency like Indian Affairs can say, 'Here, you investigate such and such a band.' I find it somewhat corrupt to hear investigations being directed against Native bands in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. That's targeting. Yet the RCMP here in British Columbia does absolutely nothing about the Hell's Angels or these Asian gangs. They're not targeted the same way. And they're criminal organizations."

He believes the mainstream press is missing a key point as it reports allegations of corruption in First Nations with such vigor: errors, acts of negligence or even corruption on the part of federal officials are often at the root of such problems.

"It's easy to investigate Native people because they're within the government structure. The RCMP should know better," he said. "They should just simply tell the government, "Hey, you sent the money. We don't consider that such a crime because you?re making all these political gifts to people. We should be chasing down bikers and drug dealers and people who are paying kickbacks to politicians. I think Native people should be very upset about why they're being targeted."

The apparent lack of the proper distance between the poleand politicians creates the possibility that politicians can influence the timing of some investigations to shape public opinion and create a better climate for the politicians to win a contentious public policy debate, Wool suggested.

"Some of the investigations they're directing at Native people right now, some of them are very politically motivated. The RCMP should investigate crime, if there's a crime," he said. "It doesn't matter whether it's Native or non-Native. But they shouldn't be investigating based on some policy that some other government department believes in, and sort of target them. That just gets everybody into trouble and leads to things like Gustafsen Lake and Ipperwash and Oka."