BROKEN DREAMS BROKEN LIVES: RCMP - Merlo Davidson Settlement

News of an "explosive" report about the RCMP has been floating on the radio for a bit. I decided to do some research. This is an excerpt from the Executive Summary of the report issued by Justice Michel Bastarache on the RCMP - Merlo Davidson Settlement dated November 11, 2020:

"It is impossible to fully convey the depth of the pain that the Assessors witnessed in the 644 interviews that were conducted and 3,086 claims that were assessed. What the women told the Assessors shocked them to their core. This process has forever tarnished the image of the RCMP as a Canadian icon. Bright, well-educated women said that they joined the RCMP seeking to help others, sometimes because they themselves had needed help as a young person. They told the Assessors of the brutal treatment they experienced which ground them down, broke their confidence, and shattered their trust in their fellow officers. The full tragedy and suffering of what the RCMP’s failure to provide a safe workplace has done to these women is overwhelming.

We heard stories of women who sat with their service revolvers in their mouths and were only stopped from killing themselves when they thought of their children or their pets. Heartbreaking stories of despair. One claimant committed suicide during the claims process."

Full report here: https://www.callkleinlawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/RCMP_Final-Report_Broken-Dreams.pdf

Apparently this kind of lawsuit against the RCMP has been filed numerous times in the past couple decades. But while social media has been screaming "defund the police" in North America during the last year at the top of its lungs, for some reason, no memes, infographics, or even short news blurbs have been shared about this specific RCMP case on as wide a scale as is nearly needed. Weird.

Anyway, the judge comes very close to flat out recommending a complete defunding of the RCMP, per the conclusion of the Executive Summary:

"There have been calls for fundamental change to the RCMP with respect to its organization and governance to transform it into a modern police force. Some were recently discussed in the media. The possibility of fundamental structural change was also mentioned in the 2007 Brown Task Force report: 'Much has been said and written about the complexity of the RCMP given the organization’s law enforcement responsibilities in Canada and abroad. It would therefore not be unreasonable to argue that some or all of the solution to issues confronting the Force rests in breaking it up. Such a consideration would require a much broader public policy debate as to the policing model which best suits Canada and best serves Canadians.'

Such a fundamental restructuring may be necessary to resolve entrenched issues of misogyny, racism and homophobia but will require an in-depth review which is beyond my mandate. In my view however, it is time to discuss the need to make fundamental changes to the RCMP and federal policing. I am of the view that cultural change is highly unlikely to come from within the RCMP. It has had many years and many reports and Recommendations and yet the unacceptable behaviours continue to occur. It is my belief the time has come for the Government of Canada to ask some hard questions about the structure and governance of federal policing."

The law firm that settled this lawsuit has two other on-going class action cases against the RCMP: one addressing racism, and the other relating to gender-based and sexual orientation discrimination.

#BrokenDreamsBrokenLives

#defundthepolicenow