Canada’s national police force cannot operate as “effectively as it must” to protect the country from serious national security and criminal threats, parliamentarians on the federal national security review committee have found.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is responsible for both federal policing — including countering major security threats — and contract policing in the provinces.
The RCMP’s “long focus” on contract policing, however, has created significant “challenges” to its role as the federal police force, according to a new report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP).
And the committee is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to address the problem.
“The Federal Policing mandate is affected by the RCMP’s long focus on Contract Policing, which has shaped the RCMP’s organizational structure, governance, finances, and human resources and training models,” said the report, released Tuesday.
“On the basis of its review, the committee believes that Federal Policing is not and cannot function as effectively as it must to protect Canada and Canadians from the most significant national security and criminal threats. The government must act to ensure it does.”
More to come.
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