I was interviewed on this monumental shift in the RCMP.
Historically the RCMP has kept any problems in house and anyone who dared to speak up outside the agency was met with swift retribution. I know it happened to me and most likely to others who spoke up. Having a place outside the RCMP would have made a huge difference.
‘I just did my happy dance’
It was a day Sherry Benson-Podolchuk, who worked as an officer for 20 years, never thought she’d see.
“For me it was a monumental moving forward for the RCMP, because historically they like to keep everything in-house, they don’t like to let anything go out into the public,” she said.
“This is a step forward. This is something that they’ve never done, that in my lifetime I never thought I would see.”
Benson-Podolchuk trained at the depot in Regina and started her career in Tisdale, Sask., where she says other officers -— including her supervisor — routinely called her humiliating and sexually charged names”
It got to the point where she brought the situation to her detachment’s commanding officer but was told she wanted the attention.
“This is not a Band-Aid fix, this is not ‘Wow, miracle cure.’ It is a long-term, glacier-moving process but at least it is a process. For me I was so excited I just did my happy dance,” she said.
While many details of how the civilian board will work won’t be made clear until this spring, Benson-Podolchuk said the willingness of the RCMP to make way for changes shouldn’t be underestimated.
“You can have all these great policies and civilian oversight. But, the bottom line, if nobody is willing to enforce them, then we’re right back where we started,” she said.”
Again this is a willingness to seek outside support which has never been done in the history of the RCMP.
News on the National tonight.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-changes-civilian-oversight-1.4980017