RCMP associations don’t expect much to change after St. Albert shooting
Posted Jan 22, 2015 1:58 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Associations within the RCMP may now have the right to collective bargaining, thanks to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, but don’t expect much to change in terms of their push for officer safety in light of recent events.
Former Mounted Police Association of Ontario and retired member Rip Mills, says the reason is safety has always been a top priority of their group.
“I don’t think it’ll be collective bargaining, I think it’ll be day to day with the association taking care of their members as far as equipment and that kind of thing,” said Mills. “It’s always going to be a tough thing that people don’t want to deal with because you can’t have results that take 10 years to get implemented. We have to learn from our mistakes and learn quickly, not take 10 to 20 years to get rolling.”
Mills believes what’s happened in St. Albert and in Moncton will maybe make the force move a little quicker.
He like many critics, noticed many of the same recommendations to come out of Moncton were the same to come out of Mayerthorpe in 2005.
“Members are getting hurt and no one wants that,” he said. “As far as the association goes, we’ll always be there looking out for members and hopefully the members will want an association. Thousands of police officers across the country have associations looking out for them, I think it works well for the management too. If the members want an association, we’ll have one.”
It’s unclear to Mills why it’s taken so long to get the proper equipment and from the outside, it does appear to be a simple fix.
Many current members are not allowed to voice their concerns without sticking their own neck out or being docked pay, facing retaliation from the Commissioner.
“I think people are safe already, but it takes a long time to make any changes,” said Mills. “When we need new equipment, it just seemed like it too so long for someone to stick their neck out and say let’s get it going.”
He believes these new powers granted to members by the Supreme Court of Canada, will give them that voice.
It’s still very early to say whether or not this will make a huge difference, but Mills believes at least it’s a step in the right direction.
“If they have an independent person, they (members) can talk to and have them bring it forward without any fear of reprisal, that’s a huge thing.”
