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Bill C-20, currently wending its way through Parliament, calls for the creation of an independent Public Complaints and Review Commission to replace the current Civilian Review and Complaints Commission in providing oversight of both RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency personnel.
By law, current and former members of both the RCMP and the CBSA would be excluded from the commission. Among other things, C-20 gives the commission the power to recommend that the RCMP or the CBSA initiate a disciplinary-related process, or impose a disciplinary measure. The agencies are not bound to act on that recommendation, but they would have to justify their action — or inaction — to the public safety minister.
The bill would require the RCMP to respond to complaints within six months — a feature absent from the current commission — and the heads of both the RCMP and the CBSA would be required to report annually to the commission head on their progress in carrying out recommendations the commission has made. The new commission would also be required to collect and publish race-based data to increase knowledge about systemic racism.
For Merlo, who has been lobbying for the bill, C-20 represents an independent RCMP watchdog with bigger teeth. She says the bill, which has passed a second reading, is heading into committee with all-party support.
“We’re very hopeful this bill will be the one thing that they’ve recommended for years that the government has avoided,” she says. “But I think they’re feeling now like the RCMP is starting to fall apart. I think they realize they need to do this or it’s just going to get worse.”
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