Annual Report 2021-2022

Message from the Chairperson

To effectively fulfill their role as stewards of public safety, police officers in Canada are afforded extraordinary powers. To safeguard against abuse of these powers, a robust accountability framework is necessary. With accountability comes trust. With trust comes public confidence. With public confidence comes legitimacy and effectiveness.

Review and oversight of law enforcement are critical to the legitimacy and effectiveness of law enforcement. However, that legitimacy and effectiveness erodes when police response to review and oversight suffers delays.

Canadians have the right to expect timely responses from their public institutions, particularly the ones with powers as great as those given to police.

Consequently, I was encouraged to read the RCMP Commissioner's statement in January 2022 following the Federal Court's decision that the RCMP's 2020 response to a British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) complaint filed in 2014 was not provided, per the provisions of the RCMP Act, "as soon as feasible."

Late last year, the RCMP cleared their backlog of responses to CRCC interim reports, and since April 1, 2021, all new CRCC interim reports have been responded to within the agreed-upon six-month time frame.

The Commissioner's commitment to addressing the backlog and the subsequent RCMP effort brought closure to members of the public as well as RCMP members bogged down for years by a slow-moving complaint process.

"In my view, it is in the public interest to have a police oversight institution that functions properly and is unobstructed."

Again this year, the Commission saw the public availing themselves of the public complaint process, resulting in a high volume of public complaints, including hundreds of complaints related to environmental protests and the RCMP's enforcement of court injunctions at locations such as Fairy Creek, British Columbia and on unceded Wet'suwet'en territory.

Each complaint, review, investigation and systemic investigation represents an opportunity to improve policing for all Canadians, but in particular, for those who experience disparate outcomes due to race, gender, or mental health status. The Commission will continue to focus on improving policies, procedures and training, with a view to achieving the aspirational goal of excellence in policing.

Looking ahead

Legislation related to enhanced oversight of the RCMP was once again introduced this spring. Bill C-20, An Act establishing the Public Complaints and Review Commission and amending certain Acts and statutory instruments, would create a single agency responsible for both the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA): the Public Complaints and Review Commission (PCRC).

I welcome this draft legislation, as it addresses many of the Commission's calls for reform, highlights the independence of the new agency through standalone legislation and contains substantive provisions to strengthen both RCMP and CBSA accountability.

Amongst other things, this new legislation codifies the Federal Court ruling referenced above and mirrors previous calls for statutory timelines for the RCMP to respond to PCRC reports.

Canadians have a right to expect timely responses to their concerns about the conduct of law enforcement officers. When the new legislation comes into force, the Commission will work with both the RCMP and the CBSA to deliver a timely, transparent and accessible public complaint process.

Without a doubt, the coming years will be both challenging and rewarding times for the Commission. We are up to the task of taking on this new mandate, while continuing to deliver on a solid track record of holding the RCMP accountable.

Organizational Chart

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC) consists of a full-time Chairperson and not more than four other full-time or part-time members, one of whom may be a Vice-chairperson, appointed by the Governor in Council.

A person is not eligible to be a member of the Commission if that person

• is a member or former member; or
• is not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident

In 2021-22, the CRCC's senior management team was comprised of:

The Complaint & Review Process

Findings and Recommendations

RCMP responses to CRCC reports outline which of the CRCC's findings have been accepted and what remedial mesures are being actioned to address CRCC recommendations. Since 2020, the CRCC publishes depersonalized numbered summaries of all complaint reviews to its website.

In 2021, the CRCC's findings and recommendations led the RCMP to take significant remedial steps, including

Updating policies and procedures for response to mental health crises and wellness checks (summary numbers 21-282, 21-283).)

Creating a national sexual assault investigation course, making changes to national policy surrounding sexual assault investigations, and creating a best practices guide (summary number 21-059).

Revising the policy on strip searches to ensure that strip searches are conducted in private and are not live-monitored and providing additional training to RCMP members to address the improper strip search of an Indigenous woman (summary numbers 21-279, 21-281).

Changing policy concerning prisoner care and handling, such as the provision of adequate meals, blankets and mattresses, access to showers, reasonable medical attention and access to medications (summary numbers 21-035, 21-236, 21-281, 21-285, 21-278, 21-038).

Revising its definition of "street check" to align with the RCMP's community policing philosophy and bias-free policing policy and implementing a policy for the collection, analysis and reporting of data from police interactions with racialized and Indigenous peoples (systemic investigation).

Creating an updated guard training course to improve the training of RCMP jail guards (summary numbers 21-236, 21-278).

Making changes to the police service dog policies and training (public interest investigation and summary number 21-242).

Reviewing its policies relative to ensuring welfare of children whose parents or caregivers are arrested or otherwise indisposed (summary numbers 21-088, 21-140).

Creating a new public complaint investigator and Commissioner's delegate training course (Chairperson's complaint and public interest investigation)

Changing RCMP policies and forms, and the National Public Complaints Guidebook to address concerns noted by the CRCC (Chairperson's complaint and public interest investigation).

Conducting a management review of a detachment and instituting measures to prevent racist conduct (summary number 21-277).

Full list of the types of recommendations the CRCC makes and numbered summaries are available on the CRCC website.

Year in Review

Strategic Initiatives

Multiple Complaint Subject Member Project

As part of its ongoing effort to hold the RCMP accountable for its activities and the conduct of its members, the CRCC reviewed existing complaint data from October 6, 2015, to July 21, 2021, to identify RCMP members who were the subject of multiple complaints.

A qualitative analysis was performed on members who were the subject of five or more complaints within the five-year time period to identify potential trends.

The CRCC identified 455 members who were the subject of five or more complaints over a five-year period.

RCMP Members with Five or more Complaints

The project's preliminary analysis and results were provided to the RCMP.

Moving forward, the Commission will conduct bi-annual reviews of the complaint data and report to the RCMP on members that are frequently identified as subject members.

Data Strategy

In 2022, the CRCC released its first Data Strategy to begin to more effectively report on existing data, meet open government and public expectations, and honour its commitment to begin collecting disaggregated data.

The goals of the strategy are to:

• Further inform decision-making;
• Strengthen policies to ensure effective, ethical and secure data collection;
• Contribute to the delivery of a more accessible, timely and efficient complaint process;
• Enable a transition to digital approaches, aligned with GC direction and policy, to foster innovation.

The data strategy can be found on the CRCC website.

Disaggregated Data Collection

In 2021, the Commission began an initiative to appropriately collect race‑based and other demographic information.

This initiative will assist the CRCC in ascertaining whether there are significant racial disparities related to:

• how public complaints are filed;
• whether public complaint investigation outcomes vary by racial group;
• whether there are racial differences with respect to the types of complaints made against RCMP members;
• the frequency of complaints that include allegations of racial or other forms of bias; and
• whether satisfaction with the CRCC's complaint or review processes varies by racial group.

The second half of the project, which will include community engagement, is planned for mid-2022.

Heads of Police Oversight Agencies Annual Meeting

October 2021's meeting once again brought together the senior leadership of police oversight bodies from across Canada to discuss issues that shape the future of policing and police accountability.

The virtual meeting focused on issues of systemic racism in policing and included a presentation by Dr. Allen Benson. Dr. Benson's presentation to the Federal Public Safety and National Security Committee in June 2020 on the topic of systemic racism in policing in Canada.

Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Advisory Committee (IDEAC)

The IDEAC provides advice and guidance, through the lens of inclusion, diversity, equity and GBA+ analysis, to the Chairperson and the Senior Management Team related to issues and/or emerging trends that affect the CRCC's ability to meet its statutory mandate as well as public expectations.

In fiscal year 2021-2022, the IDEAC conducted research in line with the Treasury Board's Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada and submitted its recommendations.

Transparency and Accountability

Searchable findings and recommendations

In early 2020, the Chairperson directed that summaries of all complaint reviews be published to the website. Prior to this, only a small sample were posted annually.

As the diagram below illustrates, this directive led to a dramatic surge in the number of summaries published to the website.

Published Summaries

All summaries have been depersonalized to protect the privacy of individuals who file complaints against the RCMP.

Provincial/Territorial Reports on RCMP Public Complaints

In addition to its annual report to Parliament, the CRCC, per section 45.52(2) of the RCMP Act, is required to submit an annual report to the minister who has the primary responsibility for policing in the province or territory, the federal Minister of Public Safety, and the RCMP Commissioner.

The report must:

• Set out the number and nature of complaints relating to conduct that occurred in that province or territory;
• Classify how those complaints were disposed of; and
• Identify trends, if any.

The reports are also published on the CRCC's website.

Administration of the Public Complaint Process

To ensure transparency of the public complaint process, related CRCC policies and agreements are published on the website. These include:

• Policy on the Discretion to Change or Restrict Access to Staff or Services due to Unreasonable Complainant Behaviour
• Policy on the Discretion to Refuse to Deal with a Complaint
• Policy on the Extension of the Time Limit to Submit a Complaint to the CRCC
• Memorandum of Understanding between the CRCC and the RCMP