"ORCHARDS OF BAD APPLES"

The title above is an expression used by a group of dissident Mounties in describing problem Mounties who have been "Handled" for many years by the hierarchy of the RCMP. This dissident group decribe themselves as the "Re-Sergeance Alliance". I first heard of this group from the Cambridge Advocate website. They took some of their information from www.ifpress.com . I also note that a Brian Hutchinson wrote a story about this group on August 15/12 in the National Post. I am constantly amazed at the major newsworthy items which don't seem to get near enough publicity and distribution and this is one of them.

Mr. Hutchinson states that the recently appointed RCMP Comissioner, Mr. Bob Paulson "...has been attempting to mend fences since his appointment as RCMP Comissioner in November. He acknowledges the force needs to be reformed, and that it employs a number of wayward officers who aren't easily dismissed under current rules. He believes proposed changes to the RCMP Act will bring accountability to the internal disciplinary process and will make it easier for him to fire Mounties who commit crimes.".

Good Lord that is incredible! It seems that all parties are on board and stating/confirming that the RCMP has been run very badly and had little or no internal accountability. The Re-Sergeance Alliance perhaps have seen it all before. Maybe this isn't the first time so called reform has been proposed. If so that would explain their criticism and skepticism that this "cleanup" is going to be for real. What blows my mind is how the politicians in control at the federal level could let these issues simmer for so long. How could they allow such allegedly harmful attitudes and behaviours to become so ingrained within the Mounties? The word "corruption" is mentioned once in this article. My experience is that corruption requires at the very least, complacency at higher levels to flourish. This is a disaster that should have been honestly admitted to and properly dealt with a long time ago. Shame on all the responsible senior parties and politicians.