Why do some Canadians want to get rid of their famous Mounties?

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have been the cornerstone of Canada's policing forces since the country's founding. But some communities are questioning their value in the wake of numerous scandals that have rocked the nation.

In March 2023, the Alberta city of Grand Prairie was one of the first communities in the province to move away from the RCMP when its city council voted in favor of forming its own municipal police force.

“Grande Prairie city council believes transitioning to a municipal police service will best serve our community and create a more locally responsive policing solution with local oversight, addressing local needs,” the city's Mayor Jackie Clayton said in a press release according to the Toronto Star.

“We recognize and are grateful for the service of the RCMP in Grande Prairie and everything they’ve done to serve and protect our community," Mayor Clayton continued.

While Grand Prarie's move away from the RCMP and towards a municipal police force may seem minor, it has revealed the country's growing discontent with Canada's oldest law enforcement organization, discontent that could see even more communities look for a different solution. But why are Canadians so upset?

“After two mass killings in two years,” wrote The Guardian's Leyland Cecco, “the institutional opaqueness of Canada’s national police force has once again become the focus of criticism.”

The RCMP faced heavy condemnation for its handling of the 2020 mass shooting in the province of Nova Scotia, an event that left 22 people dead and 3 injured. 

The shooter was eventually killed by RCMP officers but not before he went on a thirteen-hour crime spree across the province that eroded the public's trust in the police force.

“This situation requires that our governments work diligently with all those affected by this tragedy to bring forward the critical answers, and to ensure an event such as this will never happen again,” said federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair in a statement at the time.

“We have heard calls from families, survivors, advocates and Nova Scotia members of Parliament for more transparency,” Minister Blair added. 

The main sticking point involved in the RCMP’s handling of the crises was recently revealed during the government's Mass Casualty Commission hearing into the police forces' failures. 

There was a serious failure in the gathering of intelligence and as well as an apparent lack of training and coordination according to Haley Ryan, a CBC journalist who reported on the Mass Casualty Commission. 

"My trust for the RCMP is gone," Harry Bond told The Canadian Press during a phone interview after hearing testimony from the Mounties involved in the Nova Scotia shooting. 

Bond’s parents were some of the first victims of the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks and recent polling shows that his sentiments about the RCMP is shared by some Canadians. 

In September 2020, internal RCMP polling found that the institution was in a serious decline in public trust over its performance and integrity. 

“Overall, attitudes towards the RCMP are generally positive but have worsened over the past year,” the Ekos Research poll found, adding that “satisfaction has declined since 2020-21.”

The RCMP's internal polling shouldn't be a surprise to most considering all throughout Canada’s provinces and territories there are growing calls to replace the RCMP with something else that would give local governments more control of their police. 

Alberta’s United Conservative Party government has been interested in shedding the RCMP’s presence for years.

In November 2022, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith ordered the province to move ahead with plans to get rid of the RCMP in favor of an Alberta Police Force.

Photo by Facebook @DanielleSmithAB

“In British Columbia,” an all-party panel of politicians recommended a provincial police force be set up there,” wrote Toronto Star journalist Kieran Leavitt.

“Even in Saskatchewan, home to the RCMP’s main training depot, there are frustrations,” Leavitt added, “The province has put forward a plan to set up a marshal service that would supplement the RCMP.”

But getting rid of the RCMP isn’t as easy as declaring it so. Policing in Canada is complicated. Some Canadian provinces like Quebec and Ontario have their brown provincial and municipal police forces that handle local matters.

Throughout the rest of the country, the RCMP is the main police force and that has allowed the institution to grow to 30,000 members stationed across 700 different locations. 

Replacing that structure would be extremely costly. But some Provinces and municipalities are pushing through the cost. 

What we do know, however, is that Canadians aren't happy with the RCMP's current policing roles and we should expect the crisis to deepen unless the Mounties can transform their image and prove useful to the communities they police.