(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked Tuesday the 150e anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police by acknowledging the mistakes made by the federal police force in the past and expressing the hope for change.
The RCMP has planned events for Tuesday and throughout the year that federal policing say are meant to demonstrate pride, but also humility and reconciliation efforts.
In a statement, the Prime Minister encouraged Canadians to participate in these events, calling the RCMP one of the most respected police organizations in the world.
But he also urged the RCMP to maintain its plans for improvement and change.
“As we celebrate this important anniversary, we recognize that the mistakes of the past cannot be forgotten, but lessons can be learned,” said Mr. Trudeau. The RCMP will continue to support healing and reconciliation, while continuing to keep our communities safe, now and in the future. »
Acting RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said in his own statement that the anniversary “calls on us to reflect who we are, where we came from and where we are going based on 150 years of lessons learned.” He said the RCMP has played a part in “some of Canada’s most difficult and darkest times” and has faced its share of challenges.
He further thanked the more than 30,000 force personnel across Canada for their contributions, noting that the daily lives of police officers can be difficult, but can also change lives. “It’s an incredible privilege that we should never take for granted. »
In a press release, the police force indicates that it plans to take advantage of this 150e anniversary to share the RCMP’s efforts to create a more modern organization that engages in genuine reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and keeps all Canadians safe.
The RCMP also touts its 2023 strategic plan to “build confidence in police work,” though the plan doesn’t go into specifics.
Over the decades, inquiries and commissions have made suggestions for reforming the police department.
Mounted police officers played a major role in Canadian history, attempting to maintain order during the Klondike Gold Rush and serving as Canada’s primary intelligence agency during the Cold War.
But the RCMP has also played darker roles over the past century and a half, including suppressing Indigenous uprisings and acting as “trunk cops” to enforce attendance at federal Indian residential schools.
As part of its mandate, the RCMP now supports national and rural policing to varying degrees across Canada – a model that has drawn criticism for poorly serving remote communities.
The RCMP’s strategic plan includes recruiting people from diverse backgrounds and addressing systemic racism, being more transparent about serious events and improving reconciliation efforts with Indigenous peoples.
The RCMP plans to celebrate its 150e anniversary with events across the country. RCMP Musical Ride horse performances, barbecues and community events are on the program.
The History of the “Mounted Police”
When the fathers of federation designed a federal police force, it was only an emergency measure, to quickly enforce Canadian laws in a vast area then called the “Northern Territories”. West” — larger than the current territory of that name.
The day Parliament voted to create this federal police service 150 years ago, May 23, 1873, is now recognized as the official birth of what would later become the “Royal Canadian Mounted Police”.
But a first major criminal case, months later, really kicked off the long and sometimes painful history of this police force.
In the spring of 1873, a famine caused a group of the Nakoda First Nation to venture south from their traditional territory to Cypress Hills in what is now southern Saskatchewan.
They were camping not far from whiskey merchants when they encountered a group of American wolf hunters who had had their horses stolen.
“The hunters’ accusations against the Nakodas, who are innocent, lead to conflict. The situation escalates and spirals out of control, to the point where the hunters are cruelly killing the Nakodas,” reads the government’s online account of the “Cypress Hills Massacre.” Twenty men, women and children are killed.
In the early days of the Canadian federation, in 1867, the first provinces to join were each responsible for their own police services. The only national police, the “Dominion Police”, were primarily responsible for protecting the Parliament Buildings.
When the then “Northwest Territories” became part of the federation in 1870, this vast administrative region included what is now the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and much of the Prairies.
However, these “Northwest Territories” of the time, which did not have the status of a province, did not have their own police force. The Canadian Parliament then passed legislation to create the “North-West Mounted Police” three years later, in May 1873 — 150 years ago today.
It was not until August 1873, however, when news of the “Cypress Hills Massacre” reached Ottawa that an Order in Council was signed to establish the police force. A year later, 300 recruits undertook the “West March” to secure the border.
The RCMP and the Canadian government agree that the Cypress Hills massacre spurred the creation of the federal police service. And although arrests were made at the time, the perpetrators of the crimes were never brought to justice under a burgeoning justice system in a fledgling federation.
The role of the police force continued to evolve until the creation in 1920 of the modern form of the RCMP, which has long since become an iconic symbol of Canada.