Introduction
Special Report on the Federal Policing Mandate of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

1. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is Canada’s national police force. It works from coast-to-coast-to-coast at the community, provincial, territorial, and federal levels to prevent crime, enforce the law, investigate offences, keep Canadians and their interests safe, and assist Canadians in emergency situations. RCMP employees work in over 700 detachments and 150 communities and provide policing services in more than 600 Indigenous communities across Canada. Internationally, the RCMP provides specialized training for police officers, conducts international policing activities, including peacekeeping, and shares intelligence and cooperates with partners to support investigations and disrupt and dismantle criminal operations. ^{Footnote 1}

2. The RCMP conducts this work through three broad mandates. The first and largest mandate is Contract and Indigenous Policing, under which it provides policing services to all provinces and territories, except Ontario and Quebec, and to Indigenous communities, through contracts negotiated between the federal government and the provinces and territories. The RCMP's second mandate is Specialized Policing Services, which provides critical frontline operational support services to the RCMP as a whole and to its partners across law enforcement and criminal justice communities. ^{Footnote 2}

3. The RCMP's third mandate is Federal Policing, the most relevant to national security and intelligence and the subject of this review. Federal Policing is Canada’s lead law enforcement organization for investigations relating to national security, transnational and serious organized crime, financial crime and cybercrime. It provides protective services (e.g., to the Prime Minister and other designated officials), conducts international policing activities, and ensures border security. It also manages its own specialized policing and operational services (e.g., an undercover program) in support of investigations. These responsibilities require close contact with a host of law enforcement and intelligence partners, both in Canada and abroad. Federal Policing’s mandate and responsibilities, national and international presence, and operational partnerships place it at the centre of the Canadian national security and intelligence community. ^{Footnote 3} It is the only organization capable of conducting investigations of the most significant criminal threats across jurisdictions, both within Canada and abroad (in cooperation with foreign police forces).

4. This essential role is little known in Canada. Many Canadians associate the RCMP with its red serge or the iconic musical ride and, if they live in rural and semi-urban areas outside of central Canada, as the provincial, territorial or local police force. In Ontario and Quebec, where a significant number of Federal Policing employees work, the RCMP is essentially invisible. Unfortunately, Canadians also know the RCMP through a number of recent class action lawsuits, crises and critical incidents, and recognize that the RCMP faces significant challenges across its organization. These challenges have been detailed over the last decade in a number of important reports, notably on issues of culture, sexual harassment and systemic racism within the RCMP as a whole. These reports included:

• The Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence: Conduct Becoming: Why the Royal Canadian Mounted Police must Transform its Culture (2013); ^{Footnote 4}
• Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, Report into Workplace Harassment in the RCMP (2017); ^{Footnote 5}
• Sheila Fraser, Review of four cases of civil litigation against the RCMP on Workplace Harassment (2017); ^{Footnote 6}
• The Honourable Michel Bastarache, Broken Dreams, Broken Lives: The Devastating Effects of Sexual Harassment On Women in the RCMP (2020); ^{Footnote 7}
• The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security: Systemic Racism in Policing in Canada (2021); ^{Footnote 8} and,
• Mass Casualty Commission report on the April 2020 mass casualty in Nova Scotia (2023). ^{Footnote 9}

5. As a key part of the RCMP, Federal Policing shares these challenges. However, Federal Policing also faces specific and distinct problems that, left unaddressed, will undermine its ability to fulfill its essential mandate. Yet, no recent study has focused exclusively on the RCMP Federal Policing mandate. Rather, the mandate has been mentioned in relation to other areas of the RCMP or has been included alongside broader discussions of RCMP governance and management. The reviews of most relevance to Federal Policing were:

• Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Chapter 1: Royal Canadian Mounted Police — Contract Policing (2005): ^{Footnote 10} While the focus of this audit was Contract Policing, it found that the RCMP fulfilled its contract obligations to the detriment of its Federal Policing activities. It recommended that the RCMP separate the funding, measurement and reporting of contracting services to avoid adverse impacts on other activities.
• Report of the Events Relating to Maher Arar (2006): ^{Footnote 11} This report presented the analysis and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the role of Canadian officials in the U.S. rendition and torture of Canadian Maher Arar. Notably, the report recommended that the RCMP implement additional national security-specific training and periodically review its national security training curricula. It also recommended that the RCMP continue to develop its capacity for intelligence-led policing; establish internal controls for all national security investigations; maintain centralized oversight of national security investigations; and continue to receive ministerial directives to provide policy guidance of national security investigations.
• Task Force on Governance and Cultural Change in the RCMP: Rebuilding the Trust (2007): ^{Footnote 12} Known as the Brown Report, this Task Force reported on restoring public trust in the RCMP following an investigation into the RCMP's management of pension and insurance plans. Notably, the report observed the complexity of the RCMP as an organization and raised the possibility of breaking it up to resolve its structural and governance problems.
• Air India Flight 182: A Canadian Tragedy (2010): ^{Footnote 13} This report presented the assessment and recommendations of the commission of inquiry into the investigation of the bombing of Air India Flight 182. The report focused on the security and intelligence system as a whole, but of relevance to RCMP Federal Policing, it recommended the creation of two new positions that would affect the conduct of terrorism investigations: the Director of Terrorism Prosecutions, who would ensure consistency of legal advice to CSIS and the RCMP; and the National Security Witness Protection Coordinator, who would be responsible for witness protection issues in terrorism investigations. The report also focused on the relevant themes of combatting the financing of terrorism, improving information sharing and interdepartmental cooperation, aviation security and improving the relationship between intelligence and evidence in criminal proceedings.
• Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Chapter 5: National Police Services — Royal Canadian Mounted Police (2011): ^{Footnote 14} This audit found that in Fiscal Year 2010-2011, the RCMP internally reallocated funding to National Police Services to make up for shortfalls in these services. This reallocation decreased funding for other programs, notably Federal Policing.

NSICOP's Review

6. This review complements the previous studies and inquiries by focusing specifically on the RCMP's Federal Policing mandate. The Committee identified three objectives for this review:

• examine the Federal Policing mandate’s programs, activities, structures, authorities and accountabilities, including to distinguish them from the RCMP's wider mandate;
• examine the capabilities and results of the mandate’s programs and activities, including through data analysis and case studies of how the RCMP prioritizes and conducts federal criminal investigations in areas of national security, complex crimes, and major organized crime; and
• examine the role played by key domestic and international partnerships.

7. The Committee excluded two areas from the scope of its review. The first is the RCMP's administration of the Witness Protection Program. This is an area in which the Committee is not entitled to have information and which, in any event, is not within the scope of this review. ^{Footnote 15}

8. The Committee also excluded information and detailed activities pertaining to Contract Policing. The RCMP's Contract Policing responsibilities fall outside of the Committee’s own mandate for national security and intelligence. That said, the Committee did not ignore Contract Policing, but focused its analysis on the implications of Contract Policing on the Federal Policing mandate.

9. The Committee initiated this review in January 2021 by sending notification letters to the Minister of Public Safety and the Commissioner of the RCMP. In April 2021, NSICOP provided the RCMP with the terms of reference for the review. Between April 2021 and January 2023, the RCMP provided the Committee with documentation (approximately 25,000 pages), covering all aspects of the Federal Policing mandate. ^{Footnote 16} NSICOP also met with RCMP officials ten times in the course of the review and met with the Minister of Public Safety in June 2023.

10. The Committee sought input from the public in January 2022, and solicited papers from Canadian and international experts on various aspects of Federal Policing’s mandate and on international comparators. In addition, NSICOP’s Secretariat had ongoing communication with the RCMP throughout the review process, including several working level briefings. The RCMP was supportive and accommodating throughout the course of this review.

11. This review is divided into seven chapters. In chapter one, the Committee describes the threat environment in which Federal Policing operates. In chapter two, the Committee provides background information on the RCMP and its various mandates, and the authority structure for Federal Policing. In the following chapter, the Committee illustrates trends related to Federal Policing investigations. Chapter four discusses Federal Policing’s key partnerships. In chapter five, the Committee turns to accountability and governance. In chapter six, the Committee examines five cross-cutting thematic issues that emerged over the course of the review: finance and human resources; recruitment and training; data; prioritization; and intelligence. The Committee provides its assessment in chapter seven, followed by its conclusion, findings, and recommendations. Throughout the review, the Committee has included case studies to illustrate the types of investigations carried out by Federal Policing.