Top Mountie says she doesn’t always agree with RCMP’s discipline process

Going through questions in regards to the controversy over a Mountie who was allowed to maintain his job after fondling a lady at a piece occasion, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki stated she would not all the time agree with the way in which Mounties are disciplined.

Lucki was questioned in regards to the case by a lawyer in the course of the Mass Casualty Fee listening to in RisePEI on Wednesday.

“Do you have got any considerations about what that claims to feminine members of the RCMP?” requested lawyer Jane Lenehan.

“Completely” responded Lucki.

“This isn’t one thing I take flippantly and I can say that as a feminine member, and I can say that with a 36-year historical past in my group, and I can say that with historical past as a feminine earlier than I joined the RCMP … It’s not one thing that I take flippantly.”

Lucki sided with a call that allowed Const. Devin Pulsifer to maintain his job, although his commanding officer in Nova Scotia wished to have him dismissed for sexual assault. Particulars of the case had been made public earlier this summer season.

Based on each an RCMP conduct board choice and a report by the province’s police oversight physique, an intoxicated Pulsifer positioned his arms below one other RCMP officer’s shirt and grabbed her breasts in full view of different RCMP members at a piece occasion at a bar.

Each the conduct board choice and the report stated Pulsifer then moved on to a second constable and positioned a hand below her shirt.

Pulsifer, who was posted to the detachment in Liverpool, N.S. on the time, would not deny the allegations and stated he was blackout drunk on the time.

The incident was investigated by Nova Scotia’s Severe Incident Response Group (SIRT), a civilian company that probes allegations in opposition to cops.

It concluded that a cost of sexual assault may very well be introduced in opposition to Pulsifer. However since each girls had indicated in writing that they didn’t want to have the case “dropped at the stage of felony expenses,” SIRT did not launch a felony case.

The RCMP conduct board discovered that, “on a stability of possibilities,” the allegations made by each girls had been established. The board docked Pulsifer 35 days’ pay, declared him ineligible for promotion for 2 years and ordered him into alcohol abuse counselling.

Commanding officer noticed it as sexual assault

The pinnacle of the RCMP in Nova Scotia on the time appealed that call, arguing Pulsifer’s actions met the definition of sexual assault and that he ought to resign or be dismissed.

In feedback revealed within the conduct board’s remaining choice, Lee Bergerman, the now-retired former assistant commissioner for Nova Scotia, argued that the board “deliberately misclassified [Pulsifer’s] actions as ‘undesirable sexual touching.'” She stated the board described him as an “intoxicated pub patron” with the intent of imposing lesser penalties.

The case was punted to the RCMP Exterior Evaluation Committee (ERC), which sided with the board. The ERC is an impartial administrative tribunal that conducts case critiques on enchantment choices in sure RCMP employment and labour relations issues.

Lucki, who had the ultimate phrase within the case, earlier this yr concluded that the allegation in opposition to Pulsifer was characterised initially as “discreditable conduct” — not sexual assault — upheld the board’s unique evaluation and dismissed Bergerman’s enchantment.

Lucki wrote that Pulsifer’s “friends spoke extremely of him, his efficiency evaluations had been constructive, and most significantly he displayed integrity within the method by which he performed himself after the incident befell, a top quality he had beforehand been revered for.”

Lucki defended her ruling on Wednesday, saying there was no error within the decision-making course of.

She additionally stated she has considerations in regards to the RCMP’s disciplinary system.

‘I hope I by no means need to make the choice once more’

“It is one thing that is actually close to and expensive to my coronary heart … I observe what the method is. I do not all the time agree with, typically, the method,” she stated.

“I hope I by no means need to make the choice once more since you grapple with all the legalities of the choice and also you grapple with the ethical a part of the choice. And people two issues do not go collectively usually in in circumstances like this.”

Lucki was appointed commissioner with a mandate to enhance the RCMP’s tradition after years of sexual abuse and harassment circumstances.

In his scathing 2020 report on the RCMP’s inner tradition, former Supreme Court docket justice Michel Bastarache stated he heard alleged victims of sexual misconduct accuse the RCMP of letting perpetrators slide with subsequent to no “penalties.”

After that report was launched, Lucki promised to stamp out sexual assault, harassment and discrimination within the RCMP.

Lucki stated a evaluation the power’s conduct measures is ongoing.

“My dedication to my group is to modernize our conduct,” she stated Wednesday.

“That is the place I’ve to place my combat.”