Retired Mountie Ray Banwarie says the RCMP and its members were plagued with serious problems long before recent allegations of political interference in the investigation of the mass shooting in Nova Scotia. .“I could write a book and the amount of things that I know of, that I have been involved in, especially because I'm not one of these people who just goes away,” Banwarie told the Western Standard in an interview..“I took a lot of hits to my career because I was doing what was right. I would not allow my integrity to be compromised in any way. And if you are like that, and cut from that cloth, they don't want you because you're a threat to how they operate.”.When Banwarie began his 20-year career in 1997, he joined the criminal crash investigative team on the west shore of Vancouver Island..“We thought they were all going to give us fake badges because it was April Fool's Day when we graduated from the Academy. And my last day was August 1, 2017,” Banwarie recalls..Banwarie later became a watch commander in the federal enforcement unit. He helped push a successful court fight to allow formation of the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada in 2015, the union that represents Mounties. He also became MPPAC’s national president, but says he left because of a privacy breach against officers that was taken to court..The case hearkens back to 2012 when B.C. psychologist Dr. Mike Webster told CBC, “The most current and comprehensive data on the members' health suggests working for the RCMP can make you sick.” After that, the RCMP dismissed Webster and complained to the B.C. College of Psychologists..A civil suit in B.C. Supreme Court launched by plaintiffs David Reichert and Derrick Ross, allege the RCMP handed over the mental health information of seven officers to the college without permission of the officers..The suit names then-RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, the minister of Justice, and Canada's attorney general. Paulson told Global News in 2016 he was “troubled” by Webster’s clinical reports and submitted the confidential reports to the college with names redacted. However, the RCMP later provided the members’ names and associated information at the request of the college, something the privacy commissioner of Canada called “a serious privacy breach.”.Stalling tactics by the Department of Justice hindered progress in the case, according to Banwarie, who says the RCMP broke the law..“That is illegal. And the person who was sanctioned it was Bob Paulson, because we have the ATIP information that says he was satisfied with the Webster Initiative, as it was called. There was also a project file they had on the go,” Banwarie said..“They were conducting surveillance on us while in the Force. Can you believe that? Who does that?... We have the documentation that shows the command triangle, who they all were. We have the project name, we have the file number.”.Banwarie, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, disagrees with how the RCMP settled class action lawsuits regarding assaults and harassment against women in its employ. He finds it ironic that members of a law enforcement agency could defend their criminal actions using government lawyers, use taxpayer dollars to pay victims, make them sign non-disclosure agreements, and escape accountability..In March, Michel Bastarache delivered his final report “Broken Lives, Broken Dreams” regarding the successful class action lawsuit for women who worked in non-policing roles from 1974 to 2019. .“In all, 3,086 claims were received, 644 interviews were conducted, and 2,304 claimants were awarded compensation. Claims were received from all provinces and territories and across all ranks and ages,” Bastarche wrote..“The level of violence and sexual assault that was reported was shocking. Indeed, over 130 claimants disclosed penetrative sexual assaults.”.In an upcoming article, Banwarie will discuss the internal and external politics that plague the RCMP and his thoughts on Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s actions following the mass casualty in Nova Scotia.
