Ontario abandoned its requirement that police cadets have a university degree, while the RCMP might be headed in the opposite direction..The RCMP celebrated 150 years of policing on May 23, but its historic training depot in Regina might not last much longer. The Mass Casualty Commission recommended the depot be wound down by 2032 and training be replaced with university programs..In Ontario, the Ford government took the reverse approach weeks after the MCC report and announced it would no longer require university degrees for those applying to be police cadets. .Ex-Mountie Larry Comeau, who lives in Ottawa, tells the Western Standard the Ontario policy change is “dumbing down policing” at a critical time..“Policing in Canada seems to be in crises nationwide. Criminals are now a protected class, whereas many see police as the real villains. Public support has been falling. For a number of reasons many major police departments are having major problems recruiting. This may have caused this questionable move by Premier Ford to lower recruiting standards,” says Comeau..The emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent years hasn’t raised the calibre of RCMP cadets in Comeau’s opinion..“The RCMP must abide by Trudeau DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policy in recruiting, so [it] has also lowered hiring standards. In today’s challenging and constantly changing policing environment, a post-secondary education certainly will prove invaluable in dealing with these complexities,” says Comeau, who retired from policing in 2001..“All police departments should seek the best possible people, including their educational standards, when recruiting police officers, not simply revert to a numbers game. The fact is merit in hiring is often being replaced by the DEI principle [which] is certainly problematic in police recruiting.”.Darryl Davies, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, tells the Western Standard a university degree is helpful, and cops need to be better trained, not less..“The reason the majority of people are not applying to join police forces is they are horrified by incident of misconduct by police in Canada. Why is that happening? Because when the cops are interacting with the public, they don't have communication skills. They don't have mediation skills. They don't have alternative dispute resolution skills, no formal education. They’re ignorant of the law of evidence,” says Davies..“Put all that together, and we have mentally ill people being shot dead repeatedly. And we've had racist acts by police officers, by individuals who have not been educated. And so we've got what, a premier that's going to roll policing back to the 20th century? It's absurd. It's a sad state of affairs.”.The Ford government announced it would add new training spots and pay for students’ $15,000 tuition at the Ontario police college. The Ontario solicitor general said the average cadet is in their late 20’s and they wanted to give the option to others with life experience who might not have a degree.
