Since its creation, the RCMP has been an icon — sometimes shining, sometimes tarnished. But the objective here is not to review the Force’s past but rather to look to its future role and mandate by asking if the way policing is currently set up in Canada is in the national interest.
Maybe the RCMP’s use of spyware to track cellphones, laptops and tablets has been perfectly legitimate. Maybe they’ve only used specially trained investigators who know how to walk the exceptionally tricky line between lawful investigation and invasion of privacy.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and senior RCMP officers are defending the national police force’s years-long and previously undisclosed use of spyware—capable of remotely accessing cell phone and computer microphones, cameras and other data—as part of dozens of major investigations.
Over the course of hours of witness testimony at the House of Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee, a series of notable disclosures were made on Monday about the RCMP’s use of “on-device investigation tools” or ODITs.
More than a month after the RCMP admitted to using invasive cellphone spyware technology, the national police force has yet to turn over information about the program to Parliament’s privacy watchdog.
Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne told the House of Commons’ ethics committee that he found out about the RCMP’s “Covert Access and Intercept Team” and its use of cellphone spyware through media reports in late June.
OTTAWA – A parliamentary committee will begin exploring the RCMP’s use of spyware on Monday, diving deeper into an issue that’s sounded alarms for privacy and civil liberties groups across the country.
The House of Commons ethics and privacy committee called for a summer study after the RCMP revealed its use of tools that covertly obtain data from devices like phones and computers.
This is a senior RCMP officer telling the Nova Scotia mass shooting public inquiry that he was told not to disclose a phone call requesting information from Commissioner Brenda Lucki by federal lawyers. https://t.co/2emvoToT1A
— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) July 29, 2022
Top N.S. Mountie wanted an officer dismissed for sexual misconduct — but Commissioner Lucki disagreed
A Nova Scotia RCMP constable who violated the force’s code of conduct after fondling co-workers will keep his job — even though the top Mountie in the province at the time wanted him dismissed for sexual assault.
The case pits the wishes of the local division against Commissioner Brenda Lucki, who — while promising publicly that sexual assault would not be tolerated under her watch — agreed to let the member keep his job.
A senior Mountie told a public inquiry on Thursday that federal lawyers advised him not to disclose a call he received from the RCMP Commissioner that he says appeared to be motivated by a desire to use the Nova Scotia mass shooting to boost support for Liberal gun-control measures.
Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, testifying for a second day, said he believes political inference was behind RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s insistence that police release details on the guns used in the April, 2020, mass shooting that killed 22 people.
One of the top RCMP officers involved in responding to Nova Scotia’s mass-shooting rampage in 2020 says he pushed repeatedly to have an independent review of how the incident was handled — only for national headquarters to reject his request.
Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told a House of Commons committee Monday that they did not interfere in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
“Let me begin, and let me be clear. I did not interfere in the investigation around this tragedy,” Lucki told members of the House of Commons public safety and national security committee.
“Specifically, I was not directed to publicly release information about weapons used by the perpetrator to help advance pending gun control legislation.”
Pictures of suspected accomplices in Rabih Alkhalil escape were stock images, RCMP say
Coquitlam RCMP are still actively searching for Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil, who escaped from the North Fraser Pre-trial Centre on Thursday — but the photos they shared of his alleged accomplices were stock images, they said.
“It is believed that the suspects who helped Alkhalil escape bear a close resemblance to the photos they left behind, but those images are not them,” said Const. Deanna Law with Coquitlam RCMP in a statement Saturday afternoon.
The federal government says it won’t bill provinces and municipalities for the retroactive portion of Mountie salaries while it considers whether to help shoulder some of the burden of a steep pay-raise package.
The RCMP union negotiated its first contract with the Treasury Board last August and gained significant wage increases for its members, prompting some mayors and town councillors to say that because of the heightened costs, they could no longer afford their police.
Costs for the nearly 20,000 RCMP officers are shared between federal, provincial and municipal governments.
Canada’s national Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) force has acknowledged it uses special spyware to hack into a suspect’s phone without them even knowing it.
Allegations of political interference in the investigation of the mass shooting in Nova Scotia highlight continuing problems with politicization of the RCMP, say former Mounties.
Rob Creasser was an RCMP officer in British Columbia from 1992 to 2010 and helped spearhead efforts to form the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada (MPPAC). In an interview with Western Standard, Creasser said the revelations are only the latest indication of continuing problems.
“What I would gently call dysfunction within the organization — that hasn’t changed, despite me being out for now, over a decade,” Creasser said.
OTTAWA, Ont. — In a “remarkable” disclosure, Canada’s national police force has described for the first time how it uses spyware to infiltrate mobile devices and collect data, including by remotely turning on the camera and microphone of a suspect’s phone or laptop.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police says it only uses such tools in the most serious cases, when less intrusive techniques are unsuccessful. But until now, the force has not been open about its ability to employ malware to hack phones and other devices, despite using the tools for several years. Between 2018 and 2020, the RCMP said it deployed this technology in 10 investigations.
What could go wrong with Lucki in charge?
