After year of scandals, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki announces retirement

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On May 23, the RCMP will mark its 150th anniversary without Commissioner Brenda Lucki at the helm. Even with missing that important milestone for the federal police force, her announcement she is stepping down still isn’t surprising.

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She’s had a tough, punishing, painful time.

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Any traction she had hoped to build in her desire to reform and remake the troubled force was mired by complaints, tragedies, inquiries, scandals and commissions.

She ended the year with apologies, open questions whether she would resign, and stark calls for her to do it.

She was denounced by freedom convoy protesters and environmental protesters alike; her performance as commissioner was called “unforgivable” by a provincial justice minister, and she was described as “a wounded leader” by Canada’s top civil servant.

By her own assessment, she “dropped the ball” four times.

Who would want more of that, even if the government was willing to reappoint her for another term?

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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a complex beast. And increasingly looks like an immoveable object.

While the Mountie is often used as a synonym for Canada itself, the distinctive red uniform topped by a Stetson is one of the few things recognized as Canadian around the world.

The RCMP has more than 650 detachments across Canada, some huge and bristling with technology, others tiny and lonely. It has armoured vehicles, planes, helicopters, all run by more than 19,000 officers and 11,000 civilian members, but it all perennially seems to be too much or never enough when dealing with a litany of crisis.

“This was not an easy decision as I love the RCMP and have loved being the 24th commissioner,” she said in a statement. “I am so incredibly proud to have had the opportunity to lead this historic organization and witness first-hand the tremendous work being done each and every day by all employees from coast to coast to coast and internationally.”

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She was named the new commissioner by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in March 2018, and sworn in the following month, for an expected five-year term.

Her appointment came during a mood for urgent change and reform, much like most of her modern predecessors were.

She is a veteran cop with a strength in training. It seemed a background ready to reform and modernize. That was likely part of her appeal for the Liberal government.

There was criticism of her selection, some likely from sexism, or at least machismo. She was the first permanent female commissioner but also she wasn’t a cop known for busting down doors and cuffing gangsters or killers. But that reputation didn’t always help her predecessors in the job.

She inherited a force struggling with internal and external problems, including the force’s treatment of Indigenous citizens, racism, lawsuits over workplace bullying and harassment, and failing to reform despite repeated reports and recommendations.

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Born in Edmonton, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and sociology and joined the force in 1986, the RCMP said.

Her first posting was in Quebec, followed by Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. She did two stints with a peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia and worked as an academy instructor, in traffic services, community policing, and as a district commander.

At the time she was made commissioner, she was commanding officer of the RCMP Academy in Regina.

She had unusual tragedies, dissent and conflicts to deal with.

In 2020, a man dressed as a Mountie and driving a replica RCMP cruiser went on a murder rampage in Nova Scotia, killing 22 people, including an RCMP constable.

The fallout from that was harsh and damaging. There were loud calls for answers over how the force handled the unfolding tragedy that stretched into two days and a lack of transparency and unanswered questions.

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The inquiry into it hurt Lucki’s reputation directly.

She was accused of breaching the wall between independent policing and partisan politics when she was heard on a recording berating the Nova Scotia investigators for not releasing information on the guns the killer used, because she had told the Prime Minister and the public safety minister they would be, to help the Liberal government’s pending gun control legislation.

“It was a request that I got from the minister’s office,” she said on the internal conference call. “Does anybody realize what’s going on in the world of handguns and guns right now? The fact that they’re in the middle of trying to get a legislation going.

“I’m waiting for the prime minister to call me so I can apologize,” she said on the call.

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“There’s not much I can say except that, once again, I dropped the ball. So that’s gonna be the fourth time I’m gonna say that to him.”

Her term was also marked by the COVID-19 pandemic that placed unusual strain on the country and the force.

And she was thrown into dealing with the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa and two border crossings.

At the Public Order Emergency Commission inquiry into the government’s use of the Emergencies Act to shut down the Ottawa protest occupation, she again was criticized.

Lucki testified that the RCMP had a plan to end the occupation, that she believed the powers of the Emergencies Act weren’t necessary, and other tools had not been exhausted — but she failed to voice that at cabinet meetings before the act was invoked.

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“I guess in hindsight, yeah, that might have been something significant,” Lucki acknowledged under questioning; she said she was not asked to speak, and other officials were already aware of her position.

Jody Thomas, the prime minister’s security and intelligence adviser, testified afterwards that people at the meetings were “expected to provide information that is of use to decision makers,” she said, “whether you are on the speaking list or not.”

In the inquiry’s materials, is a private text about Lucki to Marco Mendicino, the minister responsible for the RCMP, from Janice Charette, Canada’s highest-ranking civil servant: “We need to be a bit careful with Brenda — a wounded leader (even more than she was before) isn’t going to help us get this fixed.”

Lucki’s last day as commissioner will be March 17.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys