Trudeau gets flak from RCMP vets for taking knee at protest

Turns out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking a knee at a Black Lives Matter protest on Parliament Hill on June 5 didn’t sit well with some RCMP vets.

The RCMP Veterans’ Association accused Trudeau of “humiliating us” with the move in a letter written by Gilles Favreau, retired deputy commissioner, addressed to the PM, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The prime minister and all members of Parliament who try to gain political points on the back of RCMP members should show some discomfort and embarrassment,” Favreau wrote.

“In fact, they should have asked for explanations and valid and dependable statistics before identifying our members as racist and, by doing so, humiliating us by kneeling down as if demanding pardon for our renowned organization that has served our country with honour, integrity and devotion for the last 147 years.”

When the PM knelt amid the crowd of protesters, he was surrounded by plainclothes RCMP officers.

Favreau was outraged over cabinet complaints of “systemic racism” in the RCMP and said the Mounties should separate from any “political motives.”

He said RCMP incidents involving minorities were “misdemeanours” and that politicians shouldn’t paint all Mounties as the same after the actions of a few.

“Of course, on some occasions members under pressure overreact,” Favreau wrote. “However, these misdemeanours are never ordered, supported or tolerated by any level of management.”

Favreau said RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki “lost some credibility within the RCMP and more seriously by the Canadian population” after talking about complaints of systemic bigotry within her ranks.

“She is now perceived as head of an organization submissive to the public power rather than being independent from political motives,” he wrote.