PM ‘humiliated’ the RCMP, says former top officer
Kneeling at BLM protest criticized
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been accused of
“humiliating” RCMP officers
by kneeling at a Black Lives
Matter protest.
Gilles Favreau, the retired deputy commissioner
of operations for the RCMP,
said Trudeau, protected
since infancy by the RCMP,
should be embarrassed.
The attack comes after Trudeau took a knee as part of a crowd gathered on Parliament Hill in June in solidarity with anti-racism demonstrators protesting police killings of Black people.
Social activists have already accused Trudeau of making a “hollow gesture.”
In a statement posted to
the RCMP Veterans’ Association website, Favreau wrote, “Mister Prime Minister and
all members of Parliament who try to gain political points on the back of the RC
MP members should show
some discomfort and embarrassment. In fact, they should have requested for explanations, 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 who has served our country with honour, integrity and devotion for the last 147 years.”
Favreau’s statement said
Trudeau should show more
respect for the RCMP.
“You, that we have protected since your infancy, would have to lead us to believe that you are more
acquainted with the RCMP
than your recent statement depicts, especially based on your personal experience on
how many RCMP members
that you have met are con
sidered racist,” said Favreau.
“Your manner to conclude
that the RCMP is systematic
racist is based on myth rather than true facts.”
James Forrest, the director of communications at the
RCMP Veterans’ Association,
also said calls to defund the
RCMP would not work.
“I don’t think defunding
the RCMP does anybody any
favours, because what you’re saying is reducing police ser
vices,” said Forrest.
“I think what should be done is identifying what areas people think are causing unhappiness along the lines of racism and let’s see what could be done.”
B.C. Senator Bev Busson, the first female commission
er of the RCMP, previously
issued a statement supporting the police force.
“I am calling on each Canadian to remember the courage and dedication of our police officers,” said Busson’s statement. “Not two months ago we were celebrating these first responders, who were coming to work to protect us, risking their own health and that of their families in order to do their duty.
“Are we so convinced the actions of a few, who have yet to be afforded the right of due process, colours or describes the whole profession?”
She added, “The police in Canada are focused on the principle of community policing and risk their lives every day to protect people they don’t even know. They deserve our gratitude and support not because they are perfect, but because they are human.”
Kiké Roach, the Unifor national chair in social justice and democracy at Ryerson University, also criticized Trudeau’s kneeling gesture.
“His gesture was without substance and was merely symbolic. We have not seen the Trudeau government take any substantive actions to combat systemic racism,” she said.
Trudeau joined a growing list of politicians taking the knee in protest at the death
of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who was pinned under a white police officer’s knee before he
died in Minneapolis. Those
other politicians include presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with House and Senate Democrats, and in the U.K., Labour leader Keir Starmer.
WAS WITHOUT SUBSTANCE AND WAS MERELY SYMBOLIC.