Speeding story lands top cop in hot water — again
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson reluctant to answer questions about B.C. traffic stop
OTTAWA— RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, who joked about being pulled over for speeding on a B.C. highway last year, admits he got off with just a warning. But the country’s top cop denies he got any preferential treatment.
“I’m not going to talk about the traffic matter except to say I was in civilian clothes, produced my licence and registration, did not identify myself beyond that and sought no preferential treatment,” Paulson told the Star in an email.
The Star was unable to clarify the rank of the officer who pulled over the commissioner on the highway, or other details around the incident that Paulson made light of at a Vancouver Board of Trade event on Thursday night.
Paulson was appointed by the Conservatives and is now in his fifth year as the RCMP chief. The RCMP patrols B.C.’s highways. Paulson is a leader whose shoot-fromthe-lip style has gotten him in trouble before. He has publicly slammed his critics in parliamentary committee, has apologized for whistling and twirling his finger at his head in what was perceived by some RCMP members as an insensitive gesture mocking mental illness. And it was revealed last week that Paulson was ordered to apologize for his own demeaning and intimidating behaviour towards a Mountie who complained three years ago of Paulson’s handling of the harassment issue within the force.
However, in a speech Thursday to the Vancouver Board of Trade, Paulson repeated what he’s reported to the government: that under his watch, the RCMP has instituted better practices to deal with bullying and harassment.
In the speech, Paulson said aspects of a law enforcement working environment are partly to blame for unprofessional conduct among officers and management. “Let’s face it, in law enforcement, because of the stress, because of the nature of the work, because of the hours, because of the collegial sort of nature of it, it’s a ripe area for behaviours that are less than professional,” Paulson said.
“I thought it was funny . . . not anymore.” BOB PAULSON ON TELLING AN AUDIENCE ABOUT BEING PULLED OVER FOR SPEEDING
After the speech, Paulson revealed his speeding in an odd reply to a different audience question read aloud by a Vancouver Board of Trade host.
Asked the last time he had issued a ticket, Paulson replied he was stopped while driving with his wife, infant son and mother-in-law in a rental vehicle along the Coquihalla Highway returning from a friend’s wedding last year.
“The officer walks up and he goes, ‘Do you have any idea how fast you were going?’ ” Paulson told the crowd. “And I kept my mouth shut, and then he says, ‘Driver’s licence and registration.’
“It’s a rental car, I give it to him, I give him my licence and he looks at it and he goes, ‘Aww, seriously?’ ” Paulson said, mimicking the officer’s apparent reaction. The crowd laughed.
Questioned later by a reporter, Paulson initially said “that was just a story I made up.” Then he said the story was true but he didn’t want to say whether he had received a ticket: “I don’t want to talk about that. I do not want to talk about that,” he said.
Pressed further, Paulson said: “I was warned,” suggesting he raised the story because “I thought it was funny . . . not any more.”
A spokesman for the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada said that while he had no direct knowledge of the traffic stop, Paulson’s public comments about the incident smacked of “poor judgment.”
“He seems to like a relatively high profile, until he screws up. I don’t get why he would have even brought this up in the first place,” said Rob Creasser.
Creasser conceded that senior officers sometimes receive preferential treatment if they’re pulled over, but said they shouldn’t. The correct thing for Paulson to do would have been to inform the subordinate officer not to treat him any differently than anyone else, he said.
“I don’t know whether that conversation took place or not.”
Brian Sauvé, a representative of the National Police Federation, a group seeking to certify as the RCMP’s bargaining agent, said that without knowing further details he would not comment. He said it is not unusual to issue warnings, but much depends on the circumstances such as how fast a driver was going.
Documents published Tuesday by Postmedia and obtained by the Star show Paulson was ordered to apologize in 2012 for what then-Conservative public safety minister Steven Blaney agreed was intimidating and demeaning behaviour of a subordinate.
Paulson apologized to Staff Sgt. Tim Chad in a letter distributed forcewide for attacking him in an email he sent to Chad and his superior officers. Paulson had suggested Chad was “living under a rock” if he thought the RCMP didn’t need an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to restoring public faith.
On Friday, Paulson cited a confidentiality order in that affair as he declined further comment on the Chad matter.
Paulson said his overall point in Vancouver was that “we are making progress. I talked of all the structural changes that transcend harassment to address broader culture.”
Still, there are many within the force who would disagree.
One insider, speaking on condition of anonymity because Paulson has reminded Mounties not to speak to the media without permission, said the RCMP in B.C. quietly eliminated the positions of respectful workplace adviser — which Paulson himself once called an innovative model for the rest of the country — because of budget cuts.
On Friday, Paulson defended the move saying the goal is “the transition of respectful workplace advisers into the sphere of responsibility of supervisors.”
Paulson is under pressure to deal with workplace problems. When CBC news reported bizarre behaviour by RCMP instructors at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa, including unwanted sexual touching and office nudity, Paulson was quickly contacted by his new boss, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.
A spokesman for Goodale, Dan Brien, told the Star the minister was unable to comment by press time Friday night.