Meet the country’s new top cop

The appointment of Brenda Lucki as new commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was just cause for celebration.

The 52- year- old Edmonton native, 24th commissioner of the force, is the first woman to hold the post on a permanent basis.

And after 32 years on the job, in an impressive range of challenging positions across Canada and abroad, it looks to be a promotion well-earned.

As with many such high- profile appointments, however, Commissioner Lucki can reasonably expect that her elation might never again reach the heights it did on the first day.

The RCMP is one of this country’s iconic symbols.

It is the local municipal force in more than 150 Canadian communities and many First Nations, the provincial force in eight provinces and three territories, and the federal force responsible for everything from national security to international policing.

But the force has been savaged in numerous reports over many years for workplace dysfunction and a toxic culture, problems so entrenched as to prompt repeated demands for civilian governance and oversight.

The extent of the challenges facing Lucki were bluntly acknowledged by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

Abuses of power, racial bias, infringements on civil liberties, bullying, and workplace harassment and sexual misconduct have “harmed the RCMP’S reputation and damaged the morale of its members,” Goodale said.

Not least of the morale problems involve the RCMP’S comparatively low pay. Officers are in the process of unionizing and expected to seek significant raises to catch up with other forces.

The new leadership, Goodale said, will be expected to guide the force “through a period of transformation to modernize and reform its culture, to make its workplace safe and free from harassment, to enhance its role in reconciliation” with First Nations communities.

It was the latter theme on which the prime minister focused during his remarks at Lucki’s appointment.

Trudeau stressed his customary theme of diversity, both in the need to seek greater gender balance in a force in which just over 20 per cent of regular members are female, and the need to improve relations with First Nations communities, even as the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission conducts a review of the RCMP investigation into the shooting death of 22- year- old Cree man Colten Boushie.

As commanding officer of Depot, Lucki “has been focused on ensur- ing that cadets receive the best possible training, including diversity training,” he said.

She is known, moreover, as someone “who is constantly looking for ways to improve the status quo.”

Lucki indicated she’s game for the challenge.

While making clear her pride in the force, she spoke frankly about the challenges facing the RCMP and declared herself eager to take them on.

“I will not have all the answers, but I definitely plan on asking all the right questions, and maybe some difficult ones,” she said.

“I plan to challenge assumptions, seek explanations and better understand the reasons how we operate. This means that no stone will be left unturned.

“I am confident that together we will meet our challenge head on and move forward to continue to modernize our organization.”

Lucki said that when she graduated from Depot and wore the famous red serge for the first time, in the very same drill hall in which she took on the commissioner’s job Friday, “I dreamt of making a difference in the world.”

She will get the chance now to make a difference in the beleaguered force that has been the sometimes troubled heart of her working life.