'There's no justice,' says complainant as RCMP officer retires before misconduct hearing

A high-ranking RCMP officer has decided to retire rather than appear before a disciplinary hearing over a case of sexual misconduct involving a colleague, according to information obtained by Radio-Canada.

The staff sergeant was twice the age of the complainant, in her 20s at the time of the alleged events, which included flirtatious text messages and brief sexual encounters in 2022 and 2023.

By convening him to a conduct hearing last year, the RCMP was looking to formally dismiss the experienced police officer over an inappropriate relationship involving a power imbalance.

By retiring, the staff sergeant will avoid a disciplinary hearing that, if it had gone ahead, would have been disclosed within the organization and made public on the RCMP's website.

According to data obtained by Radio-Canada, 74 RCMP employees decided to retire after being called to appear before a conduct hearing between 2020 and 2024. These employees get to keep their pension, although the matter is noted on their human-resources file and can be shared with future employers as part of reference checks.

The woman who filed a complaint against the staff sergeant is disappointed with the outcome. She works for the RCMP as part of a federal part-time employment program for university students.

"There's no justice being made or done for [complainants] and their case is just swept under the rug because we're protecting officers who are doing bad things," she said in an interview.

To protect the identity of the complainant, Radio-Canada has decided not to reveal certain details about her or her former RCMP colleague.

The RCMP has long grappled with issues related to sexual harassment. In 2016, then commissioner Bob Paulson apologized to hundreds of victims of sexual harassment. The RCMP concluded its $125-million class-action settlement over harassment, discrimination and sexual abuse claims with more more than 2,300 people in 2020.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said sanctions have recently been toughened for some inappropriate behaviour, including relationships involving a superior in a position of authority.

"Anything to do with sexual assault, sexual harassment, inappropriate relationship within the organization or outside, it's not tolerated," he said in an interview. "The people who are abusive or don't respect the code of conduct, or more importantly the organization's ethics, I don't want them in the organization."

Duheme praised those who denounce unacceptable behaviour within the force, adding he hopes none will suffer backlash.

"I salute the courage of people who are coming forward," he said. "As the leader of the organization, I want to make sure that this person has all the support that they need to make sure that they are accompanied throughout this, because it's not an easy task."

The woman was in her early 20s, while the staff sergeant was in his 40s, when they met in the gym at an RCMP building in 2022.

They later fraternized at the Mess, a workplace bar where employees have drinks and play pool on Thursday nights.

Shortly after their first meeting, the police officer sent her a friend request on Facebook, she recently told Radio-Canada.

The two seemed to enjoy messaging one another, but he was the one initiating most of their conversations, she said. She added their texts became more sexual in nature after he asked her to communicate on the encrypted messaging app Signal.

Over time, the staff sergeant gave her small gifts and invited her to join him on work trips, according to some of their exchanges in 2022 and 2023.

"I looked up to him and like everyone looked up to him and then he would give me a favour. So I felt special," she said.

Over the course of a few months, their contact also evolved, starting with hugs and kisses on the cheeks, especially after the two had a few drinks at the Mess.

One evening in the spring of 2023, the RCMP officer offered to drive the student back to her car, adding he first needed to finish a few tasks in his office. That is when their relationship took an unexpected turn for the student, who said she was looking at a toy RCMP car in his office.

"That's when he kind of came on to me and started kissing me and he grabbed my leg and he was just kind of touching me everywhere. It didn't last super long, it was just like a couple seconds. And I was really surprised that that happened," she said. "I felt really awkward."

The complainant says she was unaware at the time that the actions likely violated the code of conduct governing RCMP members. She admired the staff sergeant, whose rank is generally assigned to team managers.

"I thought it was normal because I was telling myself that he knows I'm a student, so it must be OK," she said.

That incident was followed by another similar one, after another evening at the RCMP bar.

In shock once again, the student decided to end the relationship, saying their interactions went against her values. Even though he was seeing someone else, the staff sergeant allegedly tried to convince her to keep up the relationship, which she refused, she says.

"I didn't plan or prepare for that. So I was crying in my car, feeling a deep sense of regret for doing that," she said.

After discussing the matter with colleagues, they encouraged her to file an official complaint, which she did in August of 2023.

"My main motivation to report it is that I didn't want other students being persuaded in that way and then doing things that they would later regret doing because they weren't informed," she said.

Following an investigation and a review by RCMP lawyers, the organization concluded that there were grounds to bring the matter before a conduct hearing. According to the RCMP, such a hearing is "initiated in cases where the member's dismissal is being sought based on the overall circumstances of the allegations."

More than a year and a half after filing her complaint, the student recently learned that her file was set to be closed.

The staff sergeant decided to retire rather than appear before the disciplinary hearing, where he would have had to answer to allegations of sexual misconduct, conflict of interest and abuse of power.

The student said the outcome gives the impression the RCMP offered a graceful exit to its officer.

"That's not a punishment. It's almost like a reward," she said.

In addition to the incidents with the staff sergeant, she said the work environment at the RCMP includes numerous sexual jokes, including at least one attempt at humour in reference to date rape drugs.

The RCMP commissioner did not comment on the specific case of the staff sergeant who decided to retire, but he said he was satisfied when employees leave of their own volition.

"There is nothing in the law that allows me to stop these people from retiring. On the other hand, if a person has left, I am happy because it's not someone who should be in the organization," Duheme said.

Radio-Canada contacted the staff sergeant, who did not respond to our requests for comment.

One of the lead plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit launched against the RCMP in 2012, Janet Merlo, said the RCMP is ignoring its obligations to end discrimination against women.

"In terms of the settlement, they paid the money, which was the easy part for them," the former constable said in an interview.

But the number of harassment incidents regularly reported to her by people within the RCMP is proof that the culture has not really changed in recent years, she said.

"It's the same playbook, it's the same story that we've heard time and time again. And to have it still happening, and somebody at a higher rank who should know better doing that to a young person, it just shows just how toxic it still is," said Merlo.

Former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache — who produced a scathing report on harassment in the RCMP in 2020 — blamed Ottawa for failing to fix problems within the federal police.

"The issue now is whether this government is going to implement my recommendations instead of publishing rhetoric like [former prime minister Justin Trudeau]. I would like journalists to tell the public that the scandal is real and enormous and that the government cannot leave the matter aside," said Bastarache, whose report was called Broken Lives, Broken Dreams: The Devastating Effects of Sexual Harassment On Women in the RCMP.

The RCMP said it plans to publish a portal on its website this fall to demonstrate how it is responding to the recommendations of the Bastarache report, published five years ago.

The organization says it has adopted stricter measures in several cases of employee misconduct, including cases of intimate-partner violence and the sharing of confidential information from its databases.

In its 2024 conduct measures guide, the RCMP specifically lists being part of a federal program for student workers as a subordinate's "additional vulnerabilities" in the context of an intimate relationship.

In addition to wanting to speed up the process to dismiss certain employees, the RCMP is planning to use demotions or freezes on promotions more often as disciplinary measures.

"I expect a higher standard of all our RCMP employees because we are held to a higher standard than all Canadians," Duheme said.