A video allegedly showed an RCMP officer sexually harassing an Indigenous teen. Then it went missing. Inside allegations of misconduct and cover-up in Canada’s national police force.
In December, just after Christmas 2016, a video showing an RCMP officer in Victoria, B.C., sexually harassing an Indigenous youth went viral. It was viewed more than 1.6 million times on Facebook — and, according to Facebook data, more than 2,500 times on YouTube.
In the days that followed, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said several officers had been disciplined but the incident was not an RCMP matter. In an online posting, RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson said there had been no officer-involved events, and no additional discipline would be considered.
Meanwhile, the video kept spreading, becoming one of the most read stories on the website of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Dozens of comments piled in, with some suggesting the RCMP should be brought to court, and others calling for an arrest and trial.
The video went public just as the Mounties were facing a public relations crisis following two complaints of misconduct by two Indigenous women. (For context, the RCMP is responsible for policing roughly one-third of Canada’s population, roughly 20 million people.)
That complaint was brought by a young Indigenous woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a senior RCMP officer in 2011. The RCMP launched an investigation but did not find any evidence of wrongdoing by the officer (who, according to the complaint, has since retired). But the officer took issue with the internal investigation and refused to tell RCMP investigators any information about his conduct.
The woman complained to the Alberta Human Rights Commission that she was repeatedly raped and assaulted by the officer. She also complained to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, along with the provincial government, the RCMP and the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In each case, the RCMP didn’t respond until months after the initial complaints. All these complaints have never been officially resolved.
Then, in October 2017, the RCMP