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Not since the RCMP security service scandals of the 1970s has Canada's national police force faced such a crisis of confidence, both internally and with the public.

Mountie whistle-blowers are testifying on Parliament Hill about mismanagement of their pension fund and what they believe to be corruption, cronyism and cover-up by the force's most senior officers, and a deputy commissioner has been suspended after allegations of perjury before a House of Commons committee.

Meanwhile, a constable from Merritt, B.C., is to stand trial in December on torture charges in connection with the alleged beating of a 25-year-old aboriginal. And a coroner's inquest is scheduled for next month into the death of Ian Bush, the B.C. man shot by a rookie RCMP constable while the two were alone in the local police station.

The force's conduct of two anti-terrorism investigations is under scrutiny by two separate federal commissions of inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court justices. On Friday a former chairman of the Ontario Securities Commission was appointed to hold an informal inquiry into the pension case.

Rank-and-file cops are filing suits against the brass, applying under the federal Access to Information Act for personnel files and launching other legal actions to vent claims of sexual attacks, racial and gender discrimination, workplace harassment, unsafe training facilities and other grievances. Some fear workplace violence may erupt.

“Give us justice. Let us speak the truth without fear of retribution,” said one Mountie who wants Parliament to conduct closed-door hearings so that she and others can testify safely about what she describes as rot at the top and a deep malaise running throughout the force.

She and others quoted in this article spoke only on condition of anonymity because their jobs are on the line or they have been issued explicit gag orders.

“People are afraid to talk and nobody is held accountable when things go wrong. You would think people would remember the McDonald Commission,” said another frustrated Mountie, referring to David McDonald's judicial inquiry in the 1970s that exposed arson, forgery, kidnappings, break-ins, thefts and other wrongdoing by the RCMP security service.

“The next commissioner needs to be an outsider who is a good administrator and has a mandate to clean up,” a third Mountie said. “The new commissioner should be someone like Sheila Fraser,” the Auditor-General whose report last fall exposed nepotism and misappropriation of funds by administrators of the RCMP pension program.

The last RCMP commissioner, Giuliano Zaccardelli, resigned in December amid controversy about what he knew about Maher Arar and when he knew it. He is scheduled to appear today before the House of Commons public accounts committee. Interim Commissioner Bev Busson says she doesn't want the top job. She declined to be interviewed for this article.

The force's media office also declined to respond to specific allegations of misconduct contained in a series of sworn affidavits by serving and retired Mounties. The affidavits were filed in the past 12 months in Ontario Superior Court in support of a Charter of Rights challenge to laws that keep RCMP members from organizing a union. The statements contain allegations that have not been tested in court.

Staff Sergeant Paul Marsh, the force's chief spokesman, said “it would be inappropriate for us to discuss allegations raised in the affidavits filed to support that application” while the RCMP is still preparing to file its legal response in the court case.

But as a general comment, he said in an e-mail, “the RCMP continues to strive towards a work force of excellence that is inclusive and respectful of all employees and has internal procedures in place to address any issues or complaints in this regard. The RCMP has policies which are reflective of the Government of Canada's commitment to promote a work environment free from harassment and discrimination.”

It's not the policies that are at issue, many Mounties say. It's the impunity with which senior officers ignore them.

“There are the rules, and then there are the real rules,” said retired corporal Calvin Lawrence, who has served as a bodyguard to two prime ministers and a governor-general. He said that as a black man, he felt the sting of racism from other Mounties throughout his career.

“You look at what the RCMP itself says are its core values — integrity, honesty, professionalism, compassion, respect, accountability — and you hold them up to what you see is going on every day and there is a big difference,” Mr. Lawrence said.

RCMP Constable Victoria Cliffe's father and grandfather were police officers. She knew the job had its perils. She never thought one of them would be sexual assault by another cop.

She said in an affidavit that a sergeant who was conducting an undercover operation as part of a murder case asked her to pose as his girlfriend in Alberta in the 1990s. The sergeant told her she was to dress the part of a biker because the suspect liked “trashy women.”

The sergeant met with the suspect at an auto wrecking yard for an afternoon of beer drinking. As evening fell, the suspect said he had to leave but would meet up later with his new drinking buddy and his “girlfriend” at a bar. The suspect never showed up, but the undercover cops continued drinking as they waited until late in the evening.

The Mounties called it a night. The sergeant said he had a room at a nearby hotel and Constable Cliffe could crash on the couch. She would be needed the next day. There was no couch. Constable Cliffe took the sergeant's suggestion that she sleep on one edge of the bed while he slept on the other.

Some time later, she awoke to find the sergeant kissing the back of her neck and penetrating her vagina with his fingers. She fought him off and told him she wasn't interested. “Eventually he passed out. I remained awake until morning,” Constable Cliffe said in the affidavit.

The next morning, the sergeant said she was no longer needed for the undercover operation. Moreover, she had not been formally approved by a supervisor for the undercover work the night before, so she shouldn't file any paperwork and he would “work out” her overtime.

Three other female Mounties later said the sergeant had tried the same scam with them.

Constable Cliffe said she might have remained silent except that one of the other women was suffering reprisals because she had lodged a formal complaint. “They were ripping her apart. It made me sick.”

Constable Cliffe's colleagues at her own detachment froze her out and had her dismissed from a coveted position as a negotiator with the emergency response team, she says in her affidavit.

The four women received no satisfaction from the way RCMP managers tried to sweep the sergeant's misconduct under the rug, her affidavit says. Internal investigations went nowhere, it says. The women filed a civil law suit, claiming $750,000 each in punitive and other damages. The RCMP settled with the women out of court. The sergeant is still on the job in another province. Constable Cliffe is back with the Red Deer detachment.

She said that the “old boys” still take care of each other, and the only way to break through “the sense they have that they can do no wrong” is for outside police forces to be called in to investigate allegations of crimes against Mounties committed by other Mounties.

Ken Smith looked to be on the way up when he was promoted in 2001 to staff sergeant and was made the head of the RCMP drug squad in Saint John, N.B. But in a sworn affidavit, Staff Sgt. Smith said a superintendent tried to force him out of the job so that a close friend to the superintendent could take over.

By 2002, Staff Sgt. Smith found himself under surveillance by other Mounties, in what he called “an effort to discredit me at any cost.” He said Mounties bugged his car, installed an electronic monitoring device and tracked his movements night and day for six weeks, but uncovered “nothing more serious than my Tim Hortons habit.”

He was removed as head of the drug squad. His superintendent accused him of cheating on moving expenses, but a criminal investigation didn't produce anything.

Staff Sgt. Smith filed two harassment complaints. But in turn he faced code-of-conduct charges for misuse of a police car and for conduct unbecoming a member of the force.

He had used an unmarked car to visit his father in hospital and to go to comfort another police officer from a municipal department whose child had just committed suicide. His alleged unbecoming conduct involved an undercover operation during which he told a waiter he didn't want any “[expletive] peas” with his meal. Last week an internal adjudication board stayed the conduct charges, saying they were an abuse of power.

Calvin Lawrence, who retired last year after a 36-year police career, said he's free at last to speak his mind — to some extent. He's still bound by a confidentiality agreement surrounding his human-rights complaint — that as a black RCMP member he was the victim of racism and denied promotions. Mr. Lawrence, who retired as a corporal, said he was speaking out now because the atmosphere in the RCMP between commissioned officers and the rank-and-file is so poisoned he fears workplace violence will erupt.

He said that if senior management does not put an end to “the harassment and racial discrimination in the RCMP I predict mass violence in the workplace. RCMP members are already trying to harm themselves right now. It is only a matter of time before they turn their guns on others.”

Women and visible minorities are almost certain to face harassment and discrimination from other Mounties because such behaviour is tolerated by managers, he said. Working with the drug squad in Toronto, he would sometimes come into work to find racist posters and pictures on his desk. A racist cartoon was posted on the squad bulletin board. Managers did nothing. , Mr. Lawrence has two long-service good-conduct medals. He's been an instructor at the RCMP academy in Regina. He's taken courses and lectured on counterterrorism. Yet throughout his career, promotions and plum assignments have eluded him.

It was only when he filed requests under the federal Access to Information Act that he got a clear picture of what he had been facing. Secret files and records identified him as a “non-white” and as a “troublemaker.” One senior officer went to the human resources branch and tried to have his job eliminated.

His staff relations representative, who, in the absence of a real union with stewards and transparent grievance procedures, is supposed to act as an advocate for members with managers, wrote a note to the boss saying: “I'll try to keep Cal off your back.”

Until the recent testimony about the pension-fund scandal, the public rarely heard from insiders how RCMP management deals with complaints. There is a reason. Criticism is forbidden by regulation and gag orders.

The killings of four Mounties two years ago in Mayerthorpe, Alta., ignited a firestorm of controversy across the force. Questions quickly arose about why a heavily armed tactical unit had not been dispatched to deal with a suspect who was known to be armed and hostile to police.

A year later, Mounties were still talking about what many perceived as the poor management of the Mayerthorpe incident by senior officers. Among those talking was Robert Creasser, a 25-year veteran with the road safety unit in Kamloops, B.C. Constable Creasser was issued a formal gag order by his district superintendent when he went public with his views in a radio interview.

The district superintendent's written order says: “Your comments are somewhat disconcerting as they could reasonably be interpreted as criticism, or in the nature of a complaint” about the way Mayerthorpe was handled.

Talking with reporters “or public comments...have the potential to create confusion for the public and create disruption within the Force,” the superintendent's order said.

Constable Creasser is still bound by the gag order, which means he can be charged with a serious service offence if he speaks out.

Constable Creasser said he believes he was targeted because he's a police association activist. The testimony by Mounties at the House public accounts committee, suggesting that managers tried to cover up the mishandling of the pension-fund case, seems to have triggered a new wave of pre-emptive moves by RCMP managers, said Laura Young, a Toronto lawyer who represents the Mounted Police Association of Ontario.

“A lot of our guys have been taken out,” she said, referring to previously vocal members who have received written or verbal gag orders in the past week.