The office of the Commissioner of the RCMP is a testament to 137 years of tradition, with a collection of swords at the entrance and Mountie paraphernalia adorning the wood-panelled walls.
But something stands out amidst the pomp. On a bookshelf along one wall is a white-haired bobble-head doll representing William Elliott. There is no red serge, horse or sidearm for this Commissioner in effigy, but rather a bureaucratic uniform of slacks, dark jacket and sober tie. The veteran civil servant is the first to admit that after three years leading Canada’s national police force, he still hasn’t entirely come to grips with all of the 19th- and 20th-century pageantry that engulfs his position.
“There is a sort of a celebrity aspect to being the Commissioner of the RCMP, which is a little odd and uncomfortable for me even after all this time. It makes communications a whole lot more challenging,” Mr. Elliott said in a recent interview.
Whether Mr. Elliott is the right person at the right time for the RCMP is open to debate. Over the summer, some of his top cops felt the experiment with a civilian commissioner had run its course. According to the complainants, Mr. Elliott threw temper tantrums, failed to listen to his officers, acted disrespectfully and suppressed dissent. There were also concerns that he didn’t understand police operations, and that he failed to build, or even maintain, links with other police forces inside and outside of Canada.
Mr. Elliott, however, faced the mutineers head-on and got the support of the Harper government, which brought him in to reshape the force after years of scandal and controversy. Firmly ensconced in his position, Mr. Elliott, 56, intends to continue overseeing a process of change in a paramilitary organization wedded to tradition. In particular, he wants the RCMP to move away from its strict chain-of-command hierarchy to allow for more candid discussion and debate among its members.
“There are some … cultural issues that were are working to overcome,” he said. “It is fundamentally important that people feel not only at liberty to speak their minds, but in fact that they feel an obligation to do so.”
There is no doubt that over the years Mr. Elliott has failed to get his message across and alienated some of his officers.
“I’m a loud guy. I’m big, loud, direct, plain-speaking,” Mr. Elliott said in his ever-booming voice. “At times, I’m blunt to a fault. The fact that I’m the Commissioner of the RCMP exacerbates a challenge that I had long before I came to this job.”
The events of the last four months have created new relationships in the force, he said, with people more likely today to express their views than stifle them. But the crisis is still reverberating throughout the RCMP as officers digest last week’s departure of Deputy Commissioner Raf Souccar, the best known of the failed mutineers, who lost his position as head of federal policing. Officially, Mr. Souccar is awaiting “his next assignment,” which will be somewhere outside the RCMP.
“Obviously, I need a team that I have trust and confidence in,” Mr. Elliott said. “The best thing for Raf and for the RCMP is for us to find ways to move forward without him being a member of my senior management team.”
Mr. Elliott is facing criticism that he is surrounding himself with his supporters and yes men. However, he said that some of the officers who complained about him are remaining in their positions and will not be pushed aside.
“There are no other relationships from my perspective that haven’t been repaired or aren’t repairable,” he said.
