LILLEY: RCMP again falsely claimed politicians under investigation (2024)

Twice in the last two months, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have claimed they are investigating leading elected officials and twice they’ve had to walk those claims back.

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It takes a special kind of incompetence to pull off that kind of boneheaded mistake once, but twice is next level.

Back in June, the Mounties let a story float around for nine hours, based on their own statements, that the Trudeau government was under investigation on the SNC-Lavalin file. Despite a massive communications team, they didn’t correct the record on a story which had broken at 9 a.m. until just after 6 in the evening.

It was incredibly unfair to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government, and the RCMP deserve more criticism than they received over the incident.

This week, they put out a statement saying the Ford government in Ontario was under investigation.

In this latest incident, the Ontario Provincial Police announced Wednesday morning that to avoid any perception of conflict of interest, they were handing over the complaints they had received about land swaps in Ontario’s Greenbelt to the RCMP. The RCMP was asked for comment on this and sent the following statement to several media outlets including the Toronto Sun:

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“The RCMP can confirm that we received a referral from the OPP to investigate irregularities in the disposition of the Greenbelt surrounding Toronto,” the RCMP said, adding they are reviewing the files shared by the OPP.

“As the investigation is in its infancy and is ongoing, we decline to offer any further comments.”

There you have it, the Mounties used the word “investigate” and “investigation” in their brief statement. When the official communications team for the national police force uses that term twice, it means there is an investigation.

Except, it turns out, there isn’t an investigation — but the RCMP didn’t tell everyone, just a few who asked them to clarify their rather upfront statement.

“Just to clarify, at this time, RCMP O Division is beginning our evaluation of the available information as referred by the Ontario Provincial Police. After we have conducted a full assessment, we will determine whether to launch an investigation,” the statement said.

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An evaluation is different from an investigation. An assessment is different from an investigation.

That the RCMP couldn’t figure that out in writing the first statement, and then upon issuing the clarification didn’t send it to all media outlets who had received the first statement, is irresponsible and incompetent. The second statement contradicts the first statement on the most important of facts — whether there is a criminal investigation underway of a sitting government.

How the national police force can do this to a sitting prime minister and the premier of the country’s largest province is mind boggling. Communications is not a single person making pronouncements by themselves, there is a team, there are approvals and there are processes in place.

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There may be many fine RCMP officers working across Canada, I’ve met, heard from and interacted with many of them. The people leading this organization, including the communications, leave a lot to be desired.

Political partisans may like, nay love, the idea that Trudeau or Ford have been declared under criminal investigation. You can be sure many will claim whichever politician they like still is under criminal investigation, but at this point, that’s not based in facts.

If we can’t trust the RCMP to communicate basic facts to the public on such sensitive cases, what can we trust them with?

This incident is another blow to the confidence Canadians have in the Mounties.

blilley@postmedia.com

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