Following the announcement of occupational health and safety  charges being levelled against the RCMP, a spokesperson for the association representing Canadian Mounties says that officers are remaining silent on workplace concerns out of fear of retribution.

“We have RCMP members that, literally, are too afraid to tell the Canadian public about their workplace,” said Rob Creasser, spokesperson for the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada (MPPAC).

Publicly criticizing the RCMP is “a career-ending move”, according to Creasser, a retired member of the force. “Even if you don’t lose your job, which you could do, any career aspirations you have were probably wiped off the map.”

The MPPAC has called for the resignation of RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson for his role in the alleged labour breaches, which were announced on May 15. The charges stem from the incident in Moncton, New Brunswick, on June 4 of last year, when three RCMP officers were shot and killed and two other officers were wounded. Following the event, the RCMP completed an independent review, which issued 64 recommendations to the force.

“Because of the way he [Paulson] has handled the Moncton tragedy and the way he has been involved in the breach of the Privacy Act, he shouldn’t be where he is,” said Creasser.

The RCMP is being charged by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada with: failure to provide its members with appropriate use-of-force equipment and user training when responding to an active threat or active shooter event; failure to provide its members with necessary information, instruction and/or training when responding to an active threat or active shooter event; failure to provide its supervisory personnel with appropriate information, instruction and/or training when responding to an active threat or active shooter event; and failure to ensure, in general, the health and safety of its members.

The police association applauded the move to lay charges in a statement issued on May 15, and Creasser said that he hoped the charges would improve safety within the RCMP.

He claimed that in addition to a lack of equipment, training and supervision during the Moncton shooting, the Commissioner is guilty of breaking the law by breaching the Privacy Act. When the RCMP launched a complaint regarding former staff psychologist Dr. Mike Webster, RCMP members’ identities and medical records, such as diagnoses, treatment plans and prognoses were disclosed to the College of Psychologists, Creasser explained.

“We’re well aware that Commissioner Paulson was also involved in that,” Creasser said. “[We are] asking that the Commissioner and other high-ranking senior executives be held to account, and one of the ways you do that is you ask them to step down.”

Paulson declined to comment for this story. In a statement issued on May 14, Paulson said that the police would carefully examine the charges before making any decisions.

“As our honour roll sadly confirms, there has always been – and sadly will continue to be – deadly threats to police officers,” he said in the statement.

“The safety of our employees in doing this dangerous job, protecting the public, is always our priority.”

But according to Creasser, the RCMP’s commitment to safety is “in word only.”

“There has been no actions to show that that is their number one concern. How can you talk about safety being job one, when you’re constantly slashing budgets that are required to properly train and equip your people?”

Creasser cited a number of health and safety issues within the force, including equipping general-duty members with high-powered, mid-sized rifles and hard body armour, as well as dealing with general understaffing.

When a federal employee dies on the job, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) normally conducts an investigation. This is the third time that the RCMP has been charged with labour violations, according to ESDC.

The first court date is set for July 9 at the Moncton Provincial Courthouse, with Paul Adams acting as Crown Counsel.

The president of the B.C. Nurses’ Union (BCNU), British Columbia’s largest nursing organization, has said that the union plans to start pursuing legal action whenever a nurse is injured by a patient while on the job, as long as the victim authorizes the action.

At the annual BCNU convention in Vancouver on Feb. 24, Gayle Duteil announced to hundreds of attendees that the union would press charges against attackers as well as healthcare facilities. BCNU has also developed a new policy that will provide support for nurses who experience physical or psychological injury at work, she revealed.

“We have to change society’s expectation that just because you are unwell and in a healthcare facility, that it is okay to assault a nurse, to hit or pinch or spit or bite or verbally yell at them,” BCNU vice president Christine Sorensen told COHSN. “We can’t continue to allow that to happen.”

BCNU’s intention, Sorensen added, was to get B.C. healthcare authorities to respond properly to violence against healthcare workers. “They, unfortunately, seem more interested in downplaying or covering up the violence against our nurses instead of protecting our nurses,” she charged. “And we want them to fully investigate and provide solutions that are going to reduce it.”

Sorensen cited a recent violent assault that healthcare authorities had neglected until BCNU’s intervention. “Our member reported it to WorkSafeBC,” she explained, “who had not been informed of the event and felt it was an urgent matter and, in fact, went out to the site immediately to follow up.” If it weren’t for this report, the police would not have been informed and no investigation would have been conducted, she said.

Following Duteil’s announcement, Terry Lake, the B.C. Minister of Health, told reporters at the provincial legislature in Victoria that the ministry was already working with healthcare professionals to reduce occupational violence as much as possible.

“Health authorities have a lot of programs in place to reduce violence and deescalate with training,” Lake told the reporters on Feb. 24. “If someone is assaulted, then often, I think it’s appropriate to have that looked at if there’s criminal behaviour involved.”

In the case of assailants with mental illnesses, Lake said that it was up to the legal system to determine whether they were criminally responsible for their actions. “Often, there’s a lack of awareness on the part of the patient,” he noted. “Fortunately, we have very well-trained nurses, psychiatrists and people who work in the mental-health system. They know how to deescalate behaviour.”

Sorensen said that BCNU was also planning to create a phone line, through which healthcare professionals could report violent incidents, by June 11. “So we want to have our hotline up and running, so that we can find out more of what’s going on with our members,” she said.

She added that security, training and staffing were woefully inadequate in B.C. healthcare facilities. “Nurses do not go to nursing school to learn takedowns, to learn how to deal with violent patients.”

Lake acknowledged that nursing on the frontline could be a dangerous job. “When people are ill, whether they have physical ailments or mental illness, they can react in a surprising way that can be violent,” he said. “We’ve seen that happen, where the patient does become violent and people get hurt.”

Asked whether the BCNU’s plans were a broadside against the Ministry of Health, Lake replied that he intended to assist healthcare unions in making their workplaces safer.

“Their members deserve to have a safe workplace,” he said, adding that when people are mentally or physically ill, “their behaviour can be unpredictable. We need to make sure nurses are well-trained, that personnel are available to deescalate and to manage any potentially violent situation.

“The safety of the workplace is extremely important to us,” Lake said.