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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police ('''RCMP''') ("), is both the Federal and National Police force of Canada . With an on-strength establishment of 24,578 personnel as of January 1, 2007, it is also the largest police force in Canada. Organization of the RCMP . The RCMP was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Royal North West Mounted Police ('''RNWMP''', founded 1873) with the Dominion Police (founded 1868). The former was originally named the '''North West Mounted Police''' ('''NWMP''') and was Given The "Royal" Title in 1904. Much of the present-day organization's symbology has been inherited from its days as the NWMP, including the distinctive Red Serge uniform, paramilitary heritage, and mythos as a frontier force. Members of the RCMP (and the NWMP before it) are colloquially known as Mounties. Internally, the organization is referred to as "The Force", and members of the force are referred to as "Members". RESPONSIBILITIES As the federal police force of Canada, the RCMP is responsible for enforcing federal laws. Unlike most other federal police forces, however, it also has a major role in front-line policing throughout the country. Although the , the Sûreté Du Québec , and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary , respectively. In Canada's Three Territories , the RCMP serves as the sole Territorial Police Force . Additionally, many municipalities throughout Canada contract the RCMP to serve as their police force. Accordingly, the RCMP is responsible for an unusually large breadth of duties, from policing in isolated rural towns, the far North and urban areas; Protection Service for the Prime Minister and the Canadian government, visiting dignitaries, and diplomatic missions; enforcement of federal laws, including wire fraud, counterfeiting, and other related matters; counterterrorism and domestic security; and various international policing efforts. The RCMP Security Service was a specialized political intelligence and counterintelligence branch with national security responsibilities. The Security Service was replaced with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 1984 following revelations of illegal Covert Operation s relating to the Quebec Separatist Movement . "Inquiry Into Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Royal Commission of," ''Canadian Encyclopedia.'' Retrieved 26 August 2007. HISTORY tunic and Stetson as shown here at Expo 67 in Montreal.]] The predecessor of the RCMP, the North West Mounted Police ('''NWMP''') was created on May 23 , 1873 , by Sir John A. Macdonald , the first Prime Minister Of Canada , with the intent of bringing law and order to (and asserting Canadian sovereignty over) the North-West Territories (which then included modern day Alberta , Nunavut , Saskatchewan , and most of modern Manitoba ). This need was particularly urgent with reports of American whisky traders, in particular those of Fort Whoop-Up , causing trouble in the region, culminating in the Cypress Hills Massacre . The force was initially to be called the North West Mounted Rifles, but that was rejected as too military in nature, Macdonald fearing that this could antagonize both the First Nations and the Americans. Acting on a suggestion in his cabinet, Macdonald had the force wear red uniforms. The force was organized like a British Cavalry Regiment and still maintains some of the traditions of those units, like the well known Canadian Musical Ride , to this day. Early activities The initial force, commanded by Colonel , 2005 . An account of the journey was recorded in diary of Henri Julien , an artist from the Canadian Illustrated News, who accompanied the expedition. The Diary of Henri Julien Historians have theorized that failure of the 1874 "March West" would not have ended the Canadian federal government's vision of sor the creation of cities like Brandon , Regina , Moose Jaw , Swift Current , Medicine Hat and Calgary . That, in turn, would have tempted American expansionists to make a play for the Canadian Prairie s' flat, empty southern regions. In effect, the history of Canada would have been radically different had French and his men failed. The NWMP's early activities included containing the whisky trade and enforcing agreements with the First Nations peoples. To that end, the Commanding Officer of the force arranged to be sworn in as a Justice Of The Peace , which allowed for magisterial authority in the Mounties' jurisdiction. In the early years, the force's dedication to enforcing the law on the First Nations peoples' behalf impressed them enough to encourage good relations. In the summer of 1876, Sitting Bull and thousands of Sioux were fleeing the US Military to southern Saskatchewan , and James Morrow Walsh of the NWMP was charged with maintaining control in the large Sioux settlement at Wood Mountain . Walsh and Sitting Bull became good friends, and the peace at Wood Mountain was maintained. In 1885, the NWMP helped to quell the North-West Rebellion led by Louis Riel . Klondike Gold Rush , 1900.]] In 1894, concerned about the influx of American miners and the liquor trade, the Canadian government sent inspector Charles Constantine to report on conditions in the Yukon . Constantine correctly forecast a coming gold rush and urgently recommended sending a force to secure Canadian sovereignty and collect customs duties. He returned the following year with a force of 20 men. The NWMP distinguished itself during the Klondike Gold Rush (started in 1896) under the command of Constantine and his successor in 1898, the more famous Sam Steele . The NWMP made the Klondike gold rush one of the most peaceful and orderly such affairs in history. The NWMP not only enforced criminal law, but also collected customs duties, established a number of rules such as the "ton of goods" requirement for prospectors to enter the Yukon to avoid another famine, mandatory boat inspections for those wanting to travel the Yukon River , and created the "Blue ticket" used to expel undesirables from the Klondike. The Mounties did tolerate certain illegal activities such as Gambling and Prostitution . Also, the force did not succeed in its attempt to establish order and Canadian sovereignty in Skagway, Alaska at the head of the Lynn Canal , and instead created the customs post at the summit of the Chilkoot Pass . Ironically, the dissolution of the NWMP was being discussed around that time in Parliament , but the Mounties' conduct so impressed the gold rush prospectors that the force became famous around the world, ensuring its continuation. Evolution of the force In 1903, jurisdiction was extended to the Arctic coast; in 1905, to Alberta and Saskatchewan ; in 1912, to northern Manitoba . Following World War I, the Mounties increasingly were considered an outdated institution, more appropriate to the 19th century frontier than industrializing 20th century Canada, and they were threatened with extinction. The Mounties were saved, however, by merging with the Dominion Police on February 1 , 1920 and renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with responsibility for federal law enforcement in all provinces and territories. In addition to its expanded jurisdiction, the new RCMP set about establishing its modern role as the protectors of Canadian national security, particularly from the supposed communist threat. The RCMP assumed responsibility for national Counter-intelligence . In practice, the Mounties not only took a keen interest in the Communist Party proper, but in the militant labour movement of the interwar period generally. In 1919, the RNWMP was used to repress the Winnipeg General Strike , when officers fired into a crowd of strikers, killing two and causing injuries to thirty others. The scale of that strike was not repeated, but clashes between the RCMP and strikers continued, through the 1930s. Mounties killed three strikers in 1931 when striking coal miners from Bienfait , Saskatchewan demonstrated in nearby Estevan . In 1935, the RCMP, collaborating with the Regina Police Service , crushed the On-to-Ottawa Trek by sparking the Regina Riot , in which one city police officer and one protester were killed. The Trek, which had been organized to call attention to the abysmal conditions in the relief camps, therefore failed to reach Ottawa, but nevertheless had profound political reverberations. The RCMP employed special constables to assist with strikebreaking in the interwar period. For a brief period in the late 1930s, a volunteer militia group, the Legion Of Frontiersmen were affiliated with the RCMP. Many members of the RCMP belonged to this organization, which was prepared to serve as an auxiliary force. In later years, special constables performed duties such as policing airports and, in certain Canadian provinces, the court houses. The RCMP also began actively enforcing Canada's new drug laws in the 1920s, and provided assistance to numerous other federal agencies, such as helping immigration officials deport immigrants and enforcing the Residential School system for First Nations' children. In 1932, men and vessels of the Preventive Service, National Revenue, were absorbed, creating the RCMP Marine Section. The acquisition of the RCMP Schooner '' St. Roch '' facilitated the first effective patrol of Canada's Arctic territory. It was the first vessel to navigate the Northwest Passage from west to east (1940–42), the first to navigate the Passage in one season (1944), and the first to circumnavigate North America (1950). Counter-intelligence work was moved from the RCMP's Criminal Investigation Department to a specialized intelligence branch, the RCMP Security Service , in 1939. Post-war Following the 1945 defection of .” This machine was based on the premise that changes in pupil dilation when viewing Beefcake photos of nude men would scientifically determine whether or not a test subject was gay.John Sawatsky, ''Men in the Shadows: The Shocking Truth about the RCMP Security Service,'' Toronto: Totem Books, 1980, 133-138. ISBN 0-002168-21-9Nancy Nicol, “Selections from ‘Stand Together’: National Security Campaigns ," ''JSPOT: Journal of Social and Political Thought'', no. 5 (Summer 2003). After four years, the machine failed to produce results, and the program was discontinued.Gary Kinsmen, "'Character Weakness' and 'Fruit Machines': Towards an Analysis of the Anti-Homosexual Security Campaign in the Canadian Civil Service," ''Labour/Le Travail'', 35 (Spring 1995): 133-162. In the late 1970s, revelations surfaced that the RCMP Security Service force had in the course of their intelligence duties engaged in crimes such as burning a barn and stealing documents from the separatist Parti Québécois , and other abuses. This led to the Royal Commission Of Inquiry Into Certain Activities Of The RCMP , better known as the "McDonald Commission", named after the presiding judge, Mr Justice David Cargill McDonald. The Commission recommended that the force's intelligences duties be removed in favour of the creation of a separate intelligence agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Modern era school liaison car in Ottawa .]] In 1993, the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT), were transferred to the Canadian Forces , creating a new unit called Joint Task Force Two (JTF2) . JTF2 inherited some equipment and SERT's former training base near Ottawa . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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