Military police should be returned to their classical roles and functions

In an Opinion Piece published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald [OPINION] the author warns that the ‘‘dust may be settling too quickly” on the devastating report published late last month by the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC), which concluded that the National Investigative Service (NIS), an arm of the Canadian Forces Military Police, have been shown to be neither competent nor experienced enough to conduct critical criminal investigations.

The Chair of the MPCC, Glenn Standard, who was previously a retired Chief of Police of Windsor -- a large Canadian city -- recommended that the NIS be placed on some form of on-the-job (OJT) training until they bring their competence and experience levels up to established professional police standards. Such OJT would require any such investigation to be lead by an experienced and skilled police investigator drawn from a federal, provincial or municipal civilian police force.

Speaking on behalf of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, inexplicably, the Provost Marshal (Col Robert Delaney) rejected this sensible and reasonable recommendation out of hand.

In his Opinion Piece the author proposes that “rather than fix a badly broken military police organization, Defence Minister Jason Kenney should note that the wartime employment of the Canadian military police, called the Provost Corps, was restricted to the custody of prisoners of war and vehicle (traffic) management on roadways within and leading to battle areas.” The author opines that real police work should now be accomplished by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) [See webpage of the RCMP] and the military police be redesignated as a Reserve Force organization, to be activated only for overseas deployments and restricted to the custody of POWs, traffic control and handling of refugees and stragglers on the battlefield.

A most interesting proposition.