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RCMP: The Force of Yesterday and Today
The RCMP was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP, founded 1873) with the Dominion Police (founded 1868). The former was originally named the North-West Mounted...
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The RCMP
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) (French Gendarmerie Royale du Canada [GRC], literally Royal Gendarmerie of Canada; colloquially known as Mounties, and internally as The Force) is the federal, national, and paramilitary police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized forces in the world. With an on-strength establishment of 24,578 personnel, as of January 1, 2007, it is also the largest police force in Canada.
The RCMP was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Royal Northwest 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 prefix by King Edward VII 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. The RCMP/GRC wording is specfically protected under the Trade-marks Act.
The original North-West Mounted Police had already established themselves as national heroes, both in fact and in fiction. Their exploits in the Klondoke Gold Rush had made them world famous. The Klondike, in the "Yukon," is still a famous tourist spot. The name "Yukon Territory" may also be used, although this usage is disputed by residents of the territory. The federal government's most recent update of the Yukon Act in 2003 confirmed Yukon, rather than Yukon Territory, as the current usage standard...
At 5,959 metres (19,551 ft), the Yukon's Mount Logan, in Kluane National Park and Reserve, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second highest of North America (after Mount McKinley).
The territory is the approximate shape of a right triangle, bordering the U.S. state of Alaska to the west, the Northwest Territories to the east and British Columbia to the south. Its northern coast is on the Beaufort Sea. Its ragged eastern boundary mostly follows the divide between the Yukon Basin and the Mackenzie River drainage basin to the east in the Mackenzie mountains. Its capital is Whitehorse.
In 1896, three prospectors struck it rich in the Yukon. George Carmack, Skookum Jim, and Dawson Charlie found a rich deposit of gold in Bonanza Creek. This discovery inspired thousands of would-be prospectors to head north and turned Dawson City into the largest city west of Winnipeg by the turn of the century. It was during this time, in 1898, that the Yukon earned its current political status.
When the Gold Rush ended in 1903 more than 95 million dollars had been extracted from the Yukon's rivers. Though most of the gold is gone, some Yukoners continue to make a living as placer miners today.
The Dominion of Canada occupyies most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest.
The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces.
This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931, and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.
A federation comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon trade—particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. It is a member of the G8, NATO, and Commonwealth of Nations.
The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement". In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada.
Today, as the federal police force of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 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, including in provincial jurisdictions; although the provinces and territories are constitutionally responsible for law and order, eight of them have chosen to contract most or all of their policing responsibilities to the RCMP.
The Force, consequently, operates under the direction of the provincial governments in regard to provincial and municipal law enforcement. The exceptions are Ontario, Quebec, and parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, which have their own provincial police forces the Ontario Provincial Police, the Sûreté du Québec, and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, respectively. In the 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; providing protection services for the monarch, Governor General, Prime Minister and other ministers of the Crown, visiting dignitaries, and diplomatic missions; enforcing federal laws, including wire fraud, counterfeiting, and other related matters; providing counterterrorism and domestic security; and participating in various international policing efforts.
The RCMP Security Service was a specialized political intelligence and counterintelligence branch with national security responsibilities, but was replaced with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 1984, following revelations of illegal covert operations relating to the Quebec separatist movement.[3] Duties, conduct and operational and reporting guidelines are very specifically laid out in a detailed document known as the Commissioner's Standing Orders, or CSOs.
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