OTTAWA — Mountie Gerry Hoyland has waited over five years for vindication and, given the RCMP’s track record, he expects to bide his time for a few more.
The RCMP corporal lodged a harassment complaint in early 2006 over a string of incidents at the Stony Plain detachment.
In May — three years after his initial complaint was dismissed by the force — the independent review body that handles grievances from RCMP officers found Hoyland was the target of insults and threats.
The RCMP External Review Committee recommended the national police force’s commissioner allow the grievance.
But with more than three-quarters of the 71 grievance files the committee handed to the force in the 2008-2010 period still on the top Mountie’s desk, Hoyland doesn’t expect a resolution soon.
“They’re not handling the employment issues, and they’re dragging their feet on everything,” said Hoyland, 55.
It’s a systemic problem RCMP Commissioner William Elliott acknowledges.
“I think the length of time that it takes us to go from beginning to end with respect to grievances and discipline is far too long, and it no doubt has a negative impact on the parties involved and their morale,” Elliott said in an interview earlier this year.
“And I think that’s why there’s broad support in the organization for our commitment to resolve those issues and streamline those processes.”
Hoyland says he once returned to his desk to find his seat soaking wet. Another time his face was superimposed on the body of the newspaper’s sunshine boy. The picture was attached to the back of a secretary’s vehicle and she drove all over town, unaware it was there.
“I was physically ill before I even walked into the office every morning. Because I didn’t know what was waiting for me,” Hoyland said. “I felt safer out on the street with the bad guy than I ever did in the office with some of the members.”
Hoyland’s initial complaint was dismissed by the force in part because pranks were common at the detachment.
In February 2007 he sued the RCMP for harassment and constructive dismissal.
A few months ago, the force moved to medically discharge Hoyland, saying he declined to take on any other role with the RCMP — an allegation he denies.
Meantime he waited for the external review committee, struggling with a case backlog of its own, to make findings.
The committee concluded Hoyland’s car, office, food and equipment had been tampered with.
“He was repeatedly insulted. Pornography was left in his office. He was also threatened with violence. He did not know who was behind most of the incidents. They continued even though he advised his superiors of them,” the committee’s May 12 decision summary reads.
“The Grievor experienced demeaning, humiliating and threatening acts which caused him undisputed harm.”
Though a member of the RCMP for 33 years, Hoyland has spent the last six on the sidelines — away from the police work he very much enjoyed.
“I’m not going back until they deal with the employment issues.”
But once the review committee makes a recommendation, it can take the RCMP years to issue a final determination. So Hoyland’s wait continues.
Elliott says he simply needs more time to deal with grievances.
“One of the realities of this job is quite often I’m not physically in Ottawa,” he said. “That kind of desk work, which you need a good chunk of uninterrupted time to deal with, is hard to come by.”
A government bill introduced last year aimed to improve things further by drastically revamping the RCMP labour regime and allowing — among other things — the commissioner to delegate the final signoff on grievances. But the legislation died on the order paper.
Compounding the issue is the fact that, under the RCMP Act, a member must be disciplined within one year of the date on which his superior became aware of the infraction.
As a result, Hoyland expects no one will be held to account in his case.
“The best I’m going to get is the commissioner saying, ‘I’m sorry that you were harassed, and that we didn’t provide you with a healthy workplace, but there’s nothing we can do because we can’t discipline any of the people that were involved in this,”’ Hoyland said.
“The whole system is loaded against the member putting the grievance in.
“When you are a member of the RCMP, you are owned. You are a chattel.”
Elliott will soon leave the commissioner’s job after four years, a period in which the force took some initial, long-needed steps toward modernization. But it will be up to his still-unchosen successor to continue the wrenching process.
Whatever changes may come, Hoyland, now living in Edmonton, believes it’s too late for him.
“My career is over, and I know that. But then again, it’s a lot healthier here than it is there,” Hoyland said.
“The organization is in trouble. And it’s right from the top all the way down to the bottom.”