Investigation into alleged RCMP misconduct against Indigenous girls in Prince George enters final stage

An investigation into alleged RCMP wrongdoing in Prince George, B.C., is almost complete.

Alberta’s police watchdog has been looking into historical allegations of officer misconduct against Indigenous women and girls in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Now, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) says it will be sharing a final report with B.C.’s director of policing and law enforcement “in the coming weeks.”

“While we don’t have an exact timeline, authorities will ensure the findings of ASIRT’s review are properly communicated,” a spokesperson for the agency said via email.

The investigation was announced in 2023 after an independent Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) report found the RCMP failed to properly investigate allegations that Mounties had abused and harassed Indigenous girls in Prince George decades ago.

Allegations date back decades

The new investigation is also looking into allegations that high-ranking police officers were involved in a subsequent coverup.

The allegations were connected to a lengthy list of accusations that a provincial court judge in the central B.C. city had sexually assaulted vulnerable girls between 1992 and 2001.

The judge, David Ramsay, was convicted and later died in prison.

Several people who spoke to investigators in the Ramsay case also alleged that multiple RCMP officers had harassed Indigenous girls and an investigative task force was struck, though no charges were ever announced.

However, the case resurfaced in 2023 after the results of a CRCC complaint filed by a retired RCMP officer were reported on, first by the Toronto Star, then by several other outlets including CBC News.

Tape was ‘misplaced’ by RCMP

According to the CRCC report, in 2006 a junior officer in Kamloops found what she later described as videotapes in her basement showing fellow officers, including her ex-husband, harassing an Indigenous teenager on the streets of Prince George.

She also said all but one of the incriminating tapes went missing after her ex-husband reportedly broke into her home in 2006.

In 2011, she reported the incident to RCMP Staff Sgt. Garry Kerr who, at the time, was in charge of that city’s major crimes unit.

Kerr saw that the report made its way to the B.C. RCMP’s assistant commissioner.

But he was dissatisfied with the response it got, and wound up filing his complaint with the CRCC in 2015, after retiring from the force.

The CRCC report said top brass agreed interviews needed to take place, but no statements were taken until months later.

The report also found that the female officer gave an investigator the sole videotape she still had from her basement. The officer said it didn’t contain any footage of alleged misconduct but said it was the only tape left after the others were stolen.

A chief superintendent with the RCMP later told the CRCC he watched the tape and concluded it wasn’t connected to any allegations of police wrongdoing, but the commission couldn’t find any record to confirm the senior officer ever watched the footage.

Mounties later told the commission the tape has since been “misplaced.”

The CRCC ultimately found the allegations could amount to criminal charges related to obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy or misconduct under the RCMP’s own code of conduct.

It said any of the alleged videotapes could be considered “supporting evidence of [the ex-husband’s] suspected criminal conduct with underaged sex workers in Prince George.”