RCMP, HRP to review officer’s status on peacekeeping mission
Posted Feb 24, 2011 06:08:15 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RCMP in Ottawa will sit down with Halifax Regional Police brass to try and work out a solution after the federal force rejected a regional officer for peacekeeping duty in Haiti.
The decision left regional police officials mystified.
Deputy police chief Tony Burbridge says the officer in question has been a master corporal in the military, done tours in Bosnia and Cyprus and is currently serving the municipal force.
He says a rational explanation for the rejection would help lay the issue to rest, but so far he says the force hasn’t received one.
“If somebody could explain that to me so I could explain it to the officer, who’s really saying, ‘I served my country for 17 years and I can’t go on a humanitarian mission because of a policy that I don’t really understand?'” he said. “If somebody could explain to me why, if you came to a regional police service and you were a master corporal in the Canadian military on a major base, and you’ve transferred here, what operational experience do you need to go on a humanitarian mission?”
Burbridge says the force is looking forward to discussing the issue with the RCMP.
A statement from an RCMP spokesperson says the two sides will try to resolve the issue, but the force will not address it in a public forum.
