On May 23, 1873 acting on the advice
of Canadian Prime Minister John A.
Macdonald Queen Victoria gave her personal
approval to the establishment of
the North West Mounted Police. Macdonald was keen on extending authority over the vast,
lightly populated Northwest Territories,
discouraging the ever expansionist
United States from moving into the vacuum, and preventing
the kind of full scale Indian warfare that characterized the American frontier.
The unit was originally
conceived of as an Army cavalry unit
to be called the Northwest Rifles
modeled after the Indian Army’s famed
Khyber Rifles. But Macdonald feared that the military
form might antagonize the native peoples and the United States
and possibly lead to conflict. Instead,
he decided to turn to the civilian, paramilitary police Royal Irish Constabulary as his
model. Rank and file members were designated as Constables. But it was organized as a lancer cavalry unit and outfitted in standard Imperial red tunics and colonial white pith helmets.
The first force under Commissioner Arthur French was trained and assembled at Fort Dufferin
in Manitoba and was dispatched on
its first deployment on July 8, 1874, the Long March to Fort Whoop-Up in what is now southern Alberta.
Fort Whoop-up was a trading
post established by Americans operating from near-by Montana Territory. Its trading staples included plenty of fire water and the purpose of the expedition
of 22 officers and 287 constables and sub-constables was to stamp out the trade. Of more real concern may have been
reports that the traders were flying the American flag over the fort.
Officers and Constables in garrison uniforms including the jaunty pillbox caps that they much preffered to pith helmets and often wore on patrol at Ft. March in 1878.
Word of the advancing force was
enough to cause the Americans to abandon the fort and French established his
first frontier post, Ft. MacLeod nearby. The force clearly established Canada’s claim to the west and made possible a southern route for the trans-Canadian
railway.
The NWMP early duties include
continued suppression of the whiskey trade, keeping peace among native tribes, and general law
enforcement. Each post commander was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace so that the force
had judicial as well as police power and over vast areas was
the only form of
organized government. Because the
force gained a reputation for treating native people fairly, even in disputes with whites, peace was
generally kept. When Sitting Bull and thousands of Sioux crossed the border in 1876 after
the Battle of the Little Big Horn seeking
the protection of the Great White Mother (Victoria), NWMP under James Morrow Walsh maintained order at the Sioux settlement at Wood Mountain and the presence of a
large armed force dissuaded the American Cavalry from any cross
border adventures.
The Mounted police engaged as soldiers in the Métis Rebellion alongside Army troops like the Middlands Regiment which made a bayonet charge at the Battle of Batoche in 1885.
In 1885 the NWMP would see their
first, and only, widespread domestic
use as a military force in
suppressing the Métis (a distinct
culture of mixed native and European, mostly French,
dissent) under the leadership of Louis Riel. Simultaneously there was an uprising of dissident Cree which the government tied to the Métis. After the rebels
enjoyed some early successes, Riel was defeated
in a bloody three day Battle of Batoche on
May 9. On June 9 the last significant
band of Cree were routed and dispersed at Loon
Lake. Riel and the Cree chief Poundmaker surrendered in June. Other leaders escaped into the United
States. Poundmaker and other Cree
leaders were sentenced to prison while eight natives were hung for crimes. Riel was hung, causing controversy and protests
by French speaking Canadians who ever after regarded the NWMP as an instrument of Anglo domination. The remaining Cree and other native allies
were pacified with increased rations. Peace was secured on the frontier and the Canadian Pacific spurred to
completion.
The NWMP began
to enter international folklore with
the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896. With prospecting intensifying in the Yukon Territory and a growing presence
of American miners and whiskey
traders in the region—which always set
off alarm sovereignty bells in Ottawa—NWMP
authority was extended to the Yukon
and an initial force of twenty officers were dispatched to the region to keep
order and enforce customs duties on
Americans pouring in over the border from Skagway,
Alaska. In fact a brief attempt was made to assert
Canadian control over Skagway, but
the force settled for a customs port at the top of the pass leading to Dawson
and the heart of the mining district.
Mounties like these at Dawson in the Yukon gold fields were already using broad brimmed Stetsons in 1899 five years before they were officially incorporated into the dress uniform of the Northwest Mounted Police.
The RCMP rigidly enforced minimum grubstake
requirements to prevent starvation,
which had occurred the first season
of the rush. Miners without sufficient supplies were turned back. And there were thousands because word of the
Rush came in the midst of one of the worst of the periodic economic Panics in America
sending many desperate men north to
find their fortunes.
The police also
worked to keep out handguns, an
American favorite, as a way to reduce
crime and tried to control gambling
and prostitution as well. Known
criminals were quickly deported. The presence of the police in the gold field prevented the violence and claim jumping that was typical of most gold rush areas. When observers
retuned from the fields they unanimously
remarked on the contrast between the mayhem and anarchy on the Alaskan side
of the border and the relative peace
kept by the force that earned a new nickname—the Mounties. Soon they were heroes of dime novels, melodramas, and early silent pictures in the U.S. and Canada.
In 1904 the
NWMP adopted the flat brimmed Stetson hat with a high four-pinch crown as the official headgear of the unit,
replacing the detested white pith helmets, which were entirely unsuited for use in the north. Many units had unofficially been using the hats for years on patrol, wearing the helmets only on Parade or ceremonial
occasions.
The same year King Edward VII bestowed the title Royal to the name in recognition of service of Police members
who volunteered in the Canadian Rifles and other regiments during the Boer War.
Royal North West Mounted Police found their jurisdiction
growing. The Arctic
and Yukon had already been added, and soon the newly organized provinces of Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in
the years leading to the First World
War.
The war brought
a new role—“border patrols, surveillance
of enemy aliens, and enforcement of national security regulations.”
This new national security role would lead the force in controversial new directions, including
massive surveillance and monitoring of many labor unions,
socialist organizations, ethnic associations, and of French
Canadians who were constantly suspected
of separatist intentions.
In 1918 RNWMP
was dispatched to help occupy the Russian port of Vladivostok as
part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force
sent to join the Allied effort aiding White forces in the Russian
Civil War.
Mounties charge workers during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. The force was increasingly used against labor unions, Socialists, and Communists often abetting private strike breaking thugs. To this day the Canadian labor movement regards the RCMP with suspicion and contempt.
The following
year they were called in to quell the Winnipeg
General Strike and opened fire on
the strikers killing 4 and injuring 30.
They frequently intervened in labor disputes for the next thirty years and began to be considered strike breakers and scab herders by working people.
In 1920 the Dominion Police were merged into the force under the new
name Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) which was given expanded
authority as a national police force
with authority to enforce Federal Law
in all Provinces and Territories and officially adding counterintelligence
operations to its national security portfolio. Among
regular targets of the RCMP were the Communist
Party of Canada, the One Big Union (Canadian
counterpart of the Industrial Workers of the World), and minority ethnic and cultural groups. Ukrainians
who were arriving in the Prairie
Provinces in large numbers to
escape the bloody civil war at home,
were particularly targeted because they included
both Red and White sympathizers. Chinese
were also targeted, and two percent of all Chinese immigrants were deported by the RCMP for alleged violation of the Opium laws.
Special squads were organized for strike breaking and a semi-secret Legion of Frontiersmen united
sworn officers with right wing
civilian vigilantes.
The official badge of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since 1920.
During the
‘30’s more duties were added as the RCMP absorbed the Preventative Services, National Revenue creating the new RCMP Marine Section, a naval arm with duties analogous the American Coast Guard. The RCMP schooner St. Roch became the first ship to ever cross the Northwest Passage from west to east and
later the first vessel to make the crossing in one season.
With Canada’s entry
into World War II with the rest of the British
Commonwealth, security functions were reorganized
as the RCMP Security Service.
In 1949 Newfoundland became a full member of
the Canadian Federation and the RCMP absorbed its former police unit, the Newfoundland Rangers.
The Red Scare of the 1950’s was as intense
north of the border as south and the RCMP was empowered to “screen out subversive elements from the
public sector.” The witch
hunt of public servants was extensive and was soon broadened to include investigations of alleged homosexuals on the grounds
that their “aberrant sexual behavior”
made them susceptible to black mail and extortion. The RCMP even
devised a Fruit Machine meant to discover secret homosexuals by monitoring pupil dilation when viewing beefcake pictures. Hundreds of civil servants lost their jobs before the program was finally discontinued.
The rise of the separatist Parti Québécois in the 70’s resulted in widespread abuse by the RCMP and led to
a special commission which finally
recommended the RCMP be stripped of
intelligence duties and a new Canadian
Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) be created.
Beginning in
1974 women were included in the
force. Today the RCPM is a force of almost
19,000 sworn officers and another 9,700 unsworn support personnel. It is the national police force and provides
policing to all Provinces and Territories except Ontario and Quebec, which
maintain their own provincial forces. They also contract as local law enforcement in many small cities and towns. They also provide
border and customs services and maintain a security function, including expanded anti-terrorist authority.
The familiar
red tunics with Sam Browne belts,
Stetson hats, blue jodhpurs with yellow stripe, and high boots remain the dress
uniform and a nation symbol of
Canada. Daily uniforms are usually blue
or grey standard police style. The
RCMP fulfills many ceremonial guard
functions at state occasions and
maintains the famous Musical Ride, a
mounted unit with matching black horses
that performs elaborate drills,
including a full charge with leveled lances, to musical accompaniment.
The opening ceremony at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 included giant Mountie pulled along on wheels and a Busby Berkley style dance number on a birthday cake.
During the Vancouver Winter
Olympic Games of 2010, the RCMP was featured as a national symbol in
both the opening and closing ceremonies including the whimsical
and humorous closing program, but also in the formal raising and lowering
of the Olympic Flag. It seemed
like the Mounties and the Maple Leaf Flag were the two things that
Canadians wanted the world to remember about them.
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