Commissioner's appointment is likely a very wise move

If history is a guide, the recent appointment of William Elliott as the first civilian commissioner of the RCMP in the force's 173-year history was a wise move.

The career bureaucrat, who will enter the force's top job armed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's backing to shake up a force that has been rocked by scandal, quickly acknowledged that he faces a challenge to get rank-and-file Mounties' support.

The appointment of a senior bureaucrat who began his government career as a Tory aide immediately provoked controversy within the Mounties and among some political opponents who questioned his lack of police experience and ties to Ottawa's halls of power.

However, there was an interesting precedent for the appointment 44 years ago, when then attorney general Fred Cass responded to scandals of a different sort within the OPP by appointing a member of his own staff to head the force.

Eric Silk, a Shelburne native who had spent most of his legal career within the AG's ministry, was given the task of reorganizing the force. In the 10 years that followed, the OPP was modernized, with new detachment offices springing up just about everywhere and morale improving noticeably.

Significantly, Silk, who died in November 2004 at 96, is to this day the only civilian to have headed the police force and yet is remembered as one of its best, if not the best, commissioners in its long history.

An interesting brief testimonial can be found on a guest book entry on the OPP Association's Web site. The June 11, 2004, e-mail from Stu Radke of Elmvale reads: "Retired Commissioner Eric Silk has to go down in the History of Policing as one of Greatest. He led the OPP from yesterday into tomorrow and did it by not having ever been a Police Officer. It was contrary to popular belief at the time. This was done with foresight and also learning about what did happen at each detachment by going there and talking to each officer. I am proud to have served under him, as were others."

At his first encounter with the Ottawa media, the new RCMP commissioner acknowledged that there "are certainly challenges. I don't wear rose-coloured glasses. And certain members of the RCMP have expressed their wish to have a commissioner from inside."

However, he believes RCMP members will "pull together" to make the force better, but that he will have to rely more on professional police officers because he is not a cop.

"That is a challenge that my predecessors did not face. But I also believe strongly that I bring other experience and other skills to bear, and I think we can be a good combination."

Harper turned to Elliott after the government appointed investigator into the RCMP's pension-fund scandal, David Brown, described the force's paramilitary management structure as "horribly broken" and outdated.

It's the first time since the RCMP, initially called the North West Mounted Police, was formed in 1873 that a commissioner was chosen from outside the uniformed ranks of the military or police.

Elliott assumed the commissioner's position July 16, filling a job left open last December when former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli resigned under fire over conflicting testimony in the Maher Arar affair.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Elliott's political and management experience is needed to guide an organization with 24,000 police officers and employees to a new era. He has indicated a task force charged with revamping the force, including creating a civilian-oversight body, will be struck soon.

"This is a time of transition. A time when somebody with the management skills and the experience that Mr. Elliott has is going to be required in this particular position as commissioner," Day told reporters.

Although the RCMP has long been one of Canada's most respected institutions, it has been tarnished by a series of controversies.

Although Elliott's government and political background might be seen as posing a threat to the arm's-length status of the national police force, no such problem ever surfaced during Commissioner Silk's 10- year tenure at the OPP, and Elliott insisted that he will be a guardian of the force's independence.