MODULE II
ROYAL NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE (RNWMP): 1904 -1920
Table of contents
- Royal Recognition
- The Settlement of the Prairies
- Patrolling the Northern Frontier
- Provincial Policing
- Wartime Duties
- Enemy Aliens
- Policing in the International Boundary
- The End of Provincial Policing
- Decrease in RNWMP Strength
- Postwar Reorganization
- Expansion of the Secret Service
- Winnipeg General Strike
- Formation of the RCMP
- Questions for Module II
In 1904, King Edward
VII decreed that the name of the Force be changed to include the prefix
"Royal", in recognition of its exemplary service to Canada.
The Settlement of the Prairies
In 1896, the Canadian government initiated an aggressive campaign to promote settlement in the west, including a grant of 160 acres of land to each new settler. By the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, hundreds of thousands of settlers, most of whom had little experience in agricultural pursuits, had taken up prairie homesteads. In order to ensure that the process of settlement was peaceful and orderly, the RNWMP assumed numerous responsibilities in addition to its normal duties. To assist the settlers, members of the Force functioned as immigration officers, land agents, agricultural experts, and welfare officers. Many of the immigrants from European countries spoke no English and interpreters were employed by the police to explain Canadian laws and customs. In addition, some settlers posed especially difficult problems for the RNWMP because of their religious beliefs. The most notable was a group of immigrants known as Doukhobors, a Russian sect that rejected the authority of both church and state. While they were excellent farmers, a minority element among them refused to conform to Canadian laws and on many occasions threatened violence. However, they were successfully held in check by the RNWMP.
Patrolling the Northern Frontier
To extend its control over the northern frontier, the RNWMP instituted a system of regular winter patrols by dog teams. In late 1904, the first annual winter patrol between Dawson and Fort McPherson was undertaken. Accompanied by a guide, three members of the Force left Dawson on December 27, carrying mail over the Mackenzie Mountains and arriving at Fort McPherson on February 2, 1905, having travelled a distance of 475 miles. Over the years, the annual journey between the two posts became a routine duty. However, in 1910-11 it ended in tragedy when the four-man patrol lost its way after setting out from Fort McPherson and perished in the snow-covered wilderness. The members of the patrol had travelled some 340 miles before turning back, and were within 30 miles of Fort McPherson before succumbing to cold and starvation in temperatures reaching 65 degrees below zero. An inquiry into the tragedy of the "lost patrol" concluded that the guide who had been hired by the Force was unreliable and that the quantity of provisions taken was insufficient for such a journey.
In 1906, headquarters for the Hudson Bay region was transferred from Fullerton to Churchill, a more favourable location. The detachment now had buildings with some insulation against the Arctic cold, the men were supplied with caribou-skin clothing, and for the first time two-way overland mail service had been established with RNWMP headquarters in Regina.
One important function of the patrols during this period was to gather useful information concerning conditions in the north which could be utilized by various government departments. Accordingly, the Force collected a wealth of data on weather conditions, fish and game, soil, possible travel routes, forestry, and migrating birds. A valuable source of assistance in this regard were the Inuit who acted as guides and taught the Mounted Police many skills necessary for survival in the harsh environment of the Arctic.
The most hazardous, and certainly the most spectacular, patrol during this period was undertaken by Inspector E. A. Pelletier in 1908. His task was to determine the feasibility of a route across the barren northern lands from the Mackenzie River system to Hudson Bay. The purpose was to establish a link between the two Division headquarters at Athabasca Landing and Fullerton. The vast territory which lay between was still largely unexplored. The patrol, which covered a distance of 3,347 miles over a period of nine-and-a-half months, proved that a route across the barrens was possible. Nonetheless, Pelletier concluded that, because of the sparse population, there was no need to establish detachments in the territory or even make an annual patrol.
However, the situation would soon change. In 1914-1915, rumours of murders in the Coronation Gulf area of the Central Arctic necessitated two lengthy and dangerous investigative patrols. The first, under Inspector W. J. Beyts, sailed from Halifax for Chesterfield Inlet in Hudson Bay in 1914. A detachment was established at Baker Lake, and from there the patrol set out with a team of sled dogs for Bathurst Inlet to investigate the alleged murder of two explorers by Inuit. For two years, the patrol struggled against the cold and the gales of the barrens, snow blindness, and attacks by wolves. During this period, food supplies dwindled and a number of the dogs became ill. In 1916, an exhausted Beyts was replaced by Inspector F.H. French, who finally reached Bathurst Inlet in May, 1917. A subsequent police investigation found evidence that three Inuit had been involved in the murders, but it was determined that they had acted under provocation. As the RNWMP had been instructed to make no arrest in such an event, there was therefore no point in pursuing the killers who, in the meantime, had fled far away. The return journey to Chesterfield Inlet was completed with difficulty in January, 1918. By the end, there was no food but Oxo. It had turned out to be the longest patrol yet undertaken by the Force.
The second patrol set out under Inspector C.D. LaNauze from the MacKenzie River district in 1915 to investigate the disappearance of two priests who had been stationed at Great Bear Lake. Unable to gain any information, LaNauze was joined the following year by Corporal W.V. Bruce, who had come all the way from Herschel Island to assist with the investigation. Eventually the police officers learned that two Inuit had stabbed one priest and shot the other during the course of a robbery. Bruce pursued one of the killers and arrested him on Victoria Island, becoming the first RNWMP officer to reach that island. The other murderer was arrested by LaNauze on an island in Coronation Gulf. Both confessed and were taken to Edmonton to stand trial. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, they were returned to the north as prisoners of the Mounted Police. However, they were later set free after serving only a short period of their sentence in the RNWMP guardroom at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake.
These wartime patrols served to bring the entire northern mainland under Canadian jurisdiction. By 1919, there were 25 RNWMP detachments in the northern frontier with a strength of over 70 men.
In 1892, the North-West Territories were granted limited responsibility over local affairs but the administration of justice remained under the control of the federal government. However, once the Territories became autonomous, this control would be transferred to the new provincial governments. Thus, with the creation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905, the future of the RNWMP became very uncertain. However, provincial authorities were unprepared to establish their own police forces, and in 1906 decided to retain the services of the Force on a contractual basis. Under the terms of the five-year contract, the RNWMP was required to maintain a minimum of 250 men in each province. It would remain a federal police force but, as to the administration of criminal laws and provincial statutes, it would come under the authority of the local attorney-general. In return for these services, each province was to pay the federal government $75,000 annually.
In 1911, the contracts were renewed. However, the authorized allotments to each province were not increased, and as a result the RNWMP was severely hampered in carrying out its assigned duties. The surge of settlement in the Canadian west in the early twentieth century had multiplied the number of criminal cases and social problems. In 1905, the Force had investigated 4,647 criminal cases; by 1912 the number had increased to 13,394. In addition, the RNWMP was increasingly called upon to police strikes, provide jail guards, and handle emergencies.
Wartime Duties
Enemy Aliens
The settlers who arrived in western Canada during the years between 1896
and 1914 included almost 200,000 immigrants from Germany and Austria.
With the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, the RNWMP, in addition to its
normal responsibilities, was given the task of maintaining close surveillance
of the enemy alien population and enforcing the government's em
ergency regulations. To carry out its new security duties, which included
the registration of German and Austrian nationals and the confiscation
of their weapons, the strength of the Force was immediately increased
by 500 to a total of 1,200 men.
Policing the International Boundary
In 1916, Canada received information from American authorities that pro-German elements in the U. S. were planning a raid on Canadian territory in order to create unrest among German and Austrian settlers and to sabotage the C.P.R. The government, deciding that the RNWMP must concentrate its activities on protecting the 900-mile border from Ontario to British Columbia, reached an agreement with provincial authorities whereby the Force was relieved of its police duties in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. In addition, the system of border patrols, which had been instituted shortly after the outbreak of war, was reorganized and made more efficient by the purchase of a number of motorcars and motorcycles.
Vladivostok, Siberia, 1919
The End of Provincial Policing
In 1911, Saskatchewan and Alberta renewed their contracts with the RNWMP under which it would continue to provide police services to the provinces for another five years. In 1912, the boundaries of Manitoba were extended northward, and the Force assumed provincial police responsibilities in the new area. However, by 1914 relations between the RNWMP and the provinces had become strained. On the one hand, Saskatchewan and Alberta wished to gain greater control over the administration of justice. For its part, the Force conceived its role to be that of a "Mounted Police," and not a "Civil Police". It regarded its task to be the policing of the unsettled sections of the provinces. Once areas became settled, the RNWMP withdrew its services and responsibility for maintaining law and order was left to provincial authorities. This included the enforcement of provincial liquor ordinances, a duty which the RNWMP regarded as distasteful.
As a result, Alberta and Saskatchewan were forced to establish provincial policing agencies. Initially, their duty was to administer liquor regulations. However, they gradually assumed other responsibilities, and eventually a conflict developed between the provincial police forces and the RNWMP regarding their respective authority. In 1916, Alberta and Saskatchewan agreed to renew their contracts with the Force, but only for one year. However, the need to protect the boundary between Canada and the U.S. hastened the end of provincial policing. On January 1, 1917, the RNWMP was relieved of its duties in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The transfer of responsibility in Alberta was delayed until March 1.
During the course
of the First World War, the government had refused to permit members of
the Force to volunteer for active duty on the grounds that it was necessary
to maintain essential police services. However, in the spring of 1918,
the government relented and allowed members to enlist for service overseas.
In May, over 700 volunteers sailed for Europe to join the Canadian Cavalry
Brigade. In August, almost 200 members of the Force were recruited for
service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force to Siberia. By November,
the RNWMP was reduced to a strength of 303 men, and there was even talk
that the Force might be disbanded. By the end of 1918, 87 detachments
had been closed, with 10 posts and 26 detachments remaining in operation.
More than half of those were located in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
When the First World War came to an end, a massive reorganization of the Force resulted in fundamental changes in its responsibilities and in the precise nature of its role as a law enforcement agency. For the purpose of federal policing, the government decided to divide Canada into two sections. The RNWMP was to enforce all federal laws in the four western provinces, including a small area of Ontario adjacent to Manitoba, and to assist, if requested, in enforcing provincial laws. (The eastern half of Canada was placed under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Police.) The RNWMP retained, of course, full police authority in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and the Arctic Islands. Its new duties would also include patrolling the international boundary. In addition, the Force was distributed more effectively as new Divisions were organized and over 40 new detachments were established. The government also authorized recruitment to bring the strength of the Force up to 1,200 men and raised a constable's pay from $1.25 to $1.75 per day. Finally, the government assured the future of the RNWMP as "the basis of a Permanent Federal Police Force or as one of the Mounted Units in the Permanent Force of Canada."
Expansion of the Secret Service
The new responsibilities of the RNWMP also included the organization of a secret service in the western provinces to gather intelligence on possible subversive elements. The decision to expand the secret service was based on what was perceived at the time to be a new threat to Canada's internal security: radical labour agitation - especially in western Canada. The government feared that this was instigated by revolutionary international forces, and both the RNWMP and the Dominion Police carried out extensive undercover investigations into the labour movement.
In May, 1919, the Trades and Labour Council in Winnipeg called a General Strike as an expression of sympathy with a local union that had been denied the right to bargain collectively. A period of intense labour unrest followed, and the mayor finally appealed to the government for help. Events reached a climax on June 21 when tens of thousands of strikers assembled in front of the City Hall to hold a parade. The mayor had earlier issued an order prohibiting such demonstrations, and as the protesters gathered, the Riot Act was read. Fifty Mounted Police were detailed to prevent the strikers' parade and to restore order, and were instructed to keep the use of force to a minimum. As they advanced toward the crowd, the demonstrators hurled rocks and missiles and a number of shots were fired at the police. Eventually the order was given for the police to fire in self-defence. A warning volley fired over the heads of the demonstrators had no effect. However, when a second volley was fired, the rioters began to disperse. Order was ultimately restored, but not before one civilian was killed and approximately 30 individuals, including 16 members of the Force, were injured.
The Winnipeg General Strike was a controversial episode in the history of the Force. Its role in aiding the civil authorities in maintaining order during industrial disputes led to criticism and accusations of prejudice against labour.
The traumatic events
of the Winnipeg General Strike had clearly illustrated the necessity of
establishing a permanent federal police force. During the course of the
strike, the government was alarmed by the degree of sympathy for the demonstrators
exhibited by the police forces of Winnipeg and Vancouver. In Winnipeg,
the city police were dismissed by the authorities because they could not
be relied upon. Thus, if the local law enforcement agencies could not
be depended upon, it was essential to establish an alternative police
force to maintain order. Previously, municipal or provincial authorities
had normally appealed to the militia for assistance in the event of the
disruption of public order. In 1919, however, the government believed
that the militia was not sufficiently organized to perform this duty and
turned instead to the RNWMP. The strength of the Force was increased to
2,500 men and the government authorized the deployment of mounted troops
at strategic locations throughout western Canada where they were to be
held in readinesss to assist civil authorities if required.
In the same year, the government undertook the task of reorganizing the
federal police services: i) the absorption of the Dominion Police and
the extension of RNWMP jurisdiction throughout Canada as the sole federal
police force; ii) the establishment of four new Divisions in eastern Canada,
each with a reserve squadron of 160 men to assist civil authorities; iii)
the transfer of the Force's headquarters to Ottawa; and iv) the organization
of an expanded secret service. It also decreed that the new federal police
force would be known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Thus, on February
1, 1920, the RNWMP formally ceased to exist.
END OF MODULE II
1.
Why did the RNWMP become involved in provincial contract policing?
2. What led to the end of RNWMP provincial policing duties during World War I?
3. What effects did the First World War have on the RNWMP?
4. What was the significance of the Winnipeg General Strike from the standpoint of the RNWMP?
5. What events were important in leading to the change of name from RNWMP to RCMP?
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