MODULE III
NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE (RCMP): 1920 - 1945
Table of contents
- New Responsabilities
- Liquor Smuggling and Drug Trafficking
- The Development of Security Intelligence as an RCMP Responsibility
- Policing Labour Disputes
- Return to Provincial Policing
- RCMP Duties in the North
- Arctic Exploration
- St. Roch
- Protecting Canadian Sovereignty in the Arctic
- Modernization in the 1930's
- Marine Services
- Fingerprint Section
- Firearms Section
- Police Service Dogs
- Modus Operandi Section
- Crime Detection Laboratory
- Air Services
- RCMP Gazette
- Radio Broadcast of Police Bulletins
- The First Guidon and the Long Service Medal
- A Modern Force
- The RCMP During World War II
- RCMP Reserve
- The Canadian North
- Depleted Strength of the RCMP
- The Wartime Voyages of the St. Roch
- The RCMP at the End of the War
- Questions for Module III
THE INTERWAR YEARS
New
Responsibilities
The two decades prior to the outbreak of the
Second World War in 1939 represented the most important period in the
evolution of the RCMP as the nation's federal police force. It was an
era of transition and modernization, during which the Force was reorganized
and strengthened to fulfil its new duties. Three new districts were formed:
the Maritimes, Quebec, and Ontario. By 1920, there were 1,671 members,
including 152 transfers from the Dominion Police. In addition to its regular
duties, the RCMP assumed a variety of new responsibilities throughout
the country, including the enforcement of federal laws and providing assistance
to various provincial and federal departments; fighting forest fires in
Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia; reporting on the new Communist
Party of Canada and investigating applicants for naturalization; providing
guards for Dominion property, including the Parliament Buildings and post
offices; solving mail robberies in Saskatchewan; enforcing the quarantine
of a ship arriving in New Brunswick with a case of smallpox aboard; supervising
racetrack betting; investigating illegal lobster fishing in Prince Edward
Island; arresting a smuggler of cocaine in Vancouver; inspecting explosives;
and such miscellaneous duties as preparing a census of waterfowl.
Liquor
Smuggling and Drug Trafficking
While it was the task of the RCMP to enforce all federal statutes, a major part of its activities during this period was the attempt to eliminate the smuggling of liquor and the trafficking in illegal drugs. Liquor smuggling, or rumrunning, was widespread and was directly related to the government's prohibition policy, according to which alcoholic beverages could be legally obtained only with a doctor's prescription. In addition, the task of preventing smuggling was hindered by corruption within the federal Customs Department. RCMP ships patrolled the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the shores along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in search of the rumrunners. Eventually, with the development of more effective ship-to-air patrols, a number of smuggling rings were broken. In one of the most sensational cases, the RCMP intercepted the schooner Veda M. McKeown off the coast of Nova Scotia in July, 1923, carrying 1,700 gallons of rum, 190 cases of whisky, and 35 cases of gin.
The Development of Security Intelligence as an RCMP Responsibility
One of the principal purposes in the amalgamation of the Dominion Police and the Mounted Police in 1920 was to unify and strengthen the federal security intelligence capability of the newly formed RCMP. At this time, security service activities became the responsibility of the Criminal Investigation Branch (C.I.B) of the Force. Until the mid-1930's there was little to differentiate security investigations from other investigative work of the C.I.B. It was not until 1936 that a separate "Intelligence Section" in the C.I.B. was established at RCMP headquarters. Between the wars the security intelligence function remained small and inconspicuous. On the eve of World War II in 1939, it employed only three members and two stenographers with field units in the larger cities investigating threats such as the fascist movement and Communist-led labour organizations. The information obtained was of great importance in identifying suspected saboteurs immediately after the outbreak of war in September, 1939. In addition to utilizing informants and undercover agents, the Intelligence Section employed ‘wire supervision' (the interception of telephone calls) for the first time in the late 1930's as a means of gathering information related to suspected subversive organizations.
In 1921, the RCMP was called upon to provide assistance to provincial authorities in preserving order during a number of industrial disputes. However, in 1922, the new government of W. L. Mackenzie King decided that this task should be carried out by the militia. As a result, the strength of the Force was reduced by 25 per cent. However, in the 1930's, the RCMP once again assumed responsibility for policing labour disputes. In 1932, when a delegation of unemployed attempted to meet with the Prime Minister, Mounted Police were deployed on Parliament Hill. In 1935, a group of relief workers left Vancouver by train for Ottawa , intent on presenting their grievances to the government. When the train reached Regina, the Force was ordered to prevent the protesters, who now numbered more than 2,000, from continuing eastward. A bloody riot erupted, resulting in the death of one police officer and many police and civilians injured. While the RCMP was following orders and enforcing the law, such duties once again led to accusations of prejudice against labour.
On June 1, 1928, the RCMP resumed provincial police duties on a contract basis in the province of Saskatchewan. Under the terms of a seven-year agreement, the Force was required to maintain a minimum of 220 men in the province and to enforce all federal and provincial laws, including the liquor regulations. In return, provincial authorities were obliged to pay the federal government $175,000 annually, plus the cost of transporting and maintaining prisoners. The federal-provincial contract served as the model for similar agreements in 1932 with the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. In 1950, the RCMP assumed responsibility for provincial policing in British Columbia and Newfoundland. Ontario and Quebec both continued to maintain their own provincial forces.
On April 1, 1935, the Force assumed the task of providing municipal police services to the town of Flin Flon, Manitoba. The terms of the five-year contract, based on those established earlier with the provinces, stipulated that a three-man force would be maintained in the municipality in return for an annual payment of $3,000. During the 1930's, the RCMP received requests to provide municipal police services to a number of other communities, including towns in Ontario and Quebec. However, the federal government established a policy whereby municipal services would be restricted to those provinces already under the jurisdiction of the RCMP.
Meanwhile, the RCMP continued to fulfil the role of a frontier police force in the north. Its duties were often difficult and hazardous and included such varied tasks as searching for missing persons; rescuing injured trappers and starving natives; enforcement of the game laws; weather observations for the Meteorological Bureau; and, of course, criminal investigations. In the early 1920's, the Force was required to investigate a series of Inuit murders. The policy in such cases was to hold an inquest, call witnesses, summon a jury, and conduct a trial in accordance with proper judicial procedures. In the Canadian north this proved to be a very time-consuming process, given the distances, the language barrier, the scarcity of people suitable for jury duty, and the necessity of bringing in judge and counsel from the south. In one case, a member of the Force was forced to act in several capacities in turn - deputy sheriff, guard, coroner, and justice of the peace. The Inuit census posed another difficult problem for the RCMP because of the lack of information concerning dates of birth and parentage of children. In 1928, an influenza epidemic swept the lower Mackenzie basin and along the Arctic coast. Mounted Police, serving as doctors, cooks, undertakers, and gravediggers, eventually brought it under control, but not before it had resulted in 74 deaths.
RCMP patrols continued to expand the frontiers of exploration in the Arctic. In the winter of 1926-27, the police began a winter mail service and patrol, known as the "Husky Express," along the coast from Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, to Herschel Island. In 1928, a patrol was undertaken from Pond Inlet southward over Baffin Island to Iglookik Island off the Melville Peninsula. In the same year, an insane native was transferred by plane from Fort Good Hope on the Mackenzie River, the first RCMP patrol by air. In 1929, a patrol led by Inspector A. H. Joy battled blizzards, walls of sea ice, and hungry bears, to travel from Devon Island through the Parry Islands and northeast to the Bache Peninsula, a distance of 1,700 miles. The extraordinary, 81-day journey succeeded in conquering the last major group of Canadian Arctic islands. The famous explorer, V. Stefansson, lauded it as the "finest sledge journey ever made" by the Mounted Police.
In 1928, the RCMP St. Roch arrived at Herschel Island. The 80-ton power schooner had been specially designed to function as a supply ship and floating detachment in the Arctic. With members of the Force acting as crew, the St. Roch visited all the detachments in the western Arctic during the summer, and in winter, frozen in ice, it served as a stationary detachment.
Protecting Canadian Sovereignty in the Arctic
In the remote north, beyond the Canadian mainland, are located the islands of the Arctic Archipelago. The area, usually referred to as the Eastern Arctic, extends over 400,000 square miles. Canada acquired control of the islands from Great Britain in 1880, but at the time did nothing to assert its sovereignty over the region. However, in 1882, a U.S. expedition established a scientific station on Ellesmere Island. Of greater significance, a Norwegian expedition of 1898-1902 claimed several islands west of Ellesmere by right of discovery, and attempted to persuade the governments of Norway and Sweden to declare their sovereignty over them. As a result of these developments, the government authorized a series of expeditions into the far north to affirm Canadian control. In 1909, a tablet was erected on Melville Island proclaiming Canadian sovereignty over the entire region. By the end of the First World War, it appeared that the issue had been settled. However, in 1920, a Danish hunting expedition was reported to have killed large numbers of musk ox which were protected under Canadian law. In order to affirm sovereignty over the islands, the government decided to establish a number of posts in the region. Accordingly, by 1926, RCMP detachments had been erected on the east coast of Baffin Island, on Devon Island, and at Bache Peninsula on Ellesmere Island, about 650 miles from the North Pole. By the end of the decade, Canadian sovereignty of the Eastern Arctic was no longer a matter of dispute. During the interwar period, annual patrols were undertaken from the permanent RCMP posts located throughout the Northwest Territories and the Eastern Arctic.
In spite of the economic distress and social tensions of the 1930's, it was a time of remarkable progress for the Force. The new Commissioner, James H. MacBrien, was determined to make the RCMP a well-equipped, highly trained police force capable of fighting the modern criminal with modern methods. He created the position of Deputy Commissioner, increased the number of Assistant Commissioners from two to seven, and raised the strength of the Force to 2,348 members. In particular, MacBrien emphasized more intensive training for recruits. A new six-month, two-part program was instituted. The first phase consisted of training in first aid, judo, foot and mounted drill, firearms instruction, and physical training. The second phase of training included lectures on the Criminal Code and other statutes, criminal investigation, administrative procedures, public relations, fingerprinting, ballistics and other scientific aids, as well as typewriting and the operation and maintenance of motor vehicles. In addition, recruits observed the law courts in operation and worked with legal students in mock trials. In 1935, seven students were sponsored to study law full-time at university. In the same year, two senior officers were sent to Great Britain for a three-month course at Scotland Yard and to study the police systems of England, France, and Belgium. On their return, their experiences were incorporated into training lectures on scientific methods of investigation and portrait parlé, the description of persons.
The 1930's also witnessed the development of a wide variety of improved methods of crime prevention and detection, and an expansion of RCMP facilities.
In 1932, the duties of the Preventive Service of the Department of National Revenue, along with its fleet of approximately 35 ships, were transferred to the RCMP. Thus, the Marine Section became a constituent part of the Force. Its primary task was to patrol the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and inland waters of Canada in order to prevent smuggling. With the aid of radio and aircraft, an air-land-sea patrol was developed which proved effective in curtailing smuggling, especially rumrunning.
In 1911, the Dominion Police Fingerprint Bureau was established. In 1920, its operation was transferred to the RCMP. By 1935, the Single Finger Print Collection contained 35,000 cards, each with a fingerprint of a known criminal considered likely to become a repeat offender.
On January 1, 1935, following an amendment to the Criminal Code requiring the registration of all pistols and revolvers, the Firearms Section was established at RCMP headquarters . Within two years, there were 150,000 records on file.\
From 1908 to 1935, the RCMP occasionally used privately owned dogs to assist with its investigations. In 1935, the Police Service Dog Section was organized with the acquisition of three German shepherds. (The first dog acquired became an official member of the Force with his own file.) In 1937, a training school for dogs and their handlers was established at Calgary. The dogs were trained for up to 12 months in order to ensure their ability to adapt to a variety of emergencies. They proved very successful in cases involving theft, arson, missing or wanted persons, and detecting illicit substances. In 1940, the RCMP won its first case involving evidence obtained by a dog search.
In January, 1937, the Force instituted a modus operandi file, based on the idea that criminals tended to employ the same methods in successive crimes. Derived from a system developed by Scotland Yard, it provided a national register of habitual criminals - their characteristics, descriptions, and methods of operation. Its success led to the establishment in 1938 of a national Photographic Section and a Crime Index based on the modus operandi system.
The first RCMP Crime Detection Laboratory was established at Regina in 1937. The lab's facilities were soon expanded to include sections specializing in documents, toxicology , spectrograph analysis, firearms, and toolmarks. A second laboratory was established at Rockcliffe two years later.
In 1932, following the takeover of the responsibilities of the Prevention Service, the services of a number of RCAF planes were obtained to assist the Force in patrolling the east and west coasts to prevent smuggling. This arrangement was discontinued in 1936, and a year later it was decided that the RCMP should purchase its own aircraft and establish an Air Section. It is especially useful throughout the north, where aircraft are essential for the provision of modern police services.
In March, 1937, the first issue of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Gazette was published. It provided up-to-date information on such matters as wanted persons, important arrests, stolen cars and other property, missing persons, recent crimes and modus operandi, and the movements of known offenders. Its circulation was restricted to accredited police departments throughout the country.
The Force's other publication, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Quarterly, first appeared in 1933, the same year that a museum was established at "Depot" Division in Regina. It was designed to provide informative, historical, and educational information to members of the RCMP and to increase public awareness of the duties and activities of the Force.
Radio Broadcast of Police Bulletins
In October, 1938, the RCMP concluded an agreement with radio station CKCK in Regina for the broadcast of police bulletins. They were aired twice-daily and reported such information as stolen cars, missing or wanted persons, and escaped prisoners. As the majority of police vehicles and detachments were not initially equipped with radio, members of the Force arranged to visit various establishments such as farms, restaurants, and service stations, that possessed receivers. To assist the RCMP, the public was also requested to listen to the broadcasts.
The First Guidon and the Long Service Medal
In 1935, the first Guidon (regimental colours) was presented to the RCMP by the Governor General, Lord Bessborough. It displayed the following military campaign honours: North-West Rebellion, 1885; South Africa, 1900-02; France and Flanders, 1918; Siberia, 1918-19. In addition, the Long Service Medal was also instituted in 1935. It is awarded to members of the Force upon completion of 20 years of good conduct and satisfactory service.
By 1939, the total strength of the Force numbered more than 2,600 men. A new Commissioner, Stuart T. Wood, had been appointed a year earlier following the death of J. H. MacBrien. The RCMP was now firmly established as a modern police force. As a mode of transport, the use of the horse had virtually disappeared, replaced by radio-equipped motor vehicles, and air and marine services. One of the Air Section's planes was stationed at Regina to transport members of the Crime Detection Laboratory throughout the country to give evidence in court cases. A seaplane with two-way radio equipment was purchased for the Mackenzie River District, the first police airplane to operate in the Far North.
With the outbreak of war in 1939, the national security responsibilities of the RCMP increased significantly and led to a rapid expansion of the Intelligence Section. As in 1914-1918, the largest intelligence function was in relation to the registration and internment of enemy aliens. The Commissioner of the RCMP was appointed Registrar General of Enemy Aliens and 16,000 Germans were registered by March, 1940. When Italy entered the war a few months later, RCMP files permitted the rapid identification, arrest and detention of Italian immigrants suspected to be dangerous to the security of Canada. By March, 1941, all Canadian residents of Japanese citizenship who had not become citizens of Canada by 1922 were similarly registered.
The wartime duties of the Force also included the confiscation of firearms and explosives in the possession of enemy aliens until the close of the war, the prevention of sabotage, and the enforcement of numerous emergency regulations. In addition, the RCMP was responsible for the protection of vital installations such as bridges, canals, harbours, dockyards, essential industrial plants, and other strategic sites which might be vulnerable to sabotage. A special subsection of the Intelligence Section was established for this purpose and more than 1,200 Special Constables, primarily ex-members and pensioners, were recruited to guard designated locations. The Fingerprint Section was assigned the onerous task of maintaining records of enemy aliens and prisoners of war sent to Canada, as well as checking the fingerprints of all employees in the war industries and applicants for sensitive work. Enforcement of new Defence of Canada regulations required the registration of some 1,700,000 rifles and shotguns, and the re-registration of revolvers and pistols. Moreover, with the introduction of rationing and price ceilings, the appearance of the ‘black market' added a further responsibility to an already overburdened Force.
To cope with the added wartime responsibilities, the RCMP Reserve units were utilized. These part-time volunteers assisted the black market squads, checked vessels at ports, helped guard Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President F.D.Roosevelt at the Quebec conferences in 1943 and 1944, and even gave up vacations to patrol the Gulf of St. Lawrence when enemy submarines were discovered there.
During the war, the presence of the RCMP in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon assumed a new importance with the construction of the Alaska Highway and a pipeline from Norman Wells to Whitehorse. It was the task of the Force to police the Canadian section of the new highway as well as several Arctic airports. As a result, it was necessary to increase the number of detachments in those areas.
As in 1914-1918, the Second World War depleted the strength of the RCMP. The Marine Section vessels and 155 officers and men were transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. A number of aircraft from the Air Section, as well as all nine flying personnel, were transferred to the RCAF. In addition, a limited number of Mounted Police were permitted to organize the First Provost Company, RCMP, for service overseas. At the same time, the recruitment of new members was suspended for the duration of the war. As a result, most clerical work, which had been performed by uniformed members of the Force, was eventually taken over by civilians, the majority of whom were women.
The Wartime Voyages of the St. Roch
With the outbreak of war, the need to affirm Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic once again became an urgent matter. In 1940, the St. Roch, under the command of Sergeant Henry A. Larsen, was ordered to sail from Vancouver to Halifax through the dangerous Northwest Passage. Leaving Vancouver on June 21 and rounding Alaska, the ship entered the Passage from the west. Buffeted by gales, fog and ice floes, it covered 5,220 miles by September 25. Larsen anchored in Walker Bay, Victoria Island, for the winter, during which the crew patrolled the Arctic islands by dog team. In the summer of 1941, there were only six weeks suitable for sailing. The ship spent its second winter frozen in ice from September 11 to August 3, 1942, in Pasley Bay on Boothia Peninsula. Between 1940 and 1942, the crew of the St. Roch was given the task of preparing a census of the Inuit population over a large area of the Arctic. The next segment of the voyage proved to be the most difficult of all. One cylinder broke, leaving the ship with only five, the storms and ice were the worst the expedition had encountered, and they narrowly averted a whirlpool. However, it managed to sail out of the Passage proper at Baffin Bay, and reached Halifax on October 11, the first ship to sail the Northwest Passage by the the southern route from west to east. In 1944, Larsen returned to Vancouver by the northern route in less than three months, the first to sail by that route, and the first to sail the Northwest Passage in one season. Moreover, the St. Roch was the only ship to sail through the Passage in both directions.
The RCMP at the End of the War
By the end of the war in 1945, the importance of the RCMP was recognized both at home and abroad. The Force had assumed policing responsibilities in six provinces and had entered into contractual agreements with 56 municipalities in the prairie provinces. At the same time, a number of representatives of foreign police agencies had come to Canada in order to study the organization and training methods of the Force. The Personnel Department, established in 1944, represented an advance in the recruiting process, for henceforth candidates would be judged by personality and mentality as well as by education and physical characteristics. In addition, due to the increasing need for various modes of identification, a Criminal Identification Branch (Ident) was also established in the same year with six sections: Fingerprint, Modus Operandi, Photographic, Ticket of Leave (paroled persons), Firearms Registration, and RCMP Gazette.
END OF MODULE III
1. In what way were the interwar years the most important period in the evolution of the RCMP as the nation's federal police force?
2. What was the function of the St. Roch and what important task did it perform during World War II?
3. What activity resulted in criticism of the RCMP during the 1930's?
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