B.C. orders review into decades-old allegations that Mounties abused Indigenous girls in Prince George

The Prince George RCMP detachment is seen in this photo from its Facebook page. (Facebook/PrinceGeorgeRCMP)

Decades after allegations were first reported to the RCMP that members in Prince George, B.C., sexually harassed and assaulted Indigenous girls in the community, an independent review has been launched by the province.

B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced the move Wednesday, saying the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team will be leading the probe into how the Mounties handled the case.

"The allegations of historic misconduct of members in Prince George are disturbing and our government takes these allegations very seriously," he said in a statement.

"The RCMP have indicated they will co-operate with the investigation," he added.

Allegations that officers had abused vulnerable Indigenous girls who were caught up in the sex trade were first brought to the RCMP in the year 2000, according to a 2018 report from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission.

That report has never been made public, but CTV News is among the media outlets that has obtained a copy. The allegations against officers range from "lewd remarks," to paying underage girls for sex, to sexual assault, the document says.

No officer from the detachment has ever been criminally charged or disciplined for misconduct, the report says.

'IT WASN'T BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY'

Retired Staff Sgt. Garry Kerr, who worked as an RCMP officer for over three decades, first began raising the alarm about the force's response to the Prince George allegations back in 2011. While he welcomes the announcement of the review, he says action is long, long overdue.

"The actual information that I was told was astounding and I believed it at the time. Shortly after I went forward with it, it became apparent to me that it wasn't being taken seriously and that angered me. I guess there's no one reason why I stuck with it other than that it was the right thing to do," he told CTV News.

"It seems to have been a common theme that nobody believed these young girls at the time and I believe if this had been a bunch of young girls from West Vancouver – white girls – that were coming forth with the same allegations in the same time frame, the same era, absolutely it would've been treated differently."

Kerr says not only were the allegations not investigated properly when they were first reported, but that the RCMP has "completely failed in every regard" in the decades since, including by failing to investigate allegations that officers concealed or destroyed evidence when he first raised them in 2011.

Kerr, who remains "angry beyond belief" about how both the case and his concerns were handled, first filed a complaint with the watchdog that oversees the RCMP in 2016.

Its final report was issued in 2021. It found – among other things – that "no one in a position of authority" within the B.C. RCMP had investigated Kerr's report that multiple police officers may have committed criminal offences.

In Kerr's words, the response of the RCMP was "simply to bury it."

JUDGE DAVID RAMSAY AND THE 'RELEVANT BACKDROP'

In 2008, David Ramsay, a former judge in Prince George's provincial court, died in prison. He was serving a seven-year sentence for sex crimes against vulnerable Indigenous girls – some as young as 12. He pleaded guilty to four charges, including sexual assault causing bodily harm and obtaining sexual services from someone under 18. All the offences took place when he was a sitting judge. 

"Between 2000 and 2004, the RCMP received reports that a number of RCMP members at the Prince George Detachment in British Columbia had engaged the services of and, in some cases, assaulted underaged female sex-trade workers," the 2018 interim report from the CRCC into Kerr's complaint says, noting that those reports led to the investigation and conviction of Ramsay.

"After concluding its investigation of Judge Ramsay, the RCMP conducted an internal investigation of members of the Prince George Detachment who had been identified by a number of the same sex-trade workers who had complained or provided evidence about Judge Ramsay."

Kerr says he worries about the amount of time that has passed since the initial reports were made, but is cautiously hopeful that the review by an external agency will produce different results.

"I believe that if the team from a ASIRT is able to still have access to all of the original RCMP documentation from back in the Judge Ramsay era, they will not make the same mistakes as the RCMP made," he said.

FIRST NATIONS LEADERSHIP RESPONDS

In response to Farnworth's announcement of the independent investigation, the BC Assembly of First Nations issued a statement demanding Indigenous oversight of the review, saying that so far no federal government agency or police force has demonstrated a commitment to seeking justice or accountability.

“First Nations people in Prince George have been the target of violence, racism and discrimination by the RCMP for decades,” said Regional Chief Terry Teegee in the statement.

“In this specific case, the RCMP’s own members brought evidence of continued and egregious discrimination and violence, but that evidence was ignored, and covered up. These actions are unacceptable from Canada’s national police force, and the individual officers responsible must be held accountable."

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs, in a brief statement on social media, echoed the demand.

"We need Indigenous voices to speak on the deplorable actions committed by members of the RCMP and to bring justice for those Indigenous girls," it said.