The RCMP Legacy Pathway

An Act of Parliament was assented to on 23 May 1873, and the North-West Mounted Police came into being that August. Its job was to administer Canadian law in the North-West Territories, which had just passed from the British Crown to a four-year-old country with almost no presence there.

Roughly 300 men were recruited from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The column that set out from Fort Dufferin in July 1874 numbered about 275, guided by Métis scouts, and covered some 1,400 kilometres of open prairie. They reached Fort Whoop-Up that October to find the whisky traders already gone, and built Fort Macleod instead. Headquarters was established at Regina.

What followed was less dramatic and more consequential: enforcing law, facilitating Treaties 6 and 7, keeping the peace when Sioux fleeing the US Army sought refuge in Canada, and distributing food during the famine that came when the bison herds disappeared. First Nations and Métis served as scouts, guides and interpreters throughout, and the plaque is direct that their service was vital to the Force's survival.

When tension between Ottawa and Métis and First Nations communities erupted into armed conflict in 1885, the NWMP fought — having warned Ottawa it was coming. By 1897 the Force was at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; by 1900 it was supplying men and horses to the South African War, its first overseas deployment.

Eight constables were killed in 1885. Their names are inscribed on the Honour Roll and Cenotaph standing in this cemetery.

Having taken part in the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, the Force was granted the prefix "Royal" in the 1904 Coronation Honours. The country was booming, immigration was heavy, and the Royal North-West Mounted Police pushed north — into Hudson's Bay, the Mackenzie River Delta and the Arctic Islands, where its work depended on relationships with Inuit communities.

The First World War changed the shape of the Force. Two cavalry drafts were raised: "A" Squadron went to the Western Front, and "B" Squadron to Siberia during the Russian Revolution. After the Armistice the RNWMP grew again, opening divisions across the three Prairie provinces, British Columbia and northwestern Ontario.

The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike prompted Ottawa to reorganize federal policing altogether. The RNWMP absorbed the Dominion Police and its eastern jurisdiction, and on 1 February 1920 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police came into being — one federal force for the whole country, with national headquarters moved from Regina to Ottawa.

Contract policing followed: Saskatchewan became the first province to contract with the RCMP in 1928, and Flin Flon, Manitoba, the first municipality in 1931. Marine Division arrived in 1932 with its own fleet, "Air" Services in 1937. Through the thirties motor vehicles replaced horses, radio links were built, and forensic laboratories, the Identification section and Police Service Dogs were established.

Because of the need for national security and counter-espionage work at home, members were prohibited from discharging in order to enlist. One exception was permitted — a representative unit that became No. 1 Provost Company (RCMP), which served in England, Italy and Northwest Europe.

The Force gave up more than a company. All the ships and crews of Marine Section were transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and served through the Battle of the Atlantic; all the aircraft and pilots of Air Section went to the Royal Canadian Air Force.

At home, the northern supply vessel St. Roch became the first ship to traverse the North-West Passage in both directions, between 1942 and 1944 — an achievement that did as much for Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic as any patrol.

The post-war decades brought steady change. The Civilian Member category was created on 1 April 1960, and through it many women became members of the organization for the first time. Recruit mounted training was discontinued in 1966, the equestrian tradition carrying on in the permanent Musical Ride. With the Official Languages Act in 1969 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — Gendarmerie royale du Canada became fully bilingual, down to the insignia and the signs on the door.

The names of those who did not come home — from the Provost Company, from Marine and Air Sections — are inscribed on the Honour Roll and Cenotaph here.

In September 1974 the first troop of women recruits — Troop 17, thirty-two of them — was sworn in and sent to Depot Division in Regina. It is the change from this era that most RCMP families will name first, and the plaque records what followed: the red serge adopted for female members, and articles of religious or spiritual significance, such as turbans for members of the Sikh faith, permitted to be worn. The first Black woman joined in 1982. By 1998 the Force had promoted its first woman Assistant Commissioner and Commanding Officer.

Indigenous service, which had run through the Force's whole history as scouts, guides, interpreters and special constables, was formally strengthened: more special constables through the 1970s, the first Indigenous officer commissioned in 1988, and a National Aboriginal Advisory Committee established in 1990.

The national security role changed too. After a Royal Commission, a new civilian agency was mandated in 1984 to take over the work of the RCMP Security Service, and a large number of regular and civilian members carried their careers across to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Abroad, the Force took on a new kind of duty. The first RCMP contingent for a United Nations peacekeeping operation deployed to Namibia in 1989, with missions to Haiti and the former Yugoslavia following. At home the 1990s brought a community-based policing model and a modernized cadet training program at Depot.

The threats named on the final plaque are the modern ones: international terrorism, cybercrime, human smuggling, transnational organized crime. The Force continued to deploy officers on international policing missions, including to Afghanistan between 2003 and 2014 to train and mentor the Afghan National Police.

Women who had entered in 1974 reached the top. Bev Busson served as the first female Commissioner in 2006 and, after retirement, was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2018.

The RCMP Heritage Centre opened in Regina in 2007, holding both a research facility and a collection of artifacts — and, in the plaque's own words, shining critical light on some of the most difficult and negative parts of RCMP history, particularly with people of colour, First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls brought attention to the often painful role the Force played in the history of Indigenous peoples. In 2021 the RCMP-Indigenous Co-development, Collaboration and Accountability Office was established to build trust with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and employees. In 2023 the Force marked its 150th anniversary.

That a memorial pathway says this about itself, in bronze, on ground where members are buried, is worth noticing. It was not always the way this history got told.