I am disappointed that the RCMP doesn’t support us any better than that. They keep it secret, for nothing
says an employee of the RCMP who stayed for several weeks in the old building in Kemptville and who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. We have agreed to withhold his identity due to the sensitive nature of his work.
The old Training Center was located at 270 Rural Route 44 in Kemptville. The building was demolished in 2007. (archives)
Photo: Courtesy
The report, produced by Ottawa-based firm BluMetric Environmental, is part of a review process that the RCMP launched more than two years ago in response to a Radio-Canada report published in December 2019.
This report had revealed the strong presence of toxic products in the building that the RCMP occupied from 1988 until its closure in 2006.
The Radio-Canada investigation had identified at least six members of the federal police who died prematurely of cancer or neurological diseases and who had all stayed at the Kemptville Training Center. Radio-Canada had also contacted other employees of the RCMP who were still suffering from health problems since their stay in this building.
Delays are piling up
It is on December 1, 2021 that the RCMP announced that a report had been produced on the old building in Kemptville, but then refused to release it, saying the process was not complete.
Radio-Canada filed an access to information request on December 7, 2021 to obtain a copy. The Access to Information Division of the RCMP informs us that the 30-day period provided for by law cannot be respected and that an additional period of 30 days is necessary.
The extension is necessary because either of the large number of documents requested or of the extent of the research to be carried out which would seriously impede the functioning of the institution
wrote the Access to Information Division to us on December 20, 2021.
However, Radio-Canada’s request concerns only one document, the BluMetric Environmental report.
The building was mainly used to train Special Squad I, whose members, spread across the country, are responsible for installing electronic equipment during undercover operations.
Photo: Courtesy
The additional deadline expires in February 2022, but still no report.
Your documents have been retrieved and are now awaiting review for disclosure. We can’t tell you when it will be sent because there are other files in the queue
explains a person in charge of access to information in an email in response to our questions.
On April 22, 2022, we re-launched the Access to Information Division of the RCMP to find out when the report would finally be released.
This email went unanswered.
Disappointed RCMP employees
The employee who suffers from Parkinson’s disease does not understand why the RCMP refuses to make this report public.
He also regrets that the RCMP has still not completed its examination more than two years after the revelations of Radio-Canada.
” The RCMP asks a lot of its employees. It should be mutual […] For us, when you have to respond, it doesn’t take two years. »
In his case, he does not know if his illness is attributable to the Kemptville building. But in another case, this link was established. An officer of the RCMP had to have part of his right lung removed due to a fungal infection. His doctor linked his illness to the conditions of his work environment in Kemptville.
Officers of the RCMP wonder why their employer commissioned a new study.
Numerous inspection reports spread over a period from 1997 to 2007 – and which had not been made public at the time – have already confirmed the strong presence of several toxic products in the Kemptville building, such as asbestos, silica, moulds, including toxic spores, and lead in the water.
Agents request that the RCMP draw up a list as soon as possible of the diseases that could have been caused by the contaminants detected in Kemptville and that it identify health specialists capable of treating them.
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca