The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is still refusing to release a report it mandates on the dangers associated with its former Kemptville training center, nearly five months after access to the information request filed by Radio-Canada.
I have failed that RCMP does not support us better than that. They kept it a secret, for nothingsaid an employee of RCMP who remained a few weeks in the old building in Kemptville and had Parkinson’s disease. We agreed to keep his identity because of the sensitivity of his work.
The report, produced by Ottawa -based company BluMetric Environmental, is part of the review process that RCMP launched more than two years ago in response to a Radio-Canada report published in December 2019.
This report revealed the strong presence of toxic products in the building RCMP occupied from 1988 until its closure in 2006.
The Radio-Canada investigation identified at least six members of the federal police who died early from cancer or neurological diseases and all remained at the Kemptville Training Center. Radio-Canada also contacted other employees of RCMP who are still suffering from health problems since they stayed in this building.
Delays are piling up
It is on December 1, 2021 that the RCMP announced that a report had been made on the old building in Kemptville, but then refused to release it, saying the process was incomplete.
Radio-Canada filed an information access request on December 7, 2021 to obtain a copy. The Access to Information Division of RCMP informs us that the 30-day period set by law cannot be respected and that an additional period of 30 days is required.
The extension is necessary because of either the large number of documents requested or the extent of the research to be conducted that 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 only involved one document, BluMetric Environmental reports.
The additional deadline will expire in February 2022, but there is still no report.
Your documents have been obtained and are now awaiting review for disclosure. We can’t tell you when it will be sent because there are other files in the queueexplains to someone who manages access to the information in an email in response to our questions.
On April 22, 2022, we re -launched the Access to Information Division RCMP to find out when the report will be released.
This email was not answered.
Disappointed RCMP employees
The employee suffering from Parkinson’s disease does not understand why RCMP refused to make this report public.
He also regrets that RCMP has still not completed its review more than two years after the Radio-Canada revelations.
” The RCMP asks many of its employees. It should be mutual […] With us, when you have to respond, it doesn’t take two years. “
In his case, he did not know if his illness was related to the Kemptville building. But in other cases, this link is established. An officer of RCMP had to have part of his right lung removed due to a fungal infection. Her doctor attributed her illness to the conditions of her work environment in Kemptville.
Officials of RCMP wondering why their employer commissioned the new study.
Several inspection reports spread over a period from 1997 to 2007 – and not yet made public at the time – confirmed the strong presence of certain toxic products in the Kemptville building, such as asbestos, silica, molds, including toxic spores, and lead in water.
Agents request that RCMP make a list as soon as possible of diseases that can be caused by contaminants found in Kemptville and identify health specialists who are capable of treating them.
Source: Radio-Canada
