OTTAWA - The federal government is confirming plans to create a new watchdog over the RCMP.
The budget provides $8 million over two years to establish the long-promised oversight body. Though details were unclear, the new organization will replace the existing Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.
The current mandate of the commission does not allow it to properly probe the Mounties' security activities.
In addition, the law does not give the complaints commission full access to information in RCMP files and the body lacks power to review or audit the force's programs and policies.
As a result, former complaints commission chairman Paul Kennedy said last year he was powerless to tell whether the Mounties had made the changes needed to prevent another Maher Arar affair.
A federal inquiry led by Justice Dennis O'Connor examined the role Canadian officials played in opening the door to Arar's torture in a grave-like Syrian cell after he was falsely accused of ties to terrorism.
Among the changes O'Connor called for more than three years ago was an overhaul of the RCMP complaints commission that would give it new powers to keep an eye on the Mounties' intelligence activities.
