Canada has named a former government security adviser to head the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the first time a civilian has held the post.
William Elliott replaces Giuliano Zaccardelli, who resigned amid criticism in the handling of a terror investigation.
Elliott served as a security adviser to Canada's last two prime ministers.
He has been a top official in the Canadian Public Safety Department and was on the front lines of the country's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"He knows what it is to be in a position of extreme crisis and keep a cool head," Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said on Friday.
The appointment of Elliott, who has never been a police officer, represented a sharp break with a tradition that called for the RCMP commissioner to be promoted from within the ranks of the national force.
Zaccardelli stepped down in December as a parliamentary committee looked into a US terror investigation of a Syrian-born Canadian.
An earlier judicial inquiry concluded that US authorities acted on bad information from the RCMP when they detained Maher Arar and then shipped him to Syria in 2002, where he was tortured and falsely confessed to terrorist involvement.
He was released in 2003 and has been cleared of any terrorist connections.
A recent federal government report also linked Zaccardelli to the mishandling of the RCMP's pension and insurance fund.
Special investigator David Brown has concluded high-ranking Mounties covered up problems in the administration of the pension and insurance fund.
The government will not conduct a full-blown inquiry, but has concluded the force needs an overhauled and modernized management structure and likely a civilian oversight body.
Elliott said civilian oversight of the national police force needs to be strengthened.
"I think it's recognized that the mechanisms currently in place are not adequate and improvements have to be made," he said.
Elliott told a news conference that he understands the importance of separating politics from police work.
"There is no doubt that the independence of the RCMP and of the police in a democratic country is absolutely essential and I will certainly guard that ground with vigor," he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS