1. Is the RCMP attempting to address diversity or employment equity? 

2. Does the RCMP have to maintain a diverse workplace?

3. Many current members of the RCMP do not approve of the recent changes to the application requirements. What can be done to help them accept the new hiring standards?

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), colloquially known as the Mounties, is Canada’s federal and national police force. The RCMP is responsible for a very wide array of policing duties in Canada: They support all local police forces in the provinces and territories, and also handle the enforcement of federal law including all aspects of counterfeiting, border integrity, and drug trafficking, and they even act as personal protection for Canadian and visiting dignitaries. 

Outside Ontario and Quebec, the RCMP is the acting police force in all rural communities that are too small to warrant a local police force including communities in Canada’s Far North, and First Nations reserves. There are RCMP detachments across the country in 150 municipalities and 600 Aboriginal communities, as well as three international airports. Clearly, the RCMP is as diverse an organization as there could be. The RCMP is accountable to all Canadians, and the organization has declared that they want their workforce to be representative of the diversity found in the country.

But fewer people are pursuing careers in policing, and there is an estimated shortage of more than 500 Mounties across the country today. The RCMP acknowledges that they are struggling to attract not only applicants, but also diverse applicants. In 2013, only 8.7 percent of RCMP officers self-identified as a visible minority, and the RCMP hopes to increase these numbers to 30 percent women, 20 percent visible minorities, and 10 percent Aboriginal by 2025, while maintaining recruitment standards.