OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is endorsing the Mounties’ controversial efforts to tackle an endemic problem of workplace harassment. But the prime minister stopped short of directly stating full confidence in the Mounties’ top commanding officer.

In the wake of a scathing court ruling this week about the RCMP’s “outrageous” harassment and bullying of one of its own members, Sgt. Peter Merrifield, Trudeau was asked if he still had confidence in RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson.

“I, uh, we all, ah, are agreed, including Commissioner Paulson, but certainly everyone in this government that harassment is unacceptable and whether it be in the Canadian Armed Forces or within the RCMP or even within Parliament, I have shown zero-tolerance for harassment and sexual assault,” Trudeau said Thursday at a news conference at the naval base in Esquimault, B.C.

“The fact is we have an awful lot of work to do. And I know that the RCMP is taking very seriously the responsibility to shift the culture in a way that makes sure that in any workplace whether we’re talking about police forces or Canadian Forces members or anyone in any workplace across this country that we are protecting them from harassment and intimidation.”

Trudeau was responding to a Star question following a damning ruling by Superior Court Justice Mary Vallée in a long-running civil lawsuit filed by Merrifield against the RCMP. She ordered the force to pay Merrifield $141,000 in damages.

Trudeau’s comments may be seen as an indirect vote of confidence in Paulson, whose tenure at the top has been extended since the change in government.

But Merrifield suggests the government should take advice from an outside reviewer.

He is waiting to hear whether the RCMP will appeal the court order, and in an interview with the Star Thursday said the government should appoint someone independent of the RCMP to look at how the force and government lawyers aggressively defended the actions of its senior officers in Merrifield’s case.

“I think that review would show that up to and including 2016, when the trial ended, the RCMP has not gone far enough to stop workplace harassment and bullying.”

Merrifield, 50, said no other member of the RCMP should be forced “to spend 12 years before the courts and spend over $750,000 to get justice.”

(Merrifield’s lawsuit was eventually supported by the RCMP members’ legal fund — a legal defence fund paid for by employee contributions). His lawyers will be seeking to have their costs covered by the force.

Merrifield said “the government’s tactic seems to be, when faced with litigation in these RCMP cases, they try to starve the member out. They’re not interested in justice — they’re interested in making you go away.”

When Paulson was first named commissioner by the Conservative government in 2011, dealing with widespread allegations of sexual harassment and bullying was supposed to have been his top priority.

But report after report found glaring gaps in the RCMP’s ability to respond effectively.

In October, the government agreed to set aside a $100-million fund to settle two massive class-action harassment lawsuits for up to 1,000 female Mounties, and Paulson made new promises to change the workplace he admitted was toxic for them.

However, it’s clear the problem goes well beyond gender-based harassment, and spans across all ranks.

Vallée ruled Tuesday that starting in 2004, Merrifield, then a constable, was put through the wringer. She found he suffered severe emotional distress because of the actions of his superiors at the RCMP.

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The ruling said Merrifield’s bosses were confused about RCMP leave policies when he sought to run as a Conservative candidate. They claimed he deliberately lied to them about his political ambitions; gagged him from speaking in the media about terrorism, a subject in which he was considered expert; wrongly accused him of misusing an RCMP credit card; and allowed innuendo to spread and all but ruin Merrifield’s health and career.

Paulson, the judge found, failed to be alert to Merrifield’s ordeal even when Merrifield went up the chain of command, writing directly to the commissioner and others to plead his case to prevent it from all being dragged through the courts.

The ruling said Paulson failed to inquire into Merrifield’s allegations that the officers who were tormenting him had credibility problems, one was arrested in a “john sting” for soliciting a prostitute who was an undercover police officer. That allegation later turned out to be substantiated, the judge said.

Paulson aggravated Merrifield’s distress when he publicly portrayed him at a Senate hearing as an agitator leading a unionization drive and suggested Merrifield broke RCMP rules by offering public comment on national security issues.

The judge found Paulson’s opinion was based on faulty information. He appeared to not know Merrifield was never found guilty on any disciplinary matter.

Overall, wrote the judge, “Mr. Merrifield suffered from significant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the actions taken by the RCMP.”

She said Merrifield was harassed, bullied, punitively transferred, investigated for allegedly using an RCMP credit card for personal reasons — allegations that were easily determined to be unfounded, but were “insidious.”

The ruling shows that Merrifield was repeatedly praised as a “highly motivated, confident member” and an asset to the force.

Yet his bosses repeatedly shuffled Merrifield off coveted national security assignments, allowing innuendo to spread, at one point sending him back home in the midst of a critical situation that required “all hands on deck” during a widespread bomb threat in Toronto. The effect on Merrifield, the judge said, was “devastating.”

Merrifield, 50, is now on the executive of the National Police Federation which is seeking to certify as the bargaining agent for the rank-and-file.

Correction – March 3, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that wrongly identified the RCMP officer who was the subject of an arrest in a "john sting." In fact, the ruling named Supt. Marc Proulx as the officer who was arrested.

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