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At the end of June 2017, Bob Paulson retired from his position as the commissioner of the RCMP. For many members of the rank and file his departure couldn’t come soon enough.

Indeed, many observers wondered why the Liberal government didn’t take pre-emptive action sooner and appoint a new commissioner when they came to office. Whether it was the RCMP’s failure to equip officers with adequate body vests and patrol carbines or their mismanagement of sexual harassment allegations, it was clear the RCMP were in a state of crisis.

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The critical reports against the RCMP that were released in May 2017 by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, the auditor general of Canada and Sheila Fraser, the former auditor general, confirmed people’s worst fears.

To make matters worse, before Paulson retired, he made a number of appointments that look like nothing more than acts of nepotism and patronage. One of the appointments appears to contravene RCMP policy: Dan Dubeau, the senior deputy commissioner of the RCMP was appointed interim commissioner.