During a tense summer in politics, RCMP union calls for Mounties to police Parliament Hill again

More than halfway through a year that's seen an attempt on the life of a United States presidential candidate and some alarming arrests in Canada, the head of the RCMP's union is saying it's time to put the Mounties back in charge of security on Parliament Hill.

National Police Federation president Brian Sauvé is arguing that reinstating the RCMP as the police service in the parliamentary precinct would ensure a quick and nimble response to acts of violence or armed individuals.

Four men have been charged so far this year with threatening the prime minister on social media. Just last week, RCMP in the Toronto area charged a man with making "violent threats" against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania last month has intensified the debate in Canada about the safety of elected officials.

Sauvé said the Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS) — which is responsible for security on Parliament Hill, at the Senate and throughout the surrounding parliamentary precinct — is "lacking" the appropriate powers to handle offenders. PPS members are permitted to carry firearms but aren't peace officers and don't have the power to arrest.

The PPS can call in the local law enforcement agency, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), to conduct arrests. Depending on the nature of the threat, it can also call on the RCMP — which is responsible for protecting the prime minister, the Governor General and other VIPs, and for national security matters.

"And then you end up in that vicious cycle of whose responsibility actually is this," Sauvé said.

"Our position is, well, let's delineate and define who owns that jurisdiction and have an actual police service, the RCMP, do the response for whatever might occur."

It's an idea the union has been pushing since a public inquiry investigated Ottawa's use of the Emergencies Act to quell anti-vaccine mandate protests in 2022. The inquiry's final report raised serious concerns about policing in the capital and recommended the federal government look at whether changes should be made to the division of responsibilities for policing and security in the National Capital Region.

Sauvé's renewed push comes ahead of the tenth anniversary this fall of the Parliament Hill shootings, when a gunman killed ceremonial guard Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and then stormed Centre Block.

The PPS was formed in the wake of that event, after a review found limited communication between multiple police forces created an atmosphere of confusion.

Sauvé argues similar challenges persist today.

"We have just too many jurisdictions," he said. "And as you saw with the Freedom Convoy protests, that resulted in challenging decision-making, challenging operational response, challenging security posture, where we ended up with … weeks of just ugliness."

Inviting the RCMP back to the Hill would not be free of controversy.