RCMP to reflect on painful history as Canada's police service on 150th anniversary
CTV
When Canada's founding leaders first conceived of a federal police service, history tells us it was merely an emergency measure, a contingency plan to enforce Canadian laws throughout what was then known as the North-West Territories.
When Canada's founding leaders first conceived of a federal police service, history tells us it was merely an emergency measure, a contingency plan to enforce Canadian laws throughout what was then known as the North-West Territories.
The day Parliament voted the service into existence on May 23, 1873, is now recognized as the official founding of what would eventually become the RCMP.
But the first big case, months later, truly kick-started the force's long and sometimes painful history.
The RCMP marks 150 years of that history Tuesday with events the service says are meant to demonstrate pride, but also humility and reconciliation.
In spring 1873, a famine had pushed a group of Nakoda to venture south of their traditional territory toward Cyprus Hills, in modern-day southern Saskatchewan.
They were camped not far from some whisky traders when they encountered a group of American wolf hunters whose horse had been stolen.
"When the hunters encountered the innocent Nakoda, accusations led to conflict, events escalated catastrophically out of control, and the hunters brutally killed the Nakoda," the government's online account of the Cypress Hills Massacre reads.
