Remember when the RCMP always got their man?
Now it appears it's the woman who's got them.
When Auditor General Sheila Fraser came down with her regular report on government waste, it wasn't just the Mounties' tunics that were red. So were some faces behind the uniforms.
Fraser discovered the force hasn't been keeping up with a huge backlog of DNA testing that could affect a host of criminal cases.
The Mounties maintained the problem had been fixed in 2004, when then Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli insisted there was no backlog.
But three years later, the ugly accusation is back.
"If there are very long delays for the police forces to receive and the Crown attorneys to receive that information, it can slow down investigations and it can also slow down court cases," Fraser explains.
And if the evidence takes too long to process, it could even allow guilty parties to go free or potentially result in the conviction of innocent people.
The news isn't sitting well with the opposition.
"They did not give the facts," charges Liberal Justice critic Marlene Jennings. "We face the risk that courts might throw out the charges that have been brought against individuals and that we could in fact have serious criminals walking the streets."
The NDP's Joe Comartin wants to take the finding farther. "I think the real way we send the message is to have a public inquiry into the RCMP overall," he suggests.
It's the latest black eye for Canada's national police force.
The group is still stinging from the apology it was forced to issue in the Maher Arar case, when evidence apparently supplied by the Mounties led to the Canadian's deportation and ultimate torture in Syria. That incident forced Zacardelli's resignation.
Then there are the allegations about irregularities in the RCMP's pension funds.
And now the DNA roadblock which looks to get worse before it gets better.
The number of cases needed for analysis is expected to grow. Any future Criminal Code changes will mean more offenses will be added to the national DNA data bank. And most of that testing is done by the RCMP.
Elsewhere in the report, Fraser criticized the Foreign Affairs department, run by Peter MacKay, for sending diplomats and other government staff into conflict-filled countries like Afghanistan without life insurance.
The A.G. also roasted the Defence Department over a planned update of its NORAD facility in North Bay, Ont. According to her findings the plans are six years overdue and have cost about $60 million more than they should have.
The farm-income program wasn't spared either, as Fraser complained that it was mired in red tape and payment problems.
Fraser became a household name when she uncovered the federal sponsorship scandal in 2004.
It ultimately cost the Liberals a chance at re-election and ironically put them in a position to use Fraser's own information against the party that beat them to the halls of power in Ottawa.
Highlights of federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser's latest report to Parliament, released Tuesday:
-
RCMP's six forensics labs across
Canada
suffer from growing backlogs, many cases involving violent crimes and DNA analysis, despite long-standing warnings of the bottlenecks.
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Defence Department project to update
North Bay
, Ont., NORAD facility at least six years overdue, and at $156 million has cost almost $60 million more than expected.
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Farm-income program rife with red tape, Byzantine rules and payment errors. Some program bureaucrats have moonlighted as consultants to farmers making applications for money, a clear conflict of interest.
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Justice
Canada
, with 2,500 lawyers and a budget of almost $1 billion, does not measure whether it delivers services cost-effectively.
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Foreign Affairs often treats foreign service officers poorly, with few financial inducements for dangerous missions such as
Afghanistan
.
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No fraud or abuse of government charge cards detected, though existing rules need to be followed more closely.
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Fraser gives good marks to federal programs providing loans and grants to post-secondary students, saying they're well-managed.