Alberta justice minister calls for firing of RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro is calling on the federal government to fire RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, saying her continued tenure is damaging to the national police force.

In a statement Wednesday, Shandro called on Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to immediately rescind Lucki's appointment. Soon afterward, Mendicino said the commissioner will remain in her post and Lucki said she has no plans to leave.

"Alberta has lost confidence" in Lucki, Shandro said in the statement.

"The commissioner of the RCMP must be held to the highest of standards. So far, Minister Mendicino has stood idly by while Commissioner Lucki has failed to meet even the most meagre of standards for the past two years.

"This is an abrogation of the minister's core responsibility to Canadians and must be rectified before the RCMP's reputation as Canada's federal police service is further damaged."

In a scrum in Ottawa Tuesday, Mendicino said he will not remove Lucki.

"I have confidence, and the government has confidence in Commissioner Lucki, and obviously as her term, her first term comes up, there will be a process around that."

Mendicino said the appointment process that named Lucki commissioner in April 2018 has "integrity" and that there will be a discussion when her tenure comes to its "natural conclusion."

The RCMP commissioner serves at the will of government and does not have a fixed term, but Lucki said she will keep working to maintain the confidence of Canadians and the government.

"I'm not going to step down from my position," Lucki said in an interview Wednesday. 

"I won't focus on whether people want me in this chair or not. I'm going to focus on keeping Canadians safe."

In his statement Wednesday, Shandro said Lucki has "failed to deal with the RCMP's history of systemic racism in a forthright and public manner" and risked the integrity of an investigation into a mass shooting.

"Further, as revealed last week, she failed to inform the federal cabinet of all law enforcement options available prior to the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act."

Shandro said Lucki has dodged accountability during two major public inquiries and failed to make changes to ensure maintain public confidence in the RCMP.