McDonald Commission

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP, better known as the McDonald Commission, was a Royal Commission called by the Canadian government of Pierre Trudeau to investigate the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after a number of illegal activities by the RCMP Security Service came to light in the 1970s. The Commission, Judge David Cargill McDonald, was established on 6 July 1977 and issued its final report in 1981.

During the 1970 October Crisis, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) killed Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte and caused Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to invoke the War Measures Act. Despite having provided good intelligence to law enforcement agencies on the FLQ threat, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and more specifically, the RCMP Security Service responsible for both national security intelligence and national security policing at the time, was blamed for failing to prevent the crisis. Hurt by the criticism, the RCMP Security Service began a pattern of illegal activities in an attempt to prevent any similar incidents from occurring in the lead up to and during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

The cause of the McDonald Commission was accidental; a former RCMP member on trial for bombing a private residence offered in his defence that he had done much worse things while serving on the RCMP Security Service, including having broken into the press office used by left-wing Quebec groups to steal membership lists. In response to these allegations, the McDonald Commission was created to investigate and report on the extent of RCMP wrongdoing.

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