The Tuesday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories
Highlights from the news file for Tuesday, May 16
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RCMP MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT AILING, AUDITOR SAYS : The RCMP is failing to meet the mental health needs of its members due to a lack of resources, poor monitoring and meagre support from supervisors, says the federal spending watchdog. While the Mounties were among the first federal organizations to introduce a mental health strategy, they did not make its full implementation a priority, auditor general Michael Ferguson says in a report tabled Tuesday. Some RCMP members even told the auditor that coming forward with mental health concerns led to reprisals from bosses. The findings come one day after a pair of sharply worded federal reviews on harassment in the RCMP called for greater civilian oversight and expertise to ensure the national police force is a healthy and respectful employer. Ferguson’s report says although more than half of members received timely access to the mental health services, one in six members did not. In more than one-quarter of cases, the RCMP did not even have records that would allow the auditor to assess whether members got the help they required.
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