Manitoba RCMP commanding officer to retire

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This article was published 31/03/2022 (1476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first woman to hold the role of Manitoba’s top cop is hanging up her stetson.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy, who also served as the commanding officer for D Division, is stepping down from her role after 34 years as a Mountie. She came to Manitoba for the job, starting as D Division commander in February 2019.

MacLatchy, 57, is the first woman to lead Manitoba’s Mounties, which didn’t allow female officers until 1974 — a point of both pride and trepidation when she started in the position.

“When I got this job, there was already a number of female commanding officers across the country, and I just became part of that sisterhood, for lack of a better term,” she told the Free Press on Thursday. “But I was aware and I was nervous.”

MacLatchy said she made the decision to retire to spend more time with her husband, children and grandson.

Her career had her providing police service across the country, including leading security on Parliament Hill on Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017.

In Manitoba, she often took questions from media and addressed the public on some of the most notable rural investigations in the province.

In summer 2019, the RCMP conducted a nationwide manhunt for a pair of B.C. fugitives — “A bit of an exciting time,” MacLatchy said.

The bodies of the two suspects in three homicides were found in northern Manitoba. Their deaths were determined to be due to self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

More recently, the tragic cold-weather deaths of an Indian family of four in a Manitoba field near the Canada-U.S. border, “broke my heart,” she said.

“And then, of course, we have people out there in those conditions, doing the investigation, trying to find if there’s more people, those are the ones that really stand out for me.”

Asked if there was anything she regretted from her time in leadership, MacLatchy said while she had made some mistakes, “I think I’m leaving the division in a better shape than I got it in. It wasn’t in bad shape, but I think I’ve made some real progress.”

Canadians’ view of RCMP conduct toward marginalized groups has dropped in the past year. Just 39 per cent of people surveyed in an annual review by the RCMP said they believed the national police force treated women fairly, while 34 per cent said the RCMP were “advancing reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples in Canada — compared to 47 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively, of those surveyed saying the same the year prior.

MacLatchy said she hopes whoever is next to take up the top Manitoba role would move forward “to do what (they) can to right past wrongs and move forward in a united fashion” with the communities served.

“That would be my hope, is that whoever’s sitting in this chair is a capable and a caring leader and I have no doubt that will be the case.”

MacLatchy’s final day on the job is June 3. A new commanding officer has yet to be chosen, according to a news release from the RCMP.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca