RCMP ‘probably’ could have acted quicker on Rivoire allegations: commanding officer
Retired judge André Denis says delays in RCMP’s investigation were ‘inexplicable’
Nunavut RCMP Chief Supt. Andrew Blackadar didn’t agree with retired judge André Denis’s assessment of the RCMP investigation, but acknowledged more could have been done at the time by police. (File photo)
The RCMP “probably” could have done better investigating allegations of sexual assault against Rev. Johannes Rivoire and acted more quickly, says the police service’s commanding officer in Nunavut.
Last month, retired Quebec judge André Denis’ released results of his investigation of the allegations against Rivoire and of the church’s and RCMP’s handling of them.
In an interview after that, Chief Supt. Andrew Blackadar told Nunatsiaq News the RCMP could have communicated better with people who said they were victims of Rivoire when they came forward with their allegations in 1993.
“Could we have done better, at the time? Probably. Could we have been quicker? Probably,” Blackadar said of the Denis report.
Denis was asked by the OMI Lacombe Canada — the Oblates order in Canada — to conduct a 10-month investigation by the Oblate Safeguarding Commission into the religious order’s actions and the historical sexual abuse allegations against Rivoire in Nunavut.
The incidents are alleged to have occurred between 1968 and 1979 in Naujaat, Arviat and Whale Cove. The first allegations were reported to police in 1993. Police didn’t charge Rivoire until 1998.
The nearly six-year gap between 1993 when allegations were made and 1998 when charges were laid is “inexplicable,” Denis said in an interview.
By the time charges were laid, Rivoire had left Canada for France.
Blackadar said he didn’t agree with Denis’ assertion.
“I don’t know if I would agree that the [RCMP’s] explanation is inexplicable,” Blackadar said.
At that time — in the 1990s and early 2000s — communication was slow and done largely by fax machine, there was no permanent detachment in Naujaat and police investigations for that region were handled out of Rankin Inlet.
All records were paper files and were transferred by mail through areas that were remote and difficult to travel to. The main RCMP detachment was in Yellowknife, he said.
“Historical allegations of sexual assault are always complex investigations,” Blackadar said.
After the charges were laid in 1998, the complainants went to the RCMP several times to ask for updates but received no answer from the police service, Denis said, adding that’s “not acceptable.”
“The witnesses think they were not believed because they are Inuit,” he said, adding he was unable to corroborate that accusation.
The complainants do not understand how it took nearly six years, from 1993 to 1998, before police laid charges, Denis told Nunatsiaq News.
“It’s not normal,” he said.
The RCMP charged Rivoire in 1998 but the charges were stayed in 2017 with the priest still living in France and the French government unwilling to extradite him to Canada.
A new sexual assault charge was laid against Rivoire in March 2022.
None of the charges against Rivoire have ever been tested in court, and Rivoire, through a lawyer, has denied them publicly as recently as 2022.
Denis said he did not initially receive a response from the RCMP when he requested details of its investigations.
“There was no answer from the RCMP until I insisted the RCMP’s commissioner send me a liaison officer” to discuss the matter.
He said that during his investigation he was not provided a copy of the police file, but did interview Blackadar.
In January and February of 1993, the first four complainants went to the RCMP station in Nunavut and signed statements accusing Rivoire of sexual assaults between 1968 and 1970 committed in Repulse Bay, now known as Naujaat, according to the report.
Rivoire left Canada on Jan. 16, 1993 and moved to France, four days before the first complainant came forward with allegations on Jan. 20, the report said.
The RCMP told Denis the primary reason it took so long to charge Rivoire was that at the time there was another separate, ongoing investigation by the Chesterfield Inlet Task Force into possible abuse at Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School, which operated from 1954 to 1969, according to the report.
Investigators were trying to determine if Rivoire was connected to that in some way. But the RCMP didn’t find any connection between Rivoire and the Bernier residential school, Denis’ report said.
Because Rivoire had left the country in January 1993, the Chesterfield Inlet investigation took precedence, Blackadar said. The Chesterfield task force was initiated in the fall of 1993.
Blackadar noted, however, that if Rivoire had still been in the territory police would have treated the matter with more urgency.
“Protection of the public is paramount, whether allegations are historical or not,” he said.
If similar allegations were to come forward now in 2024, Blackadar said he does not believe they would be handled in the same way.
“We are much more in tune with the community, there are many more advocates out there, there are many more supports out there,” he said.
Blackadar said he was aware some complainants felt they were “kept in the dark” about the investigation. “I don’t doubt that,” he said.
“But now we rely on government services. We have community justice workers in every community and they work very closely with the RCMP.”
Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve But Didn’t. This is the corruption of the Governments of Ca Na Da. They know these priest and organization are illegally molesting Inuit children but once again, it shows they don’t care or never cared about the Inuit living in a corrupt Country.
My husband at the time Marius Tungilik was the first to make a complaint againts RIVOIRE in RANKIN INLET because it is where he lived not in Naujaat. So that excuse is moot, plenty of RCMP in that office then. He was the regional director of NWT Government at the time so a well respected member of the community. So RCMP had no reason to disbelieve him. He told them he was molested in Naujaat not at the residential school ( another excuse given to the retired judge ( RCMP took years to investigate the residential school stuff) Also I am pretty sure he made the complaint in 1992 not January 1993. Rivoire took off then when he heard Rumors that my then husband made a complaint to the RCMP without his personal effects. He came back briefly in January 1993 to pack his stuff and quickly leave the country again. May be the other 3 put in their complaint in Naujaat in January 1993 . No excuse that it took 5 years to lay charges . Our daughter cannot even get a copy of her father’s statement from the RCMP even though he passed away and the case was closed one year later in 2000 without telling family of the defendants. Even worse for years my then husband was asking the RCMP for his file and a copy of his statement ( which he should have been allowed to see as they were his). The RCMP refused. The RCMP also refused to show those files to the retired judge for his investigation. WHY? because they have things to hide and they were clearly prejudiced againts “natives” and did not see it as important that is why. There has been systemic prejudice againts aboriginal people across this country and this is a prime example of it. We need an inquiry into this whole matter and probably a class action civil suit againts the RCMP for the families that were and are still affected by this ugly mess. Because of the RCMP inaction the accused escaped and the accused will never face justice.
I made a typo the case was closed in 2017 (not 2000) quietly without telling the defendants ( victims who made the complaints againts Rivoire.
I’m sorry. but are you suggesting that there is a legal way to molest Inuit children? Seems to me that you are saying that. Perhaps inuit fathers and mothers should be looked into much more closely. Don’t dismiss the clergy. Truth!
For everyone who was there at the time, the legal system was fraught with systemic racism and vastly underfunded so that complex investigations were extremely difficult to do. Language barriers were obvious and victims were often left without any legal support after the police had interviewed them, often suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Many investigations were ongoing (Chesterfield Inlet, De Jaeger, Cloughley, Rivoire etc.) and the resources were not there to do all of them and some had a priority where there was a higher prospect of conviction.
I often thought that if such crimes were alleged to have been committed in southern Canada, the system would have put enormous resources to properly investigate them but because it was the Arctic and Inuit victims, the resources were vastly insufficient while the bureaucrats in Ottawa were very aware and informed of that but mostly ignored the problems.
You guys were dispatched about it. You guys didn’t do crap. You guys are power trippers. With people you guys have power and without people you guys have no power. So, when the people had enough of you, they’ll defund you. Whatta pathetic publicity stunt. Half a generation later, finally a cop says something. And for what? Publicity stunt.
Eyeing another vacation to Paris.
Again, it was NTI who organized the trip to Paris, not QIA.
Again it was NTI that organized the trip to Paris, not QIA.
The RCMP barely follow up when us inuit bring every necessary aspect of an offence/investigation to their doorsteps these days because many of them are lazy or uncaring. Regular people often have to do a lot of their jobs for them to get things moving on their end… And sadly the way things are here in Nunavut right now are a massive improvement over what they were back then!
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I can’t say I am surprised to hear the RCMP aren’t really honest or efficient when dealing with inuit complaints of the colonial systems forced upon us, when the RCMP were created with the primary purpose of subjugating Canada’s native peoples to spread the Canadian colonial systems of control.
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Some of them are alright as individuals, of course. But everything going on in the early 90s, as well as nowadays, are still fruit of a poison tree and when that is considered, the results aren’t that surprising.
Why did he move to arviat in the first place? Arviatmiut wouldn’t want him and rest of those communities. Government involvement force movements and those kinds of activities, why not move to Churchill or Manitoba away from Inuit.