The RCMP’s hiring practices didn’t do them any favours this week.

On March 12, 2019, Langley RCMP constable Benjamen Kozlovich was arrested in Chilliwack and charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose stemming from a stabbing attack in Edmonton in 2013.

BC RCMP’s Public Relations crew didn’t do them any favours, either. Their official statement says,

A junior constable, currently posted to Langley RCMP Detachment, has been charged with assault in relation to a stabbing that occurred at a fast food restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta in 2013, prior to the officer joining the RCMP.

I’ve railed against the RCMP’s hiring practices for the better part of 20 years, and for good reason.

When the RCMP hires so many bad apples I could literally make a full-time living writing about nothing else, they have a serious issue.

Their psychological evaluations and background checks must be cursory, at best, when guys like this “slip through the cracks” and Canada’s national police force gives them a badge and a gun before setting them loose on an unsuspecting public.

But there is a far greater problem than terrible hiring practices at the RCMP. They refuse to fix the systemic problems that allow guys like Benjamen Kozlovich to get hired in the first place.

The best the RCMP can do is say, Oops, that was before we hired him?

Seriously?

And now we come to my favourite pet peeve when it comes to cases like this.

RCMP spokesperson Dawn Roberts confirmed to CBC News that Constable Kozlovich is still receiving full pay.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, why is suspension without pay not automatic?

Do I really need to utter the name of the poster-boy for why this nonsense must stop?