Black RCMP officer says he was removed from position after raising concerns over training course

An African Nova Scotian RCMP sergeant who created anti-racism workshops for his employer says he was removed from his position after he raised concerns about intellectual property rights when the initiative he headed was going to be expanded.

Craig Smith, a Mountie for nearly three decades, was described by the RCMP as a driving force behind its African Canadian Experience workshop, but the two sides are disputing who owns the course material.

The dispute began in 2023. Smith now works for the RCMP in national recruitment.

"This last year, really, has probably been the most stressful of my policing career," Smith said.

Smith, also an author and historian, argues the workshop was created with material he produced outside of his RCMP job.

"I believe that I was sidelined for no other reason than the fact that I said that I want to be compensated for my intellectual property rights," Smith said.

Workshop evolved over a decade

Smith has spent about half his career developing different versions of what is now known as the African Canadian Experience workshop.

In 2006, Smith published his second book, You Had Better Be White By 6 a.m.: The African-Canadian Experience in the RCMP. 

Smith said he applied for what the RCMP calls secondary employment to take time off to write the book. He said his research for this book was adapted into the earliest version of the workshop. 

In 2008, two Black men were allegedly harassed by off-duty officers in Digby, N.S., leading to several recommendations about how RCMP could improve its relationship with Black residents, including a series of workshops for officers. 

"I developed and designed it and delivered it," Smith said. That version of the course was the African Nova Scotian Experience Workshop. 

He was asked in 2017 to expand the course from one day to five and to have a broader focus, which led to the formal creation of the African Canadian Experience workshop and unit that operated it, he said.  He led that unit until the current dispute.

The workshop took Smith all over the country and, as it became more popular, he said by 2022 the federal government wanted the RCMP to make it available to police services across the country. 

"So it was going to grow," he said. "I didn't think it was fair that my material be used without my permission and without me being compensated for it." 

Employers own employee's work, lawyer says

Employees don't have intellectual property over the content they create as part of their job with the exception of contractors and third parties, according to an intellectual property lawyer.

"Your employer will own all of the works that you create in the course of your employment," said Catherine Lovrics, head of trademark and copyright at Toronto-based legal firm Marks & Clerk.

RCMP declined requests to interview Smith's supervisors.

Assistant Commissioner Dennis Daley, Nova Scotia's commanding officer, said he's aware of Smith's concerns, but he can't discuss it because it is a personnel matter.

"What I can tell you is that I am 100 per cent committed to the delivery of the African Canadian experience course and I look forward to continuing to educate our employees," Daley said. 

Smith said his employer has removed all his material from the current version of the course, which has been condensed from five to three days since he left.   

He said it's contradictory for an institution like the RCMP to say they want to address systemic racism and then do what they've done.

Smith said he built up this course that garnered national attention, was attended by hundreds of officers across the country and gave racialized members a safe place to talk about their experience and "all of a sudden you want to dismantle it."

"It makes no sense whatsoever," he said.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.