Canada

Slain Mountie had not completed on-the-job training

The RCMP posted Const. Douglas Scott to the Baffin Island hamlet of Kimmirut before he had finished his mandatory on-the-job training, CBC News has learned.

The RCMP posted Const. Douglas Scott to the Baffin Island hamlet of Kimmirut before he had finished his mandatory on-the-job training, CBC News has learned.

RCMP Const. Douglas Scott, 20, shown in this RCMP photo, had less than six months of on- the-job training before his assignment to Kimmirut, Nunavut, where he was shot and killed Monday night. ((RCMP/Canadian Press) )

The 20-year-old Mountie, who was shot and killed on Monday night while responding to a drunk driving complaint in the community, was supposedto get the standardfive months of field training with a senior officer who serves as a mentor.

But Scott was transferred to the two-person detachment on Aug. 16, a month-and-a-half early, CBC News has learned.

Recruits who have graduated from the RCMP trainingacademy are required to do six months of field training, except in Nunavut, where it's five months.

The RCMPwouldn't give the exact dates Scott began his mandatory on-the-job training, when he completed it or when he was posted to Kimmirut. The force would only sayhe had startedhis training in Iqaluit in May andcompleted it, and that he was in Kimmirut for five weeks before he was shot.

Pingoatuk Kolola, 37, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of Scott.

Two years ago, RCMP training was the subject of a report byAuditor General Sheila Fraser, who at the time registered concerns that 16 per cent of new cadets did not receive the full mandatory six months of field coaching.

Sgt. Rod Faith, the staff relations representative forthe RCMPin Nunavut, said management told him Scott had an alternate training plan and that his new partner in Kimmirut would serve as Scott's field coach.

"I had my concerns, I voiced my concerns to the management and as I normally would if a member was transferred before his plan and his recruit training," Faith said.

But Faith stressedthat he was inno way saying Scott's deathwas a result of how he was trained.

On Thursday, the widow of another slain RCMP officer calledfor changesin the way the force patrols remote communities in the North, sayingthere needs to be amandatory backup policy.

Const. Christopher Worden,30, was gunned down in Hay River, N.W.T.,last month. Inthe cases of Scott and Worden, bothofficers answered the service calls alone, late at night.

Jodie Wordenalso questioned why Scott was posted to Kimmirut.

"I don't believe Constable Scott should have been in a two-member detachment with only his six months training under his belt," she said.