Chief Tammy Cook-Searson during her swearing-in ceremony at the most recent LLRIB election. File Photo.
Chief Tammy Cook-Searson of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band will be part of a committee tasked with selecting a new leader of the RCMP.
Cook-Searson was chosen to sit on the committee by Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale. The committee will be tasked with overviewing and conducting interviews with candidates.
“Our job will be to look at all the applications and then shortlist and from there interview,” said Cook-Searson. “And from the interview process, provide three to five names to the minister.”
Goodale will make his final recommendations from the shortlist to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who will make the final decision on who will fill the position.
“We need to improve on the relations,” said Cook-Searson when asked about RCMP and Indigenous relationships. “There has been much work that has been done, but there is a lot of work to be done in terms of communications and setting up relationships within Indigenous communities.”
The other nine members of the committee include the deputy ministers of Public Safety and the Status of Women, and a former interim commissioner with the RCMP.