Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 15/02) - Const. Merle Carpenter was reinstated as a member of the RCMP last week.

An agreed upon statement of facts was read in a hotel conference room in Yellowknife, thereby eliminating the need for an RCMP code-of-conduct hearing. Carpenter was docked 10 days pay.

A 16-year Mountie, he had been suspended with pay for the past year. Last March, he was cleared of fraud and theft charges in territorial court. The allegations stemmed from some off-duty work he had performed for Deh Cho Air in Fort Liard in 2000.

In an interview with The Drum last March, then Supt. Terry Elliott, of 'G' Division in Yellowknife, said he expected the RCMP's internal review to take one to two months. No-one was available prior to deadline to comment on why the process wound up taking one year.

Since being reinstated, Carpenter worked his first shift on Monday evening. His presence brings the complement up to eight members in Fort Simpson, which has a capacity of seven members. Technically, the Fort Simpson detachment could staff eight members since a position was designated last year to police Nahanni National Park Reserve. However, due to RCMP budgetary restraints, Fort Simpson is one of three Northern locations forced to operate with a vacancy, Sgt. Bill Eubank explained. Therefore, the detachment will return to seven members at some point in the future.