Introduction: The Establishment of a National Police Force

A modern police force, the RNWMP moved to vehicles and motorcycles for their patrols.

Although some politicians had tried to disband the NWMP, we were as important as ever in the policing of Canada. We helped put down the Strike of 1919 in Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was the largest strike ever seen in Canada. The war had ended and workers faced massive unemployment and inflation. When employers refused to meet employee demands for better pay and improved working conditions, almost 30,000 workers walked off the job on May 15. The city could not function - policemen, firemen, factory workers, train operators, utility workers - all working class people joined the strike. The government did order all public employees back to work but the strike did not end. On June 21, now known as Bloody Saturday, the RCMP was called in to disperse the strikers. Thirty people were injured and one killed. The army was also summoned to patrol the streets. The strike ended on June 25.

We were already responsible for enforcing federal laws in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia. The Dominion Police, the police force responsible for eastern Canada, was established in 1868 to guard the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, provide bodyguards for politicians and operate a secret service. By 1911, the Dominion Police had begun to protect naval dockyards, operate the national fingerprint bureau and had been assigned parole service and other law enforcement duties. During the First World War, the Dominion Police enforced the War Measures Act.

In 1920, the Dominion Police became part of our police force, and we were renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.