Court documents reveal closer look at bullying allegations in Yellowknife in $1.1B RCMP lawsuit

Court documents offer more information into the harassment and bullying allegations one veteran officer is making against the Yellowknife RCMP detachment.

Staff Sgt.Geoff Greenwood is one of two lead plaintiffs in a $1.1 billion class action lawsuit against the RCMP. He says he was ostracized within the force for trying to uncover corruption.

• CBCINVESTIGATES|RCMP faces $1.1B lawsuit over bullying, harassment claims dating back decades

Most of the two lead plaintiffs' allegations took place in the North in them, theplaintiffs recount workplace horror stories and health problems they claim stem from pervasive and "systematic bullying, intimidation and harassment" within the force, according to the 44-page suit filed Friday in federal court.

In court documents, Geoff Greenwood says he began working for the RCMP in 1990. In 2003, after working in detachments throughout Alberta, Greenwood was transferred to the Yellowknife RCMP detachment. In 2007, he was promoted to sergeant and began leading a major operation into a criminal organization.

Allegations of kickbacks

According to the lawsuit, Greenwood was a part of a wiretapping investigation when he came across audio implicating some RCMP officers.

"I was monitoring the intercepts and I overheard conversations from two of our targets about possible corruption within the RCMP," Greenwood told CBC.

It stripped me of what I thought theRCMPstood for and left me pondering everything in my life.- RCMP Staff Sgt.GeoffGreenwood

That corruption, he says, was in the form of kickbacks officers being paid upwards of $60,000 to destroy evidence and leak the locations of undercover officers and upcoming drug raids.

According to court documents, Greenwood says he travelled to Edmonton to interview an informant who told him who the corrupt N.W.T officers were. He says he passed that information to his superiors at the Yellowknife detachment but no action was taken.

• Mounties offer apology and $100M compensation for harassment, sexual abuse against female members

A few months later, Greenwood claims a new superintendent took over his unit. He says the superintendent told him to drop the investigation into officer corruption.

"I ended up coming across an officer who didn't like where that investigation was going and shifted the focus from that investigation onto me," said Greenwood.

He says he was villainized and that the superintendent filed seven code of conduct complaints against him including dereliction of duty. Greenwood claims some of those misconduct allegations took place when he wasn't even in the country.

'It shook me to the core'

Two years later, he says, all but one of those complaints were dropped because of a lack of evidence.

In court documents, Greenwood says he was demoted to desk duty and given a terrible job evaluation despite a clean 27-year record.

He says he made two separate harassment complaints to the RCMP, one against his superintendent, the other against an officer who he says tried to punch him the face. Both, he says, were ignored.

In 2010, Greenwood was transferred out of the territory.

• RCMP culture of bullying at root of harassment allegations, commissioner says

"It shook me to the core," he said. "It stripped me of what I thought the RCMP stood for and left me pondering everything in my life."

Greenwood says he now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and undergoes counselling.

None of these allegations have been proven in court.

The CBC contacted the Yellowknife RCMP to see if the allegations into corruption among of officers in the N.W.T. were ever investigated.

The RCMP have not granted an interview at this time.

• MORE NORTH NEWS |Ban on 'intoxicants' will keep legal cannabis off N.W.T. reserve
• MORE NORTH NEWS |As long as decrepit Iqaluit jail stays open, riots will keep happening, says director