A former RCMP officer says the new civilian advisory board announced by the federal government has no clout.

Last week Ottawa announced the board with a mandate to overhaul what has often been referred to as the RCMP’s culture of dysfunction’.

Janet Merlo was among the first female RCMP officers to sue the federal government for sexual harassment and gender discrimination while serving with the RCMP.

She told VOCM’s Paddy Daly that the move isn’t the innovation they are claiming it is.

She says as the board they announced has no power to implement change, only to suggest things. It has no more power than the numerous inquiries and inquests over the last two decades which, she says, have all been ignored by the RCMP.

Merlo says there are also red flags from what they chose to leave out of the new board.

She says in the era of truth and reconciliation, and in the wake of the MMIWG report, there are no indigenous people, particularly indigenous women, represented on the board.