Article

Dominion Police

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited June 25, 2014

The Dominion Police was originally a small protective force organized by the federal government in 1868 to guard the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa following the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee.

Dominion Police

The Dominion Police was originally a small protective force organized by the federal government in 1868 to guard the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa following the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. It also provided bodyguards for government leaders and operated an intelligence service whose agents infiltrated the Fenian Brotherhood. Later the Dominion Police assumed responsibility for protecting naval dockyards at Halifax and Esquimalt (1911), the national fingerprint bureau (1911), the parole service and the enforcement of laws relating to counterfeiting and white slavery. During WWI its duties were expanded to co-ordinate the efforts of police and security agencies in Canada to enforce the provisions of the War Measures Act. On 1 February 1920 the Dominion Police was absorbed by the RCMP.