Yesterday, Corporal Jeremy Bastarache of the New Brunswick RCMP was charged with "by means of telecommunication, making an arrangement with a person, for the purpose of facilitating a sexual offence towards a person whom he believed to be under 16 years old" an offence listed in Part V of the Criminal Code of Canada.
The New Brunswick RCMP takes any allegations made against our officers very seriously and upon discovery of this information, we referred the investigation to the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT).
SiRT has supported the RCMP criminal investigation by overseeing the expertise of our specialized policing services such as the Integrated Child Exploitation (ICE) and Digital Forensics Units. SiRT's oversight will continue for the entirety of the investigation.
These types of investigations are extremely challenging for victims, members of the public, and the RCMP members who work tirelessly everyday to protect the public.
We remain committed to transparency, however, it is essential that investigative and legal processes be respected to permit a comprehensive and accurate investigation to be completed.
The member appeared in a New Brunswick court today, was released on conditions, and has been suspended with pay.
Any media inquiries related to this incident should be directed to SiRT.