Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Brenda Lucki said on Wednesday she is stepping down as head of Canada's national police force.
Lucki will exit the top job on March 17, she said in a statement. Appointed in 2018, she was the first woman to head the force popularly known as the Mounties.
"This was not an easy decision as I love the RCMP," she said in a statement. "I'm so proud of the steps we've taken to modernize – to increase accountability, address systemic racism, ensure a safe and equitable workplace and advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had appointed Lucki to lead the force, which has been dogged by accusations of discrimination and sexual assault for many years.
During her tenure, the RCMP faced allegations from opposition political parties of political interference in a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020, and came under scrutiny during an inquiry into the government's declaration of extraordinary emergency powers to address the "Freedom Convoy" occupying the capital in 2022.
In 2020 she said in a statement there was systemic racism in the RCMP after being criticized for not acknowledging that in media interviews.
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
