North-West Mounted Police in the Canadian north
The history of the North-West Mounted Police in the Canadian north describes the activities of the North-West Mounted Police in the North-West Territories at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. The mounted police had been established to control the prairies along the Canadian-United States border in 1873, but were then also deployed to control the Yukon region during the Klondike Gold Rush, and subsequently expanded their operations into the Hudson Bay area and the far north. The force was amalgamated in 1920 to form part of the new Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who continued their predecessors' work across the region.
Law enforcement by country
In Canada, all criminal law (including the Criminal Code) falls under federal jurisdiction, but policing is a provincial responsibility. However, there is a national police force known by either its official English name Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) or its equally official French name GRC (Gendarmerie Royale du Canada). The RCMP/GRC is tasked with enforcing certain federal laws throughout the country, as well as anti-terrorism duties. They also perform domestic counter-espionage with the assistance of CSIS. Additionally, eight of the ten provinces choose to employ the RCMP/GRC under contract as their provincial police force rather than establishing their own police services; the exceptions are Ontario (Ontario Provincial Police) and Québec (Sûreté du Québec). Newfoundland has retained the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary for limited use, but still uses the RCMP/GRC for the majority of its provincial policing. In most provinces individual towns and cities are allowed, or required, by law to set up their own local police forces to provide policing inside their communities. Those municipalities (approx. 300 in total) which do not have their own police forces will contract instead either the RCMP/GRC (with the federal government absorbing some of the cost) or their provincial force to police the community.