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.
Dominion Police
The Dominion Police Force was created on 22 May, 1868, in response to the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, a prominent Irish-Canadian politician and MP for Montreal West, in Ottawa on 7 April. McGee was killed by elements of the Fenian Brotherhood, a powerful Irish nationalist organisation based in the United States, in the new federal capital of Canada less than a year after the country was formed by the Confederation. The Canadian authorities were worried about the power of the Fenian Brotherhood, which had already launched three major raids into Canada in 1866 before McGee's death, and that existing law enforcement agencies were not capable of protecting state security. The Dominion Police was formed as the first federal police force with jurisdiction over the entirety of Canada, built from the Western Frontier Constabulary which had been in existence since 1864. Its primary purpose was as the police force for protecting buildings of the Federal Government of Canada, including the Parliament Buildings on Parliament Hill, the naval yards at Halifax and Esquimalt, providing bodyguards for government leaders, carrying out secret service work arising from the activities of the Fenian raids, and enforcing certain federal laws such as those relating to counterfeiting and human trafficking. The Dominion Police also had responsibility for keeping the peace for specified railways and canals that were under construction when the "Public Works Peace Preservation Act, 1869" was brought into force. They gradually also acquired responsibilities for compiling fingerprint and criminal records, and administering a parole service.