Bob Paulson
Robert Wilfred Paulson, (born 1958) is a former Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He previously served as the Deputy Commissioner, Federal Policing from November 2010 to November 2011. He replaced the first civilian Commissioner, William J. S. Elliott, who subsequently worked with INTERPOL. He retired from the RCMP at the end of June 2017. Life and career. Paulson was born in Lachute, Quebec in 1958. His father was an Icelandic Canadian from Winnipeg whereas his mother was French Canadian. Growing up, he was a member of Cadets Canada. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as  a Pilot after high school, serving from 1977 - 1984. He worked as a flight instructor and aviation administrator at CFB Moose Jaw and CFB North Bay. He left the Canadian Forces in 1984. Paulson's older brother was a Commissioned Officer in the Royal Canadian Navy. Following his military career, Paulson spent two years at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby and then joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a Cadet in 1986. Paulson's first posting was to the Chilliwack RCMP Detachment. He spent the next 19 years in various RCMP postings in British Columbia before being transferred to  National Headquarters in Ottawa. Commissioner Paulson has shown resistance to commenting on proposed changes to the way police deal with marijuana offences. He was quoted as saying "I'm a simple country cop, you know? I'm in the business of policing and others are in the business of policy and law". However, the following year he opined "The people that use drugs are not the people we got to be bothering, right? We've got to be sort of helping them." Paulson retired on June 30, 2017 as per memo released within the RCMP.