OTTAWA — Barbara George, a suspended RCMP deputy commissioner, denies she was involved in a pension and insurance fund scandal at the national police force.

She said she was asked to step down from her position in the senior ranks of the RCMP on March 26 exclusively as a result of the charge made by Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, not because she did anything wrong.

George says Wrzesnewskyj "used a misleading quote grossly out of context" to condemn her. The 29-year RCMP veteran says the consequences to her and her family have been "horrific" and have changed her life forever.

George, previously in charge of human resources for the Mounties, has been suspended from her duties and faces further investigation by the force.

She is seeking to quash the investigation in Federal Court, arguing that her past testimony is legally privileged and can't be used against her.

The dispute was sparked in large part by claims that she intervened in 2005 to remove Staff-Sgt. Mike Frizzell from a joint team of RCMP and Ottawa municipal police officers probing possible criminal conduct in the administration of the $12-billion RCMP pension plan.

George told MPs in February she had nothing to do with Frizzell's departure, but documents tabled at the committee in March suggested she was involved in e-mail traffic about the move.

"I stand by that answer," she said Wednesday, pointing to subsequent testimony by another RCMP boss that he and an investigating officer at the Ottawa Police Service had made the decision to dismiss Frizzell.

George noted the assistant commissioner further testified that she never contacted him about Frizzell and her name never appeared on the final order to dismiss him.

The criminal probe wrapped up shortly after Frizzell left the team, and Crown attorneys decided not to lay charges because they saw "no reasonable prospect" of obtaining convictions.

But Chief Supt. Fraser Macaulay has told the committee he thought the investigation was "prematurely shut down" before all the evidence could be gathered.

Macaulay has also testified that George and Rosalie Burton, former director general of RCMP human resources, were considered "persons of interest" in the investigation.

A key question was whether $600,000 had been improperly transferred from the RCMP pension fund to a related life-and-disability insurance fund. The alleged intent was to use the pension money to cover ballooning administrative costs related to the insurance operation.

At one point in the investigation, Frizzell left a voice-mail message for Burton, the official who had been directly responsible for the pension plan, saying he believed criminal conduct was being "condoned by senior management."

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