Honouring fallen peace officers

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This article was published 24/09/2017 (3077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The day after a Winnipeg police officer was stabbed on the job, Manitobans gathered at the legislature Sunday to honour peace officers who’ve died in the line of duty.

“Yesterday, we had a close call,” Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth said as the Manitoba Association of Chiefs of Police hosted its 19th annual Provincial Police and Peace Officers Memorial Service. He was referring to an incident Saturday in which police were called to a home in the Maples and a tactical support officer was stabbed. His alleged assailant was shot by police and later died.

“One of our members was seriously wounded,” Smyth said at Sunday’s public memorial. The 35-year-old police officer was stabbed in the upper arm and was in unstable condition when he was taken to hospital, police reported. His condition was later upgraded to stable. “He underwent surgery last night,” Smyth said before reading the honour roll of Winnipeg Police Service officers who died in the line of duty.

“I’m grateful our honour roll will not expand” as a result, said the chief at the ceremony attended by Lt-Gov. Janice Filmon, Justice Minister Heather Stefanson, Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, RCMP Assistant-Commissioner Scott Kolody, chiefs of police from around Manitoba, peace officers, their loved ones and members of the public.

The memorial honouring fallen peace officers is held in communities across Canada. In 1998, the federal government proclaimed the last Sunday in September of every year as the Police and Peace Officers’ National Memorial Day.

The proclamation was made, it said, “to give Canadians an opportunity to formally express appreciation for the dedication of police and peace officers who make the ultimate, tragic sacrifice to keep our communities safe.”

Since 1880, 48 peace officers — which includes conservation officers, correctional officers and sheriffs — have died on the job in Manitoba, the Manitoba Association of Chiefs of Police says.

Manitobans aren’t always aware of the hazards those officers face, Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union president Michelle Gawronsky said in an interview before Sunday’s memorial service. Her first thought went to a member who left for work one morning, never to return home.

“We lost a corrections officer from The Pas who died while transporting inmates,” Gawronsky said. On Nov. 6, 2014, Rhonda Commodore died in a single-vehicle rollover in slippery conditions near The Pas on Highway 10. The six inmates suffered minor injuries. Commodore, 44, was a passenger in the van. The single parent left behind a six-year-old son.

Sheriffs, too, are transporting inmates, sometimes on long, desolate stretches of northern Manitoba highways in the winter, she said. Indoors, correctional officers are working in overcrowded jails and prisons across the province, Gawronsky said.

“They’ve got a a heck of a job to do,” she said. “We know that overcrowding is causing tension in our correctional facilities,” she said. “What used to be a gym has been turned into a dorm and cells,” said Gawronsky. “At all the jails, there’s not a gym left in Manitoba. They’ve all been turned into dorms,” she said.

“They don’t have any programs there and there’s not enough time and space to do the rehabilitative programs that are so important” to prevent offenders from returning to prison, she said.

During hunting season, the dangers conservation officers have faced on the job also come to mind.

“They need better radio communications to keep them safe,” said Gawronsky. “A couple of years ago, some COs out of Saskatchewan got trapped in a snowstorm and couldn’t get help,” she said. They lived but the incident highlighted the need for better communication, she said. “That’s one of the biggest things they need — along with a lot more of them,” she said.

“Every time they go out, especially during hunting season, they’re facing people with loaded guns… It’s pretty scary stuff when you think about it if they don’t have good communications,” said Gawronsky, whose union is advocating for its members and helping to raise funds to build a peace officers memorial.

“Every worker should go home safe at the end of the day, but sadly that isn’t the case,” said Gawronsky. A GoFundMe page has been set up by the Peace Officer Memorial Foundation to raise money for a memorial statue at Memorial Park to honour fallen peace officers at Memorial Park. It’s $50,000 shy of its goal to build and maintain the peace officers statue. Construction is expected to start next spring.

For more, see www.manitobapeaceofficermemorial.ca

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca