Our first daughter was born in a Northern Saskatchewan Cree community called Stanley Mission. It is a beautiful, remote and very traditional First Nation community that we loved living in. Locals hunted and fished a lot, but also gathered the plentiful wild blueberries. Elders kept their good picking spots to themselves and rarely shared, thus my wife and I took our newborn out berry picking one day, finding a great spot all on our own. It was close to town and we had a few buckets in no time, leaving our baby in a car seat on the ground nearby, covered in a bug net. Later that day, I was speaking to an elder who lived across the street and told her of my good find. She laughed out loud and agreed that my spot usually has lots of berries, but also has lots of bears.
Locals don’t set foot near there.
Community consultation is also important for the local police force, whether you are looking for safe blueberry picking, or more generally, for sharing what you think is important for your police service to be doing.
It is that time of year again when our detachment establishes its priorities for the coming 12 months and we want to hear from you. Tell us what you think those priorities should be. We meet with local mayors, chiefs and councils, but we need to hear from the public as well. Our priorities have been fairly consistent in recent years, usually including traffic safety, organized crime and drugs, First Nations policing, and youth.
Each of those are broad categories, but if you think we should be really focusing on impaired driving, cocaine trafficking, property crime and theft, working with children and youth, or anything else, now is the time to share your opinion.
Contact us at sidneyrcmp@rcmp-grc.gc.ca, or send a letter to Sidney North Saanich RCMP, 9895 Fourth St., Sidney, V8L 2Z5. And yes, you can even share good berry picking spots if you want.
Cpl. Chris Swain is a supervisor and the media liaison officer for Sidney North Saanich RCMP.