Indigenous youth get to see the other side of policing
- Brad Bellegarde | February 15, 2020
Indigenous youth in grades 9-12 from across the country converged at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Academy, Depot Division in Regina, for a one-week leadership workshop.
Fourteen youths were selected to participate in the workshop to create community action plans focused on issues such as alcohol and drug abuse, boredom and drinking and driving.
Once completed, the youth will start implementing the action plans at home with their local RCMP detachment.
“I wanted to see what it was like to be on the other side,” said 15-year-old, Isaiah Daniels, from Swift Current.
“I wanted to see what it was like to be a good kid and not be as bad as I once was,” said Daniels who is in grade 10.
Daniels is a member of One Arrow First Nation and grew up in Prince Albert before moving to Swift Current for his high school years.
He admitted to having run-ins with the law throughout his younger years, but spending time with his RCMP mentor has changed his perspective about police.
“I didn’t really like them,” he said. “I just thought that cops were bad guys and you shouldn’t be around them then I met [Constable] Curti here and he talked to me like a regular person… it changed my perspective [about] a cop.”
Constable Tony Curti is a 17-year veteran of the RCMP and serves as the high school resource officer. He says the biggest thing is to make connections with the youth.
“Without connections we’re going to be treading water, we’re going to be lost,” he said.
“Most communities have problems with drugs, it’s a supply and demand [issue],” he said. “We have to get rid of that demand.”
“We can’t just keep pointing our fingers, saying drugs are bad because kids aren’t going to buy in to [just] that.”
Curti said that if officers were more engaged with the youth, it could change the current situation with drugs and alcohol use among teens.
Both Curti and Daniels agree that there is a need for mutual respect from community and law enforcement.
Colin Mitchener, 16, who made the journey from Inuvik, NWT, said he wants to create a plan that tackles the root cause of drug and alcohol use.
“The main issue is boredom,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot for teens to do around the community.”
Mitchener said that a lot of kids his age are involved in school sports and when the school year ends there is nothing to occupy their time.
“I think if there were more things in general to do there wouldn’t be a big [drug and alcohol] problem,” he said.
Throughout the week participants heard from the founder of Pink Shirt Day, toured First Nations University of Canada and listened to a keynote address from by North America’s first professional transgender athlete, Harrison Browne.