Algonquin Nation police grads hold future of force

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Officer-in-training Jason Thusky imagined police work would be easy at first, maybe even a little quiet for his liking. But instead he's found himself at the centre of the action.

A recent graduate of the First Nations Tribal Justice Institute in Mission, B.C., he's doing his two-month practicum in the town of Listutuj, Que, a nine-hour drive from his Algonquins of Barriere Lake Nation.

"I spend a lot of time pratrolling and responding to calls where people have been drinking. When I first started I thought it would be boring-always in the police car-but since I've been here I've had a lot of calls with people fighting and the other day I wrote up a report on two stolen cars which had been ditched in a swampy area."

The 20-year-old Thusky is one of a distinguished group of five Albonquin graduates which could form the beginnings of Barriere Lake's first Native police force.

Thusky never knew any other Native policemen in his childhood as role models but he always had a desire to do something "different.

"I've been thinking of police work since I was 14 years old."

A visit to the reserve by the institute's owner, Jim Maloney, last summer netted six new students from Barriere Lake.

Saul Terry, head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, congratulated the grads and said their efforts could open many more doors for Indigenous peoples.

"Trail-blazing overgown paths in this settler society is never easy, especially when we have to be at least twice as good to be recognized as equal," he said.

The other grads are Eric Charbonneau, 19, Victor Thusky, 21, Ian Wawaite, 21 and Jeff Ratt, 23.

First Nations Tribal Justice Institute is a privately-owned post-secondary institution controlled by a First Nations board of directors. Its eight-month course provides police training of the same calibre as that offered by the RCMP, says Doug Farenholtz, programming director.

He has 21 years a as RCMP officer and nine years teaching recruits at the government funded Justice Institute of B.C. before coming to the Native institute.

Thusky and the other four graduates are hoping to eventually return to police their own reserve when agreements are reached with the provincial and federal governments.