National Youth Justice Policing Award - 2000
ART SHOFLEY
(Elder): The way it works is conducive to building goodwill. It works
that way. Once some of the police that I trained in my classes began to use
it, their rapport with their clients changed dramatically. They had lots of
stories. One of the gentlemen said: "You know, I used to be a cop in
the community. Seventeen years I've worked. Once I started doing this restorative
justice approach, I became part of that community."
NARRATOR:
The Minister of Justice, National Youth Justice Policing Award was established
to recognize police officers who are working in the spirit of the Youth Justice
Renewal Initiative to celebrate their innovation and creativity and to make
our innovative approaches known to a wider audience.The National Youth Justice
Policing Award goes to Constables Willie Ducharme and Rick Kosowan, of the
Winnipeg Police Service.
CONSTABLE RICK KOSOWAN (Winnipeg Police Service): I like the fact that we were able
to have the youth take responsibility for what they had done, and that was
something that was lacking. It was a quick court appearance. It was a plea
by a lawyer. There was always somebody speaking for that youth. Here, the
youth have to speak for themselves and take responsibility for their actions.
And then there was the repercussion from the victim. The victim was there,
had an opportunity to speak.
CONSTABLE WILLIE DUCHARME (Winnipeg Police Service):
It's kind of neat to actually have somebody there as an accused saying well,
ya, maybe a couple of weeks of community work, and the accused will come
up and say well, I don't think so. I see what I've done. Maybe I should work
for the summer repairing, cleaning, doing something for these people.
And that instils those values that have been lost.
CONSTABLE RICK KOSOWAN: And the parents then saw that yes, their child who
was say nine or ten years old, they had done something wrong and they were
being held responsible. There are consequences. They had input. I mean, every
parent wants to defend their child, but they also get an opportunity to see
that their child is not perfect, that they do make mistakes, that here was
an opportunity to correct that. And it was a community effort because one thing we did learn through the aboriginal
community was that it takes a community to raise a child. And the police are
part of the community and the community is part of the police.
So here is a perfect opportunity to exercise that.
ART SHOFLEY (Elder): The aboriginal perspective is that these
are cops who are taking care of the interests of white society against aboriginal
people. That's their experience. That's their history. That perspective is being changed
by people like Willie and Rick. They can see by their actions, because actions speak louder than words, that they do
care about the community. And they go the extra mile to carry out initiatives
that bring peace to the community. The community sees that, and they effectively
become better policemen.
CONSTABLE WILLIE DUCHARME: One of my favourite sayings is because they really like it
- and I know they do because they've asked me a lot about it after I've said
it - and that saying is a dream is only a wish if you don't have a plan. And
that's what they tell me right away. They'll come up and they'll tell me,
you know, Willie, I have - and they call me Constable Willie, or Officer Willie,
depending on where I am - and they'll come up to me and they'll say do you
know what? Now, I have a plan. This is what I want to be when I grow up. That
makes me feel great. I'm glad when I've succeeded - just those little lines
- I've succeeded in helping somebody and putting something in somebody's mind
that he or she is going to use to gain.
CONSTABLE RICK KOSOWAN: What better way to serve aboriginal people than to learn their
customs and traditions? We continued on to that. We are involved in many,
many ceremonies. Behind us is the sweat lodge that we learned to be fire keepers for
the sweat lodge. We're presently being taught the ceremony itself at the sweat lodge so
that we are being given that gift by Elder Shofley so that we could invite the youth in and conduct the ceremonies
ourselves. It's very, very important. This is the lodge where we were given our spirit
names from. That's a great honour for us.
ART SHOFLEY: It's pretty hard to sell something to police. Like I'm not saying
that in a derogatory way, but it's a hard sell because they had a certain
amount of cynicism that they get from the job. But once they buy into it,
man, they're like crusaders.
NARRATOR: Constable Ian Burke was nominated for his significant role in the
development and implementation of Canada's first Bullying Hotline. The goal
of the program was to divert young people from the criminal justice system
by providing children, school officials and parents with a positive means
of combating school violence. And it's working. The hotline has led to almost 300
mediations and conferencing sessions since its inception. The mediation and conferencing
techniques they use have become standard practice for the Halifax Regional Police.
Constable Burke and the Bullying Hotline Program are dealing with bullies before they graduate
to more serious crimes by helping them reintegrate into their communities.
In his 11 years with the Youth Services Section, Sergeant Houldsworth's special interest
has been in early intervention and pre-charge diversion. He works closely with officers in
the Youth Services Section in an effort to move beyond traditional police cautioning. For
Sergeant Houldsworth, intervening early, determining the risk to re-offend and addressing a
young offender's needs is essential in policing youth effectively and making a difference.
Sergeant Houldsworth was instrumental in the introduction of several pre- and post-charge
initiatives, youth justice committees, pre-charge mediation, community justice forums and
wrap-around services.
Constable Richard Schaaf and social worker Sandy Jaremchuk make up the team of car 177. Car 177 is an innovative,
multidisciplinary approach to addressing the increasing number of sexually exploited and
high-risk street youth in Vancouver. The coordinated case planning and intervention that
this unit is able to provide has been extremely successful in keeping young people safe,
reducing their time on the street and lessening potential criminal activity.In addition,
Constable Schaaf has found a unique way to talk to young people and to build trust. He and
a veterinarian friend offer free animal care, medicine and supplies for the pets of street
youth.
A founding member of the B.C. Youth Police Network, Constable Tolchard has been the school liaison officer of Maple
Ridge Secondary School for the past three years. During that time, his initiatives have
included family group conferencing where the children involved and the parents of both
victim and offender have a chance to meet and resolve disputes. And of the more than 40
offenders who have gone through his school diversion program, only one has re-offended.
Constable Tolchard also led a research project to investigate the causes of school violence, a project that assisted
his school district in responding more effectively to this problem.
ART SHOFLEY: Restorative justice, as I started hearing different speakers, I met somebody from Australia and
I heard him talking about restorative justice. Then I began to read articles about it and recognized
something familiar. And so I went to elders. I do ceremonies, so I went to different elders and
I explained to them. They said that's nothing new. That was our old way. When we had conflicts,
when I was young, we settled it right there. We fixed it up right there.
NARRATOR: As a member of the West Broadway Community Support Unit, Constable Morris was instrumental in establishing
an aboriginal village in the neighbourhood, a place where urban children could spend an entire
long weekend speaking with elders and being exposed to their traditional culture. In addition,
Constable Morris has been a driving force behind community justice forums, helping to integrate
the successful approach into the mainstream justice system.
After being approached by parents in the Asian community who were concerned about the possible involvement of their
children in criminal activity, Constable Williams initiated Project Reality Check. Parents
register their children for an intense mentorship program with police officers. This program
includes group sessions with presentations where inmates share their experiences. Later, the
young people are taken on an extremely frank tour of the Edmonton Maximum Security Institution.
This program has been such a success that it's been expanded to include youth of all ethnic
backgrounds.
The Quebec City Police Force has taken a three-pronged approach to violence in schools: a classroom lecture series aimed at
prevention; an anonymous hotline for reporting crimes; and an intervention program for violent
youth, SAS - Support and Alternative to violence through Sport.
Run with the assistance of volunteers from the Judo Club of the old capital, SAS is successfully teaching young offenders
respect, self-esteem, self-control and responsibility through the discipline of judo.
ART SHOFLEY: The Bear Clan were the protectors. They were the warriors. They were the ones that looked after the
people. Essentially, that's the police's job. The police person's job is to protect the
community, to take care of the community. With restorative justice, they're fulfilling that to
a greater depth than they were when they were not practicing restorative justice, when they
were taking the reactive approach. Now, they're taking a proactive approach. They are
practicing prevention. So they're essentially not only protecting the community, but they're
taking care of the community.
NARRATOR: With a population of 490 and accessible only by air, Wunnumin Lake has few recreational facilities or
community resources. So in dealing with local young people, Constable George has been forced to
adapt. She created a Girls' Club which meets at her own home and plays baseball and golf with
the boys, often supplying equipment from her own pocket. She takes an active interest in the
Youth Patrol Program and the Youth Drop-in Centre and uses her time slot in the local radio
station to deliver public service announcements on subjects like crime prevention and safety.
Ladies and gentlemen, your Minister of Justice National Youth Justice Policing Award winners for 2000.
UNIDENTIFIED: We just get overwhelmed. I mean, that's why everybody wants to be a policeman. You want to help people.
What a perfect opportunity.
UNIDENTIFIED: We didn't do it to be recognized. We don't do it for awards. We do it because it's the right thing to do.
This is our job.
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