The Royal Canadian Mounted Police hosted a youth leadership workshop at the RCMP Depot in Regina, Saskatchewan on Feb. 10: sixteen youth, accompanied by allies, gathered at the workshop to discuss social issues surrounding youth within their communities, and to formulate action plans as to how attending youth can take leadership roles and change their communities for the better. Representing Thompson were 15-year-old Hunter Frank-Settee-Beardy, and RCMP Special Const. Robert Cleveland, who have known each other since Frank-Settee-Beardy was a young child.
Surrounded by youth liaisons from across the country, including communities in Prince Edward Island, Labrador, British Columbia and everything in between, Cleveland noted that the problems faced by communities in Canada are as varied as the communities themselves: “One fellow from Cape Dorset was talking about food; here everyone talking about drugs and alcohol, and here it was food. Family allowance day comes, and they spend it on alcohol, leaving the kids with nothing to eat.”
Describing himself as a keen follower of politics, Frank-Settee-Beardy and others had the opportunity to ask questions of federal Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale; Frank-Settee-Beardy asked, “If we legalized marijuana, would drug dealers move on to more dangerous drugs that they would sell to the youth?” Unfortunately, Frank-Settee-Beardy felt the minister sidestepped his question: a keen observation, for a young man hoping to one day represent his community as an MP or an MLA.
One of the projects put forward to participants was the creation of a community action plan to take home with them. Frank-Settee-Beardy’s plan revolves around the organization and establishment of an RCMP cadet program: “I think it could help kids get away from drugs, and passed on to their younger siblings, helping them live a healthy lifestyle, and staying fit. Cross Lake, Nelson House, and Flin Flon have cadet programs as well, so if Thompson starts one, I’d like to create an organization called the Northern Manitoba cadets, and bring it to other communities in Northern Manitoba.” Frank-Settee-Beardy hopes that implementing a cadet program will not only provide more recreational opportunities for northern youth, but also more opportunities to interact with positive role models.
Cleveland attests to the role that cadet programs can play in a youth’s life: “I was an army cadet here for a number of years while it was here, and it provided me with an opportunity to get out and do things, and to travel. I was going to high school, I wasn’t into sports at the time, and it gave me something to do while I was growing up in Thompson.” For his part, Cleveland hopes to reach out to colleagues in communities already implementing cadet programs in their home communities in order to provide their expertise and mentorship for Frank-Settee-Beardy.
But there’s more to alleviating generations of poverty than providing recreational opportunities, and both Cleveland and Frank-Settee-Beardy understand well: “Even the Mohawk Peacekeepers, right across the Mercy Bridge in Montreal: they have all the opportunities right in front of them, and they’re still struggling with keeping the youth engaged.”
