Thompson cops and teenagers hit the ice at the C.A. Nesbitt Arena for a hard-fought hockey game that delighted dozens of students in the stands on April 6.
The under-18 Thompson King Miners finished strong with a pair of third period goals, one on a penalty shot in lieu of a power play, after trailing 6-4 through 40 minutes, but the Thompson RCMP squad netted one final period tally to earn a 7-6 victory.
Ultimately, however, it wasn’t about who won or lost, said Manitoba RCMP North District commander Supt. Ryan Mitchell after the final buzzer sounded.
“We want our people to be involved in the communities,” he said. “We want them to engage with the youth. We want them to work towards meaningful reconciliation. This particular event made me incredibly proud because it fulfilled all three of those mandates.”
Following the game, the King Miners players were invited back to the detachment for a hot dog lunch and a tour.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that the RCMP are, probably policing writ large is, suffering, like a lot of other industries, with recruitment and retention,” said Mitchell, who oversees about 300 Manitoba RCMP members and civilian support staff stationed everywhere north of the 53rd parallel to the Nunavut boundary. “I see a lot of potential recruits to help us. If they want to look at making a difference in their community, if they feel policing could be better, and they want to be involved in it in any city or town in the north, then we strongly encourage them to start thinking about a career with the RCMP. It's an incredible job with endless possibilities.”
Interactions like this, he said, give youth a chance to see police officers as three-dimensional people, rather than just as the people in uniforms who show up when someone is having one of the worst days of their life or has been affected by a tragedy.
“They're your coaches, your managers, your volunteers, your people setting up hockey games.”
Mitchell also stressed that this isn’t something that upper management roped officers into.
“It’s them saying, ‘Hey, we want to do this thing,’ and then they put it together and orchestrated the schools coming in and the choir singing the national anthem and everything. I know how busy they are in their day-to-day work, so to be involved in all these different activities and to put something like this on, it was truly appreciated, their efforts.”
