Blue Line Magazine August / September 2009
Courage is in the eye of the beholder
It was 20 years ago that 600 members of the Akwesasne Mohawk community near Cornwall thanked police for their bravery. The entire community showed up at a special recognition and award night in April 1990 on the reserve.
Keeping the peace
Known as the cradle of Confederation, Charlottetown has steadily grown in both size and stature over the years, developing a peaceful charm and grace seldom seen in comparably sized cities. The city’s residents can take credit for the charm and grace but the peacefulness is courtesy of the police.
The CPS is one of Canada’s oldest police departments, dating back to August 17, 1855, just four months after the community of 6,500 became a city. Six days after holding its first meeting, council decided to appoint six police officers, to be attached to the city’s five wards. Salary was set at 45 pounds per year and the constables were told to find their own “dress,” as long as it was satisfactory to the mayor and council. Perhaps the civic leaders were hard to please, since the city subsequently decided to pay for uniforms.
Calgary police beat unit
The barometer for a city’s safety is the public’s perception of how safe they are in its downtown core. For Calgary’s more than one million residents, this perception was the reality confronted by Rick Hanson upon his appointment as police chief in October 2007.
Search incident to arrest requires proper purpose
Police must have a proper criminal justice purpose when searching as an incident to arrest; they cannot simply rummage through personal effects.
The quality of life, safety and security of Edmonton’s more than one million residents are the top priorities for the Edmonton Police Service (
Publishers Commentary
Policing is the economic summit success story
by Morley Lymburner
I did not expect to write about the police handling of the economic summit. Upon viewing the event and listening over the months to all the preparations I was quite content that it was a textbook crowd control process, performed so well that nothing further needed to be said.
After talking to friends, family and other media people I realized that not everyone shares my opinion and are being fed considerable misinformation. So, here’s my opinion about that perfect storm and the perfect remedy supplied by a lot of dedicated people from