ee en a aa 6B CASTLEGAR NEWS, Thursday, October 18, 1973 coe c ees eve vr eassssessseasses ieee MOUNTIES on thelr 100th ANNIVERSARY GREEP’S ELECTRIC 706 Green Phone 365-7075 CONGRATULATIONS R.C.M.P. for 100 Years of Dedicated Service from CASTLEGAR CO-OP TRANSPORTATION SOCIETY 480 Golumbia Avenue — Phone 365-7135 i B Wishes est to the Ww ROMP on their 100th Birthday KINNAIRD COFFEE BAR 649 - 7th Ave. Kinnaird, 8.C. EIEN — te73 GREETINGS 1973, WL tothe R. CM. P. CASTLEGAR EQUIPMENT RENTALS LIMITED 417 Cascade — Castlegar — Phone 365-7433 CONGRATULATIONS TO.THE : _ ROMP ON THEIR 100th BIRTHDAY NUTRI-HEALTH STORE 276 Columbia — Phone 365-7750 WE WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND Best Wishes TO THE AND ESPECIALLY TO THE SLOCAN AND CASTLEGAR MEMBERS ON THEIR 100th BIRTHDAY TRIANGLE PACIFIC FOREST PRODUCTS LID. Slocan City _ Phone 355-2216. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON YOUR ~ 100th ANNIVERSARY: YOU ARE A GREAT ASSET TO OUR COMMUNITY VROOM FLOWERS LIMITED « “Flowers for all Occasions” 1001 - 9th Avenue, Kinnaird, 8.C, — Phone 365-7641 irl Friday” of the Castlegar RCMP Detachment Cst. Butch Van Acker is Shown Here as he Checks the Boat of Arrow Lakes Marina Operator Dave Neufeld During Safe Boating Week a 14 i as ra CASTLEGAR NEWS, Thurs , October 18, 1973 Min. Climbers a Bae eo CENTENNIAL GREETINGS ba : i é - ‘ f Help in Hanging on a wall in the Kamloops RCMP subdivision office of Inspector A. J. Cairns is a picture of three policemen perched high on a mountain peak. The three policemen are Constables Bob Lechky and Chuck Purse, and Cpl, Dick Latta—all members of the Revelstoke detachment and believed to be the only recognized police mountain climbers in the province, Cst. Lechky, who origin- ates from Boyle, Alta, (100 miles north of Edmonton) and who now has close to six years’ service with the RCMP—all of it at Revelstoke—said the mountain climbing story began .in 1970... i “In September of that year Cst, Purse and I were selected as candidates ‘to attend a mountain-climbing school at Highway Patrol] Member Cst. Don Arndt, Patrol Car “Charlie” and Friends Lynda Johnstone, Shane Biln, Kevin Biln, Colin Hamilton and Cathy Johnstone Sfory of RCMP in North Tale of Hardship & Success The story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the northern territories is sprinkled with tales of incred- ible adventure, hardship and accomplishment. . Their duties are to uphold and enforce Canada's sov- ereignty in an area that covers 1,516,750 square miles, about one-third of the land mass of Canada. Dealing and living with the Eskimo calls for a sense of humor, fair play, and a willingness to do manual labor when necessary. The policeman who does his share and becomes as capable as the Eskimo in travelling and hunting gains respect, co- operation and admiration. The first post in the true North, beyond the coast, was established on Herschel Island in 1903, where the North West Mounted Police put a halt to the harm being done to the Eskimos by whalers who wintered there. ep One incident will illustrate the varied knowledge, the tracking skill, the initiative, and the courage needed - by members of the Force: A white trader was mur- dered by an Eskimo on Northern Baffin Island. Staff Sergeant (later Inspector) Joy carried out the police investiga- tion, found the body, conducted an autopsy, and arrested three suspects. In his capacity as coroner he held an inquest, and in his capacity as Justice of the Peace he conducted the preli- minary hearing of the charge and committed the accused for trail. At their trial before a judge they were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment. Discovery of gold in the Yukon thrust new duties upon the police. The RCMP presence kept. serious crime to a minimum in a society where criminal elements abounded, and. the trained first aid services of the Force preserved many lives. Mrs. George Black, who climbed Chilkoot Pass, a 100- yard notch through a 3,500-foot high barrier of rock in 1898, wrote in her book My Seventy Years (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., London and Toronto, 1938): “We left Dyea on July 12 at noon, to walk the dreaded trail of 42 miles over the Chilkoot Pass...a trail of heartbreaks Force Squamish. It was called [am ‘school of mountaineoring.” (| Following the Squamis school, they went six month later to a ski school at Jaspey sponsored by the national park branch, ‘t A short time later Cpl} Latta was transferred . Revelstoke from Mica Cree and, already being an accom) plished mountain climber an skier, greatly aided Lechky ani j Police Force in the World ‘While taking pride in its significant service to Canada over the past hundred years, the RCMP does not rely upon, y its misty past, but is pressing . on confidently to deal with the future, The. Royal Canadi. to build closer friendly relations between Canada's youth and the police, and to show young people that the police really care, In many districts there is an enlightened program of between ‘s Mounted Police is ono of the and most . world's best-k the RCMP, the municipal versatile police organizations, It is continually making refine- ment and planni new, and the schools, Members of the RCMP visit schools, giving talks on police. methods to make life even more’ table for the criminal Purse to improve their trainingy and k ledge in it ing. ® All three subsequent ) attended a half dozen course‘ sponsored by the national Par if in the ‘rugged mountaino terrain of Glacier Nationa . Park, and last year Purse and Latta attended an advancecy mountain rescue course al Glacier. : Their training in mountaing eering has already proved i a worth, uy In an accident last year} near Mica, two persons were killed during a mountain} climbing expedition and Cpl.§ Latta was called in to conduc! \ the investigation. In another mishap thol] same year, a person fell 80 feet{} down a cliff on Mt. Revelstokd and was rescued by the police yg mountain climbers. . ; And in yet another inefi dent, three persons were killed ina skiing accident on Whistler] Mountain at the coast. Purse jam and Latta were summoned! from Revelstoke but the bodies were discovered by a police tracking dog before an RCMP aircraft arrived here to pick up’ the local mountain rescue, experts, When Prime Minister Tru-| deau visited B.C. last year and| went mountain climbing in the treacherous Bugaboos south of; Golden, Purse and Latta’ accompanied him for a week. All three mounties believe their mountain-climbing and in rescue i is element. Six crime detection labora- : torips at Vancouver, Edmonton: Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa and. Sackville, using up-to-date, scientific equipment, receive’ for examination exhibits of all kinds which are involved in, criminal investigations, These services are avail- able to all accredited police forces and government depart- ments in Canada. At RCMP headquarters in Ottawa there is one of the oldest fingerprint bureaus in the world, Its facilities are available to all police forces in Canada, and there is an international exchange of infor- mation between this bureau and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Scot- land Yard, and Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization. The duty of the RCMP is to prevent criminal acts if possible to stop their progress when necessary, and to bring accused persons before the courts. The law which is enforced | by the RCMP is law which has grown through the ages, d b valuable to the Force and the: hope that someday the RCMP will recognize the need for this type of training. They admitted, however, it is expensive and time consum- ing and “you have, to, be continually training.” At Revelstoke they have basis mountain rescue equip- ment, and all of it has been’ provided by the Force. * Cst. Lechky says mountain is infancy as far as ment is concerned, but some day may very well be a. specialized branch of the! RCMP. Seskatchewan ‘Licence Plates Recall the RCMP As a special tribute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police! on the occasion of the Force's’ Centennial, Saskatchewan's mm 1973 license plates bear the. designation “Home of the They have red numerals on) a white background, “All Canada is proud of the traditions and accomplishmentsiam yal Canadian Mounte said the province’ finance minister. The 1973 license plate fo the Northwest Territories shaped in the form of.a pol bear and trimmed with thay Force's colors of blue and golq is also dedicated to its 100t} anniversary, It carries the inscripti “RCMP Centennial ‘73.” and dead hopes. It was Hey that I met for the first ti members of the North Weg Mounted Police, and I though that finer, sturdier, mo: intelligent-looking men woul be hard to find.” pp! gen- erations as a tabulation of what are good and bad acts in society. The Mounties are not trying to impose restrictions ‘upon society, but to provide lawfulness so that everyone may be free to live his life in safety and peace. “Honor” is a very great word in the creed of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Seeking to give service to the individual and to the com- munity, members of the Force keep in mind the three weighty principles of the law: justice, mercy and truth. The desirability of making the creed and practices of the Force more widely known has led to a moderating of the reticence that gave the Mount- ies the title “The silent force.” On taking the oath of office a member of the RCMP becomes bound to maintain discreet:'silence on many phases of his duties, thus safeguarding the rights and privileges of all citizens. This regulation still , stands, but in 1952 a Liaison Officer was appointed, his duty being to make available news Land reports about the Force so as to inérease public knowledge of its aims and work. An attempt is being made and duties and they participate in open discus- sions with pupils. The RCMP have done well in preserving peace and curb- ing crime in Canada because of superior organization, the use of modern equipment, common sense and adherence to their motto: Maintiens le Drojt— Maintain the Right. ‘ Members of the Force are men who quietly and incorrupt- ibly take the law into the far places of the country because of & sense of duty to be done. In his book Canada, The Foundations of Its Future (privately printed by The “House of Seagram, 1941), Stephen Leacock wrote: “The North West Mounted Police became everywhere the symbol ‘of law and order." “He commented on their arduous life, the patrol of the plains, the control of the desperado, the winter life in the wooden-shack barracks at 20 below zero. He concluded his summary by saying: “A poet could write: They need no sculptured monument, no pano- ply of stone, to blazon to a curious’ world the deeds that they have done. But the prairie. flower blows softly and the scented rosebud trains its wealth of summer beauty o'er the Riders of the Plains.” “In the spring they sledded down to Craig Habor and found their supplies “plus a gallon of rum sitting in the middle of a table—for medical purposes only.” “We doctored ourselves right there and then,” Paddy Hamilton, who had never heard of the eastern Arctic when he volunteered for the North, spent 10 years on Ellesmere and Devon islands, as high as you can goin Canada, “because I wanted to.” He moved to the “banana belt” on Baffin Island in the neighborhood of the Arctic Circle, and Hudson Bay, after he married a woman who was a tourist on a supply boat, He liked living in isolation, he said. “You weren't troubled with anybody. Time was your own. Nothing ever happened to me except I fell in the water sometimes. You had to get out quick.” Nothing included crime. Asked what police work he had to do he was hard pressed to find an answer, and managed to remember an attempted murder and a couple of cases of failure to support a family. ~More easily he recalled delivering a baby and acting for the government in delivering family allowances or providing relief. He would visit native camps to see that the Eskimos were not starving. “There was no crime,” he said flatly, expressing anger and disappointment that south- ern ways that have invaded the North have brought crime and made the Eskimo dependent on government. Times have changed. The snowmobile and aircraft have replaced the dog sled. But the change for the RCMP is relatively recent. S. Sgt. Robert Stiles, now stationed at RCMP head- quarters at Frobisher Bay, recalls being “dumped on the beach” at Alexander Fiord in the 1950s and told to build a detachment. He dragged over some of Paddy Hamilton’s detachment from Bache Peninsula, not far away. And Robert Pilot, former RCMP constable who now is Northwest Territories’ regional director in Frobisher, recalls being left on the beach at Grise Fiord in. southern Ellesmere, amid a pile of prefabricated building materials, “I almost wept,” he said. “I'd never built more than a birdhouse in manual training.” Even in the. 1950s, Mr. Pilot had to make long patrols by dog team and mail came to him once a year. Mr. Pilot said Paddy Hamilton is still remembered on the northern part of Baffin where he spent some years. “There is nothing an Eskimo admires more than a man who can travel with him,” he said. e. elias District Court Judge R. Blake Allan is Shown in the Castlegar Court Room. Pictured with Him is Cst. Len Jarvis R C.M.P. from K.C. CO-OP Brilliant, B.C. — Phone 365-7373 gest wn On 100 Years of Service INTERIOR DIESEL AND / EQUIPMENT LIMITED Kinnaird, 8.C. — Phone 365-3312 SALUTE Salute to our MOUNTIES For ‘100 Years of Dedicated Service THE BOOK SHOP Across from the Post Office — Phone 365-5858 R.C.M.P. on your 100th Birthday . PARK ELECTRIC 208 Maple Street — Phone 365-7771 Happy Anniversary to the. CM. P. Attitude of th When Cpl. Dick Latta finished training. and entered the field 17 years ago as a rookie RCMP constable, he often faced situations which he really . didn't know how to handle, but gradually he learn- ed simply by doing. The original native of Punnichy, Sask. (80 miles north of Regina) has had a wide range of police field experience during two stints at Kamloops, two at Vernon; Duncan, Burnaby, Mica Creek, and now Revel- stoke. But his days of chasing crooks are numbered—at least in the foreseeable future— because he will be transferred to Victoria in a- sergeant'’s Field Training is Entirely New Concept. position with the RCMP'’s training and development branch, The work won't be entirely new, because since last Nov- ember he has been the training NCO for Kamloops subdivision while at the same time carrying out regular police duties at Revelstoke. He said his duties as the ing NCO for the sub- ion have involved, basic- ally, the supervision of recruit field training which is a new concept by the Force in training recruils, “A reeruil spends six months in training at Regina and is then put in the field where he is assigned to an Canada’s Mounted Police Museum Contains History - Eight thousand treasured artifacts related to the RCMP’s unique history will be pre- served in a new and spacious museum now under construc- tion at the Force's recruit training centre in Regina. The museum's official opening in July was a major event on the RCMP Centennial program, The new 20,000 square-foot building replaces the existing museum facility that now fills 3,000 square feet in one of the centre's buildings. Its carpeted exhibit hall, 10,000 square feet in area, features graphic displays grouped under such headings as Settlement of the West, the Riel Rebellion, the Yukon Gold Rush, World War Two and the RCMP Today. They Felate to outstanding achievements ‘of the Force, dramatic criminal cases, tra- * gedies and adventures oullined in reports of its 15 Commis- sioners, e RCMP is Constantly Changing Regarding Training Program Given Recruifs Who Join Famed Force experienced policeman. Ideally, the program works on the buddy system but a shortage of manpower sometimes doesn't always make this possible,” Cpl. Latta explained. He said that in working with an experienced policeman, the need is for the recruit to learn the basics of police work in the field and to be exposed to as many situations as possible for six months, “The big thing is that he is under supervision.” Cpl. Latta said his job as ion training NCO been assess the qualifications of the trainers and analyze the progress of the recruit, In going to Victoria full lime with the training and development branch he will still be working with the. recruit field training program. Part of his job will involve organizing schools and seminars to accom- modate members who require further training. His position will involve organization rather than actual instruction, and it will take him to all parts of the province. Cpl. Latta said the attitude of the Force is constantly changing regarding the train- ing program. When he went through training, regimentation and discipline stood out above and beyond all else. Today, the regimentation and discipline are still there, but there is also - 1480 Col. — Ph. 00 YEARS On 100 Years of Service to Canada CASTLE ELECTRIC LIMITED 365-5711 or Thrums 399-4355 WO se ane ae “\ Mounties the times. “In most cases, the recruit field training program makes the member. more useful quicker. When I came out of training, I had the academic knowledge but lacked field experience under the direct guidance of an experienced member. At that time we were often left to fend for ourselves : and because we didn't know what to do we often found 2 ourselves backing off.” The field training program is nothing new. It has been in existence for about six years and is just a small part of the Force’s_ overall change in attitude toward a form of continuing education. Cpl. Latta cited, for ex- ample, in-service schools which are held for both junior and senior policemen to keep them in touch with changing times and technology. The. schools range in length from two days to six weeks and are held either at Victoria or Ottawa. He says he is looking forward to his new phase of police work. Cominco joins with Castlegar area residents in Saluting the CMP. on its 10Cith ANNIVERSARY of Service to the Nation Best Wishes TO THE ROMP ON THEIR 100th BIRTHDAY Across from the Ranger Station at 789 Columbia Ava Phone 365-3515 BOUNDARY 625 Columbia —_ eaacozo™ MOUNTIES -on their CENTENNIAL General Electrical and Mechanical Contractors BOUNDARY ELECTRIC 625 Columbia — Phone 365-7241 INDUSTRIES Phone 365-5524 CONGRATULATIONS to the RCMP on their 100th BIRTHDAY from Trowelex Equipment Rentals Kinnaird, B.C, — Phone 365-3042 CONGRATULATIONS R.C.M.P. on 100 years of dedicated service to all Canadians CALDSET GROCETERIA LTD. AND LAUNDRETT 1038 Columbia — Castlegar — Phone 265-6534 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE | R C MP . over 100th ANNIVERSARY interior Pulp Operations Castlegar, B.C. “CANADIAN CELLULOSE (0. LID.