Canadore College and the North Bay Police Service have forged a unique relationship.
The service has taken on graduates from Canadore’s Police Foundations program, but this new relationship is different.
The agreement will allow North Bay Police Service officers to get unique training through the Canadore College First Peoples’ Centre so officers get a better understanding for Indigenous cultures.
“The ability to support the truth and reconciliation commission through action within any organization is still important in Canada and our organization has taken that seriously and we have entered into a partnership and found a very good partner to work with,” stated Scott Tod, North Bay Deputy Chief
“We are committed to working with Canadore College to provide our membership with much-needed education about the history of Indigenous Peoples’ in Canada, which will in turn allow us to evolve our efforts in a positive way,” added Shawn Devine, North Bay Police Chief.
The college will certify a number of North Bay Police officers to be Walk A Mile cultural awareness trainers, and will also provide education sessions to be rolled out to the service’s employee groups.
Canadore will also facilitate offering additional certifications such as the Mental Health Aid for First Nations training for staff and first responders.
In return, the NBPS will work with the college to provide interprofessional simulation expertise, perspective and knowledge to reinforce students’ learning within the School of Community Justice and Police Studies.
“By formalizing the collaboration we are going to build and look at new programs such as Indigenous restorative justice which would be a brand new program here as a stand alone that is currently embedded in some of our other programming so it really does deepen and broaden the future for us and looks at training that is very targeted to today’s needs of the populations that we both serve,” said Shawn Chorney, vice-president of enrolment management, Indigenous and student services at Canadore.
Tod says the program will start off with four or five officers attending a half day session working with some trained facilitators within the police service along with the expertise from Canadore.
“It will take a number of months to complete,” stated Tod.
“The second phase will probably be a more indepth look in regards to working with the indigenous culture as law enforcement and
getting into some of the systemic issues behind that have been identified through inquests and public royal commissions and things like that.
“I hope this turns into a long standing relationship for a number of years and benefits both organizations.”
