Blind Inside and Looking Out, A Police Officer's Life Story (My Life Story), page 2

Return to work

Before I left for Ukraine in November 2008, I was told that if I were to return to work, I need to go to the police academy in February 2009. I had already refused to go more than 3 times as I wanted to go to an enhanced program that was only available to people with their college Police Technology degree. I had worked out a plan to get a certificate instead, which is accepted, but the paper work and planning took too long. The government was pushing the police force to send people to be trained, especially those who had been there for a long time. It was at this time that I had made the official decision to stay here permanently. The police force would pay for everything: cost of the class, cost of room and board, food, salary, and travel to the academy at the beginning and travel back at the end. In return I would sign a contract for 3 years. I agreed to this after discussing this with my wife and my "consiglieri" a.k.a. my "concience" a.k.a. my mother.

Yes, you read right, the guy who is so "tough" and who is in a position of authority still listens to his mother. It's an Italian thing I guess.

I come from a very good family who are from 2 different cultures. My father is French Canadian and my mother is an Italian immigrant. My parents are highly educated people and speak many languages. My mother speak 4 and my father 6. I speak 3 fluently, 1 functionally, and learning 2 more : Russian and Inuktitut.

I went to the police academy and was the cohort sergeant. It was a very difficult task as I was in charge of discipline, but was considered on the same level as my peers in the group. It was difficult as tensions rose due to my "inability to verbalize diplomatically". I must concede that not everyone liked my way of speaking because I was blunt and honest, but there was much to do with regards to the discipline aspect of the group. Fellow cadets not shaving, wearing clothing that are not part of the uniform, not wearing the uniform properly, and the list goes on and on... People complained about me to the program coordinator who summoned me for a meeting in his office. He was a nice guy, honest, fair, and a model for any police officer. He explained to me that my peers are not liking the way I speak to them. I explained to him that I treat everyone with respect, and that if they think that I am tough to wait until they get out on the field. I also explained that it's not so easy to be in a position with tasks normally attributed to people who are considered to have authority but actually be on the same level as my peers. He said that he knew and that we could walk down the hall and he could show me pictures of past groups and who lost their sergeant stripes. I told him that if he was suggesting I give in my stripes, that he would have to demote me and that I am not a quitter. We came to an agreement that from now on I would just approach him with concerns I would have about discipline, that I would not intervene anymore.

Time went on and tensions rose more and more in the group for various reasons. The instructors and coordinator were visibly getting more and more angry, frustrated, and at a loss as to what to do. Team meetings were not working, talking circles were not changing anything. Finally, one instructor burst first and the things that came out of his mouth were priceless. Nothing bad, he was just so honest and blunt that it got everyone's attention. I guess being an instructor, he could be that way...

I graduated in April and luckily, my wife was there to see it. She had obtained a visa to come visit for 5 weeks during a study break. She spent 2 weeks in Montreal where my parents took her places during the week while I was at the academy. I would come home on the week-ends and spend much deserved time with her. After I graduated, she came up north to Aupijivik with me for 3 weeks. It was the best 3 weeks in the north ever. It was so real to me. I woke up in the morning, kissed my wife good morning, told her how beautiful she is, made her breakfast in bed, and then went to work. Came home for lunch, then came home for supper and enjoyed the evenings with her. It was bliss.

Oleg had come back up in March while I was at the academy. When I got back to Aupijivik, something was different about him. He was always a cynical person, always wondering who the person walking in the street is like he was going to get attacked or something. Everyone was a suspect of some sort. He was weird to start off with but now it was too much. He had a piece of wood on the sofa that he would throw a knife at. It damaged the sofa of course because his aim was not so great... It started to get personal when my wife and I were doing her permanent resident visa papers. He kept saying that it was nearly impossible to get a visa here, that it would take years before we would get anything, and that it was super expensive etc... It was like he was trying to rain on our parade. He was getting more and more weird. At work, he would incite people to get angry just by pushing their buttons seemingly on purpose.

Continued in next post