A local cop received a medal from the Governor General this week for his efforts to protect kids from drugs.
Staff Sgt. Ian Sanderson of St. Albert was awarded the Order of Merit of the Police Forces in Ottawa Friday by Gov.-Gen. Michaëlle Jean. The award recognizes conspicuous merit and exceptional service by police whose efforts go beyond their immediate community.
Sanderson, the RCMP's drug and organized crime awareness officer for northwest Canada, won the award for his work in creating the Drug Endangered Children's Act of 2006.
The act lets police charge parents who make or sell drugs in the same house as their kids with child abuse. Police can then seize the kids and turn them over to social services for treatment. Judges can sentence the parents to a maximum of $25,000 or 24 months in jail.
Alberta was the first province in Canada to pass such an act, says Heather Forsyth, the Calgary-Fish Creek MLA who proposed the act, and Sanderson was instrumental in creating it. "He's been the inspiration for me to push the issue of meth [addiction] in the province," says the former solicitor general. "It's a well deserved award."
Drug fighter
Sanderson works at the RCMP's K Division headquarters in Edmonton.
Kids raised in drug labs live chaotic lives, Sanderson says, and are at risk from abusive parents, toxic chemicals and explosions. "To put it bluntly, it's child abuse." But up until 2003, he says, police never looked at drug labs that way; if they found a kid in a drug bust, they'd turn him or her over to a relative, oblivious to the physical and mental injuries the kid might have from living in a drug den.
In 2003, Calgary police found that kids they had found in a marijuana grow-op had toxic levels of carbon monoxide in their blood. (The family had used furnace exhaust to enrich their plants.)
Sanderson and Inspt. Randy Beck, then head of the St. Albert detachment, had been working on a provincial methamphetamine strategy when this happened. Alerted to the danger of drug labs to kids, they decided to test a new child-centred drug protocol in St. Albert.
Const. Mike Moulds, formerly of the St. Albert drug unit, helped run that protocol. "It brought all the agencies in town together and made us think about a common theme," he says. "It was a great exercise, and Ian did a heck of a job guiding us through that."
The group soon realized that there was no effective way for cops to charge parents who had raised kids in a drug house, Moulds says. The cops could send the kids to their relatives, "but that still doesn't do anything for the family in the long run." Sanderson went on to work with Forsyth to develop a new law.
About 110 kids have since been removed from homes under the Drug Endangered Children's Act, according to Alberta Children and Youth Services.
The act gives police a chance to teach parents about the effects of drugs in the home, Sanderson says. "It's real gratifying to help protect kids and help people become better parents." Ontario and other provinces are now working on similar acts, he adds.
Sanderson says he was "blown away" by the award — he didn't even know he'd been nominated. "I am truly humbled and awed by this." Coincidentally, he adds, he received it the day after he finished 29 years of service with the RCMP. "It's a neat way to celebrate my anniversary in the force."
This award goes out to everyone who helped bring the law to fruition, he says. "I share this honour with all of those people."
Sanderson was one of 34 people to receive the Order on Friday. The medal itself is a black, straight-edged cross with a maple leaf and crown in the middle, the whole of which is attached to a blue, gold and blue band.
