“Get it together, people!” roars RCMP drill sergeant Ken Foster, as he runs his newest recruits through the basics of a parade march Wednesday evening.
“It’s one, one, two!” he demonstrates, marching in place and ending with a thunderous boot-stomp.
He has everyone line up and do it all again, berating some for stepping too fast or being the incorrect number of inches away from their partner. He blasts one recruit for the state of his dress (“You could boil that shirt and make soup out of it!”) and orders another to drop and give him five push-ups. But in under an hour, the whole troop of 38 high schoolers is marching and wheeling more-or-less in unison.
“I’ll give you a pass on this one,” Foster says, grudgingly.
Foster, an inspector and head of the St. Albert RCMP, was one of the many local cops moonlighting as instructors this week at Bellerose Composite as part of the fourth annual St. Albert RCMP Youth Academy.
The youth academy is a for-credit work-experience course that’s meant to teach students about life in the RCMP, says Cpl. Laurel Kading, point person for the academy. Students spend all of spring break at the school, sleeping in the gym on military-style beds, learning everything from the history of the RCMP to how to bust a drug deal.
The academy is closely modelled after what real cadets do at the official RCMP academy (or depot) in Regina, Sask., minus the cop-car-driving, Kading says.
“We want these kids to really get a feel for whether or not this is something they’d like to pursue.”
In addition to nightly drills (which was to culminate in a formal parade exercise at graduation Saturday), students in the academy learned how to take down and cuff a suspect, spot drunk drivers, and close off a crime scene. They ran the obstacle course new recruits have to pass to become cops, met a police dog, and talked with tactical response team-members about life in the RCMP.
Foster, a former staff sergeant major, says he gave these students a condensed version of the first five drill sessions cadets experience at the Regina RCMP depot.
“Drill is something that teaches teamwork, teaches confidence,” he explains, and the yelling and screaming in it is meant to get cadets used to the abuse people hurl at them on the job.
“If you can’t hack it here with somebody from the drill staff getting on you, you’re not going to be able to hack it in the field.”
Drill also teaches deportment and precision, he continues.
“Everything they do they must do correctly and do well, because when they’re doing their investigations, we don’t accept sloppy investigations.”
Leading the troop during the drill exercises was Kyle Van Rooijen. Standing tall and proud, the Grade 12 Bellerose student says he had just been promoted to right marker/troop leader Tuesday, and that it was his job to make sure the cadets were ready for roll-call and morning exercises.
Van Rooijen says he wants to join the RCMP as a way to be a leader in his community, and plans to enrol in police studies at MacEwan University.
“I just wanted to be there to help people, and I didn’t think of any better way (to do that) than the police force.”
The academy instils in you a strong work ethic and sense of professionalism, and makes you an all-around better person, he continues.
“It’s an honourable career path where you’re protecting your country and the people you care about.”
Grade 12 Sturgeon Composite student and academy member Tyana Lafleche says she’s always wanted to be a police officer ever since she was young. She previously took part in the Canadian Forces Bold Eagle program (a military training program for aboriginal youth) and has enrolled in a weeklong course at the Regina RCMP depot this summer.
“The physical fitness is very exhausting,” she says of the academy – participants run to Lacombe Lake Park several blocks away each day at about 6 a.m. – but it also encourages you to push yourself.
One of the most important elements of the academy is how it lets students forge relationships with police as people, Kading says.
“These are our mayors and our councillors and our businesspeople of the future. Building this relationship with them now, that we are approachable, we are here to work together, is a valuable thing.”
